Chapter Two
"Kids 'n' Crime report tell how to prevent it," The Province, A6 News, Mon Oct 20 06
In a report recently published by the Vancouver Board of Trade titled Kids 'n' Crime, the bulk of the teens involved in crime were found to have 6 factors in common: poor nutrition, learning disablilites, parents with poor parenting skills, drug use, below average reading skills, and are easily infuenced by peer pressure. Also listed are factors that are believed to cause street youth: poor family communication, "friends" who are street youth or involved in the sex trade, and drug use. The majority of these factors are preventable and are relatively inexpensive compared to intervention programs. However, the general public tends to negatively view street youth and are more focused on intervention rather then prevention. Therefore, according to Kids 'n' Crime money is going into the wrong programs. Studies estimate that every $1 spent on the prevention of criminal youth will save $17 for every person in the future through intervention programs.
This goes against the demand and supply theory that price drives the demand and supply curves. It can be assumed, now that the public knows prevention programs are less expensive in the long run, that they will put more money into these programs. That is not the case because of the negative view the public has on teens, many private donors view street youth as "gangsters" and many of them have an irrational fear of working with youth. As a result there is a high demand for prevention programs from crisis youth and their parents while the supply of funds is relatively low.
Time and time again everyone stresses the importance of education, but does education really work? After all, every year ICBC spends money on preventing drunk driving by youth though presentations but the number one killer of teens is still the car accident. The theory behind prevention programs is really good, but how many teens will it actually reach? Will the street youth of Vancouver really listen to what these people say in these presentations? If they really do work then how come the number one killer of youth is still car accidents?
"Kids 'n' Crime report tell how to prevent it," The Province, A6 News, Mon Oct 20 06
In a report recently published by the Vancouver Board of Trade titled Kids 'n' Crime, the bulk of the teens involved in crime were found to have 6 factors in common: poor nutrition, learning disablilites, parents with poor parenting skills, drug use, below average reading skills, and are easily infuenced by peer pressure. Also listed are factors that are believed to cause street youth: poor family communication, "friends" who are street youth or involved in the sex trade, and drug use. The majority of these factors are preventable and are relatively inexpensive compared to intervention programs. However, the general public tends to negatively view street youth and are more focused on intervention rather then prevention. Therefore, according to Kids 'n' Crime money is going into the wrong programs. Studies estimate that every $1 spent on the prevention of criminal youth will save $17 for every person in the future through intervention programs.
This goes against the demand and supply theory that price drives the demand and supply curves. It can be assumed, now that the public knows prevention programs are less expensive in the long run, that they will put more money into these programs. That is not the case because of the negative view the public has on teens, many private donors view street youth as "gangsters" and many of them have an irrational fear of working with youth. As a result there is a high demand for prevention programs from crisis youth and their parents while the supply of funds is relatively low.
Time and time again everyone stresses the importance of education, but does education really work? After all, every year ICBC spends money on preventing drunk driving by youth though presentations but the number one killer of teens is still the car accident. The theory behind prevention programs is really good, but how many teens will it actually reach? Will the street youth of Vancouver really listen to what these people say in these presentations? If they really do work then how come the number one killer of youth is still car accidents?
posted by AmyYBlkF at 10:21 PM
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