PAD 348

Think back to earlier in the semester, when our course text identified four questions that program design should answer:

1. Who does what to whom?
2. In what order?
3. How much?
4. How often?

Working with your chosen program/policy, answer these four questions in a detailed and thoughtful way. Your work on stakeholders should help you answer this prompt and vice-versa

The program that I choose is the Adolescent Diversion Project. The program was mainly performed at Michigan State University. The program is a university-based program that aims to divert arrested youths out of the formal processes into the juvenile justice system. The program has the main objective of providing the community with services. This means that all the youths arrested for certain crimes in Michigan are not taken to being tried formally but taken into the juvenile systems, which provide services of correcting the youths. The goal of ADP is to ensure that it prevents delinquency by strengthening the attachment of the youths to the individual and family. Such programs also assist in increasing the access of the youths to resources in the community. The program also keeps the youths out of the stigmatization of social context.

 The program theory works under a conceptual framework that involves a theoretical perspective of control, bonding, and social, social-integrationist, and social learning theories. Social control theory mainly emphasizes the importance of social bonds and the interaction of family and peers. The social-interactionist theory usually suggests labeling behavior that results in further social interactions, which are unintentional and intentional labels of the youth. The program was rated effective. The participants of the program had lower rates of delinquency when compared to control youth groups (NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE, 2013). The caseworkers usually work with the juveniles to provide those specific services that with their specific needs. For instance, the caseworkers teach the youth on resources available in the community for the juveniles to access their programs. A randomized controlled trial was the method used in accessing the program.

References

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE. (2013). Program Profile: Adolescent Diversion Project (Michigan State University). Retrieved from https://crimesolutions.ojp.gov/ratedprograms/332#pd