America's
After-School Choice:
The Prime Time for Juvenile Crime
Or Youth Enrichment and Achievement
A research
brief by
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids
This brief summarizes a new report by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, an anti-crime group of over 1,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, victims of violence, and youth violence experts and police officer leaders. The authors are: James Alan Fox, The Lipman Family Professor of Criminal Justice, Northeastern University; Edward A. Flynn, Chief of Police, Arlington County, Va.; and Fight Crime: Invest in KidsŐ president Sanford Newman and research director William Christeson. For full report and citations for this brief, www.fightcrime.org. For free research and policy updates, subscribe at www.fightcrime.org/http://www.fightcrime.org/email.html.
After-School is Prime Time for Juvenile Crime
When the school bell rings, turning millions of children and teens out on the street with neither constructive activities nor adult supervision, violent juvenile crime suddenly triples and prime time for juvenile crime begins. On school days, the hours from 3-6 PM are the peak hours for:
- Teens to commit crimes.
- Innocent kids to become crime victims.
- 16- and 17-year olds to be in or cause a car crash.
- Teen sex.
- Kids to smoke, drink or use drugs.
- High school freshman were randomly selected from welfare families in four cities to participate in The Quantum Opportunities after-school and graduation incintives program. Boys left out of the program were six times more likely to be convicted of crime, and boys and girls left out were twice as likely to drop out of school and 50% more likely to have children before graduating. Kids in the after-school program were twice as likely to continue their education beyond high school.
- Five housing projects without Boys & Girls clubs were compared to five getting new clubs. At the beginning, drug use and vandalism were the same. But by the time the study ended, the projects without the programs had 50% more vandalism and scored 33% worse on drug use.
Quality youth development programs can cut crime immediately and transform this Prime Time for Juvenile Crime into hours of academic enrichment, wholesome fun and community service. They protect both kids and adults from becoming victims of crime, and cut teen pregnancy, smoking, and drug use, while they help youngsters develop the values and skills they need to become contributing citizens. For example: