President

Sanford A. Newman

Deputy Directors

Amy R. Dawson

Brendan J. Fitzsimons

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids

From America's Front Line Against Crime:

A School and Youth Violence Prevention Plan

As an organization of more than 1,000 of police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, crime survivors and leaders of police officer organizatons, we are determined to see that dangerous criminals are put behind bars. But anyone who thinks that jailing a criminal undoes the agony crime leaves in its wake hasn't seen crime up close.

America's anti-crime arsenal contains no weapons more powerful than the proven programs that help kids get the right start in lifeprograms like school readiness child care, youth development programs for the after-school and summer hours, child abuse prevention, and intervention programs proven to help get troubled kids back on track.

Yet today, inadequate funding for Head Start, school readiness child care, after-school youth development programs and counseling for troubled kids leaves millions of children at needless risk of becoming violent or delinquent teens and adult criminalsand leaves every American at needless risk of becoming a victim.

We call on all public officials to adopt a four-part plan to dramatically reduce crime and violence, and help young people learn the skills and values they need to become good neighbors and responsible adults. While no plan can prevent every violent act, this common-sense planbased on our experience and the latest research about what really works to fight crimecan make all of us safer.

Four Steps to Dramatically Reduce School and Youth Violence

1. Assure all school-age children and teens access to after-school, weekend and summeryouth development programs to shut down the "Prime Time for Juvenile Crime."

In the hour after the school bell rings, turning millions of children and teens out on the street with neither constructive activities nor adult supervision, violent juvenile crime soars and prime time

Research Director

William C. Christeson

for juvenile crime begins. On school days, the peak hours for such crime are from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM. These are also the hours when kids are most likely to become victims of crime. They are the peak hours for teen sex, and being unsupervised after school doubles the risk that 8th-graders will smoke, drink alcohol or use drugs.

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:

Plan 6/13/2001

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A project of the Action Against Crime and Violence Education Fund

"When the peak hours of violent juvenile crime are between the end of school and 6:00 P.M., it's just common sense to provide the after-school programs that give kids the values and skills they need to say 'no' to crime and violence."

Sheriff Patrick Sullivan (R-Arapahoe County, CO)

· 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.

· High school freshmen were randomly selected from welfare families to participate in a four-year Quantum Opportunities after-school and graduation incentive program. Six years later, boys in the program averaged one-sixth as many criminal convictions as boys left out. Participating boys and girls were one fourth as likely to be without a high school degree.

· Young people given a Big Brothers/Big Sisters mentor were half as likely to begin illegal drug use and nearly one-third less likely to hit someone, compared to applicants randomly assigned to a waiting list.

In short, failing to provide programs like these multiplies the likelihood that at-risk kids will become delinquent.

2. Assure all families access to the school readiness child care programs proven to

dramatically reduce crime.

Rigorous studies, hard experience, and brain scans tell the same story: In the first few years of life, children's intellects and emotions, and even their ability to feel concern for othersa prerequisite to "conscience"are being permanently shaped. When parents are at work trying to make ends meet, programs providing nurturing, stimulating child care for babies and toddlers can not only prepare children to succeed in school but also dramatically reduce crime. For example:

"America's fight against violence must begin in the high chair, not the electric chair. Anything less leaves America's police fighting with one hand tied behind our backs."

George Sweat, Director, North Carolina Office of Juvenile Justice; former Chief of Police, Winston-Salem (NC)

· In Ypsilanti, Michigan, three- and four-year-olds from low income families randomly assigned to be in the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation's preschool program were only one-fifth as likely to be chronic lawbreakers by age 27, compared to similar children not offered this school readiness child care.

· In Syracuse, at-risk infants and toddlers enrolled in a quality child development program, with parenting support for their mothers,were only one-tenth as likely as similar children to be delinquent ten years later.

· Chicago's government-funded Child-Parent Centers have served almost 100,000 three- and four-year-olds since 1967. New research tracked for 14 years 989 of those children and 550 similar children not in the program. The children who did not participate were 70% more likely to be arrested for a violent crime by age 18.

When millions of struggling parents are forced to leave their children in inadequate child care, we all pay a terrible price.

3. Help schools identify troubled and disruptive children at an early age, and provide children and their parents with the counseling and training that can help kids get back on track.

When children are disruptive and troubled, it is a warning signal that it is time to start looking for causes, and to provide the proven social skills training, counseling or other help for the children and their families that can lead the children back to a healthier path. For example:

· A Montreal study showed that providing disruptive first- and second-grade boys with services like these cut in half the odds that they would later be in special classes, rated highly disruptive by a teacher or by peers, or required to repeat a grade in schoolall signs that the risk of future violence has been sharply reduced.

· Five years after randomly-selected, disruptive, low-achieving seventh-graders completed a three-year program involving behavioral therapy and rewards, they were only one-third as likely to have a juvenile record as those who did not receive these services.

