You work as a senior community services officer for a state government department concerned with child safety, community services, and juvenile justice. You have been asked to provide a report based on reliable data and sound evidence for a community that needs help with an apparently growing youth crime problem.
The community has always had to deal with perceived high levels of youth crime such as vandalism, car theft, and house breaking, but over the past year there has been great concern about a perceived increase in youth offending overall and in particular for violent offenses. In fact, official data show that despite an overall reduction in youth crime across the state, there has been an increase in offending by early onset serious repeat offenders. There is a relatively large First Nations population in the community, and First Nations young people are greatly overrepresented amongst all offenders, and amongst serious repeat offenders in particular.
This problem has attracted significant media attention with calls for a ‘police crackdown’ and harsher penalties including youth detention. At the same time however, there is a growing movement in the community for crime prevention strategies based on early intervention and prevention. This movement gained a great deal of momentum a couple of years previously when a large public consultation on the problem of youth crime that involved town hall meetings, public submissions, face-to-face meetings, and focus groups revealed a great hunger in the community for early intervention strategies to divert at-risk young people from the juvenile justice system, and for community-wide strategies to prevent youth crime before it starts. This movement led to the formation of a small Community Crime Committee by several concerned residents, but the group is under-resourced and lacks expertise. The Community Crime Committee, supported by many local groups and organisations, wants to implement an evidence-based, data-driven, community-controlled developmental prevention strategy that will address the concerns of the community about youth crime.
These groups have contacted your organisation to obtain help and advice on how to do this. You are tasked with writing a report that reviews the research evidence on the key factors to successfully selecting, gaining support for, planning, implementing, and delivering such a strategy. You must also prepare them for some of the challenges they may face when implementing this strategy and provide practical as well as scientific advice on how to overcome them.
Weight: 50%
Length: 2,500 words (excluding cover page and references).
Description:
Students are to provide a 2,500-word essay on the selection, stakeholder acceptance, planning, implementation and delivery of a community-based developmental crime prevention strategy. The essay should briefly describe the community-based developmental prevention strategy and outline relevant theory and/or research-based risk and protective factors that the strategy addresses. The essay should include a review of the research evidence on the key factors to successfully selecting, gaining support for, planning, implementing, and delivering the strategy. It should also include some of the challenges and issues that may arise during implementation, including balancing community concerns and control of the strategy with scientific evidence on ‘what works.’ The essay should end with a recommendation on how to implement this strategy in this particular community, with this recommendation based on the research evidence provided.
Introduction and Conclusion 10%
Description of the community-based developmental crime prevention strategy 10%
Review of the research evidence on successful adoption, planning, implementation, and delivery of the strategy 50%
Implementation challenges 20%
Referencing, Presentation, and Length 10% (20 references at least)
Introduction – This section should provide a background summary of the key issues raised in the case study and why they are important. You should define and describe any key concepts in the introduction.
Description of the community-based developmental crime prevention strategy – This section should be a concise description of the strategy that you are proposing to address the problem along with the rationale and theories for adopting this strategy.
Review of the research evidence – This section forms the major part of your assignment, and therefore should form the majority of your essay. You should include numerous references to peer-reviewed journal articles in this section. Consider using several subheadings within this section to organise your ideas. This is your opportunity to demonstrate that there is strong evidence for your strategy. Remember that you are writing this for the Community Crime Committee in the case study. Make sure to provide recommendations on the adoption, planning, implementation, and delivery of the strategy. Key factors to successfully selecting, gaining support for, planning, implementing, and delivering the strategy should be discussed. Review the literature in the context of your strategy and the background to the problem. Review the success of interventions/strategies to address the problem, in order to inform your proposal. You should critically review previous research and projects and make relevant links to your recommendations. You need to establish a sound rationale for the recommendations you provide by drawing on relevant theories and empirical research. You should argue why the recommendations you have proposed will ensure success with the strategy that you are proposing. Focus on the use of data to guide the focus of your strategy, and the use of evidence-based ways of addressing the problem identified in the case study.
Implementation challenges – This section should focus on describing some of the key implementation challenges that the community is likely to encounter (including gaining widespread support for your strategy), and how to address them. Provide practical solutions for the Community Crime Committee.
Conclusion – This section should include a succinct overview of your strategy and recommendations for addressing the problem you have identified. It should also include a brief discussion of the potential significance of the strategy including the likely benefits for the community, the wider population or for scholarship in general.
References – Provide a list of all references used in the report. This list must conform to the American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style. Above all, your referencing style should be consistent, and your report must not contain plagiarism.
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