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A Lost Generation of Youth
The Department of Labor funds a number of youth-oriented programs age range 12- to 25- year-old. The purpose of these programs involves the development of youth and employability and occupational skills training in a number of different forums. However, it is my recommendation that the U.S. federal government do a better job with auditing their programs and analyzing the needs of the community. Programs that are needed and those that prove to be successful are not being funded or refunded because of budget cuts and allocations to other federal programs. I suggest that the federal government provide more support to youth programs and schools that are in an economically disadvantage areas.
Secretary Chao announced a $20 million grant to the National Urban League to continue and expand its Urban Youth Empowerment Program. “The income and self-respect that come with succeeding in a job is critical for young people trying to turn their lives around,” said Chao. “With this $20 million grant, we are tripling the commitment to the President’s Urban Youth Empowerment Program to help at-risk youth prepare for full-time employment. A significant portion of this grant will help young people in New Orleans and other areas that were affected by last year’s hurricanes.”
Assessing Future Risk of Youth Violence
Determination of future risk of violence is an important forensic task. It can contribute to decisions about the appropriate level of care or structure. Research has demonstrated repeatedly that clinical judgment about the risk of future violence is little better than chance. Tools to determine this risk affect a youth’s life significantly and should be reliable and valid. Tools developed to date to determine youth risk of future violence, delinquency, and behavior problems include the SAVRY, PCL-YV, YLS-CMI, and the CARE.
The Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY) (Borum, Bartel, & Forth, 2002) is composed of 24 risk items (Historical, Social/ Contextual, and Individual) drawn from existing literature on adolescent development and on aggression in youth. An additional six Protective Factors are also provided. It was once thought that dangerousness was static and not subject to change, however more recently it is viewed as more contextual or dependent on situations. Additionally, the developers of the SAVRY have included dynamic risk factors because personality and behavior traits are not stable in adolescence. The theory underlying these assessments has shifted from a violence prediction model to a more clinical model of risk assessment and behavior management. The task is to determine the nature and degree of risk an individual may pose for certain kinds of behaviors, and under what conditions and contexts.
Eight Ways to Prevent Youth Violence
A single approach to preventing youth violence is not sufficient. A youth is affected many things in his/her environment and prevention must address those multiple factors.
Reducing Exposure to Violence. As a society, we are much better at protecting partners from a violent significant other today than 30 years ago.
Can We Stop Our Youth From the Perils of Drug Abuse?
Drug Abuse Warning Network, which is a Public Health Surveillance System, indicates that Emergency Department episodes in drug-abuse have more than doubled in recent years according to surveys taken from 21 Metropolitan Cities in U.S. However, amongst youth ages 12 to 17, drug-related episodes have alarmingly quadrupled! Who is to blame? Is your child’s destiny a product of chance or a culmination of parental care?
Although some of us may not hear or witness the alarming increase in the intake of drugs, the dangerous and drastic effects are self-evident. Intense suffering and agonizing deaths, suicides, murders and thefts, which are on the increase in public places like the Malls or School Campuses, primarily stem from habitual drug addiction. Habitual drug-takers’ first and last thought is: how to get the next dose. The drug-taker lives in constant dread of suffering should he or she fail to secure it. This haunting dread drives the drug-taker to use any means no matter how sinister or violent – to attain this goal.