4. Improve deficient parenting and prevent child abuse and neglect by: a) Offering high-risk parents in-home parenting-coaching; and b) making sure child protective, foster care and adoption services have policies and enough well-trained staff to protect and heal abused and neglected children.

Being abused or neglected multiplies the risk that a child will grow up to be violent. Almost three million children are reported abused or neglected each year. Child protective and foster care services in most states lack adequate staff, and often the training or policy support, to protect children and to see that those who have been maltreated get the nurturing care and treatment needed to help them heal. We must also act before abuse takes place to expand parenting-coaching and family support programs that prevent children from being abused and neglected, prevent subsequent delinquency, and improve other outcomes for children. For example:

· The Nurse Family Partnership randomly assigned half of a group of at-risk mothers to receive visits by specially-trained nurses who provided coaching in parenting skills and other advice and support. Rigorous studies show the program not only reduced child abuse by 80% in the first two years, but that fifteen years after the services ended, these mothers had only one-third as many arrests, and their children were only half as likely to be delinquent.

The Bottom Line: Investing in Kids Saves Lives and Money

When America fails to invest in its children and youth, we pay far more laternot just in lives and fear, but also in tax dollars. The federal treasury will actually have more money to dedicate to other uses a few years from nowwhether for social security, paying off the accumulated national debt, or tax cutif we invest today in programs to help kids get the right start in life. For example:

· Economist Steven Barnett found that the High/Scope Foundation's Perry Preschool program saved $150,000 per participant in crime costs alone. Even after subtracting the interest that could have been earned by investing the program's funding in financial markets, the project produced a net savings of $7.16including more than six dollars in crime savingsfor every dollar invested.

· Barnett estimates that the cost, including increased crime and welfare costs, of failing to provide at

"We could be saving thousands of lives­and sparing thousands of families unimaginable heartbreak­by investing up front in the proven early childhood care and youth development programs that can turn kids away from crime."

Jean Lewis, Past President,

Parents of Murdered Children

"Early childhood and youth development programs can lead us to a stunning victory against violence. When these investments are proven to save lives and tax dollars, why shouldn't policy-makers provide the funding that will enable communities to get the job done?"

former U.S. Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson

least two years of quality educational child care to low-income children is approximately $100,000 per child. That's a total of about $400 billion for all poor children now under age five.

· A study by Professor Mark A. Cohen of Vanderbilt University estimates that for each high-risk youth prevented from adopting a life of crime, the country would save $1.7 million.

· A Rand Corporation report shows that, even without counting the savings to crime victims and society, the resulting savings to government alone from effective early childhood programs exceeds by two to four times the cost of the programs.

Law Enforcement United in Calling for Crime-Prevention Investments in Kids

Who says these four steps are among our most powerful weapons to fight crime?

· The more than 1,000 law enforcement leaders and crime victims who make up Fight Crime: Invest in Kids.

· The Fraternal Order of Police, the Major Cities [Police] Chiefs' Organization, the Police Executive Research Forum, the National District Attorneys' Association and the National Organization for Victim Assistance have adopted forceful calls for boosting critical crime prevention investments like these.

· In a George Mason University poll, 86 percent of police chiefs nationwide said, "expanding after-school and child care programs like Head Start will greatly reduce youth crime and violence." Nine out of ten chiefs agreed with the statement, "If America does not make greater investments in after-school and educational child care programs to help children and youth now, we will pay far more later in crime, welfare and other costs."

"We'll win the war against crime when we're ready to invest in America's most vulnerable children without waiting for them to become America's Most Wanted criminals."

Seattle Police Chief R. Gil Kerlikowske

Board Chairman, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids

For citations of studies referred to above or for a free subscription to research and policy updates, visit www.fightcrime.org

Fight

Crime

Invest

in Kids

Launched in 1996, Fight Crime is led by more than 1,000 police chiefs, prosecutors, sheriffs, crime victims, and leaders of police officer organizations. Major funding for its operations is provided by:

David and Lucile Packard Foundation · John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation · William T. Grant Foundation · The Ford Foundation · Edna McConnell Clark Foundation · Robert McCormick Tribune Foundation · The James Irvine Foundation · Institute for Civil Society · The After-School Corporation · Robert Sterling Clark Foundation · Naomi and Nehemiah Cohen Foundation · Rockefeller Family Fund · California Wellness Foundation · Woods Fund of Chicago · Penney Family Fund · Nathan Cummings Foundation · Irving B. Harris Foundation · J.M. McDonald Foundation · American Income Life Insurance Co. · William C. Graustein Memorial Fund · International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers · Blum-Kovler Foundation · Chicago Community Trust · California Consumer Protection Foundation · J.P. Morgan Charitable Trust · The A.L. Mailman Foundation · The Heyman Family Fund