Youth Violence

Resources for Parents

The Parenting Resources for the 21st Century Web site links parents and other adults responsible for the care of a child with information on issues covering the full spectrum of parenting.

The site offers information that focuses on the concerns of family members who have experienced, witnessed, or been victimized by school violence and gang activity. The substance abuse subpages guide parents and others to helpful resources, support groups, publications, and organizations. Resources on keeping our schools safe are also provided on the site.

School Violence

The Department of Justice and the Department of Education have issued a guide to help schools and communities prevent school violence. The Guide emphasizes early intervention and prevention, and teamwork among educators, mental health professionals, parents, and students. Safeguarding Our Children: An Action Guide is available at the Department of Education's Web site.

The Department of Justice and the Department of Education also issued a guide for parents, educators, and other individuals to help them identify early signs of troubling and potentially dangerous behavior. Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools is available at the Department of Education's Web site.

The FBI has posted The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective. This report presents a model procedure for threat assessment and intervention, including a chapter on key indicators that should be regarded as warning signs in evaluating threats.

School safety programs, training opportunities, and other information are provided on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives site.

Additional resources on school violence can be found on the Office of Justice Programs Web site.

Reducing Drugs in the Neighborhood

The Drug Enforcement Agency's Get it Straight, The Facts About Drugs, explains why drugs are harmful.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) works with the Office of National Drug Control Policy to administer the Drug-Free Communities Support Program. Drug-Free Communities Grants fund coalitions of young people, parents, media, law enforcement, school officials, religious organizations, and other community representatives that target young people's use of illegal drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. The coalitions also encourage citizen participation in substance abuse reduction efforts and disseminate information about effective programs.

Research reports on drugs and crime are found on the National Institute of Justice and National Criminal Justice Reference Service sites. Statistics on drugs and crime are summarized and more detailed data are offered on the Bureau of Justice Statistics site.

What Works--What You Can Do in Your Community

School and Community Interventions To Prevent Serious and Violent Offending describes school and community interventions shown to reduce risk factors for drug abuse and serious and violent juvenile (SVJ) offending. This Bulletin examines eight types of community interventions (citizen mobilization, situational prevention, comprehensive citizen intervention, mentoring, afterschool recreation programs, policing strategies, policy changes, and mass media interventions) and five types of school interventions (structured playground activities, behavioral consultation, behavioral monitoring, metal detectors, and school wide reorganization). The Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has posted its bulletin in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) and HTML versions.

The Community Capacity Development Office (CCDO) assists communities around America as they seek to prevent crime, increase community safety, and revitalize neighborhoods. The CCDO works with local communities to develop solutions that deter crime, promote economic growth, and enhance quality of life. Through training and technical assistance, the CCDO helps communities to help themselves, enabling them to develop solutions to community safety problems confronting them, as well as developing the leadership to implement and sustain those solutions.

The Office of Weed and Seed is the CCDO's premier community development initiative. This community-based initiative is an innovative and comprehensive multi-agency approach to law enforcement, crime prevention, and community revitalization. Communities work with their U. S. Attorneys to develop a Weed and Seed strategy that aims to prevent, control, and reduce violent crime, drug abuse, and gang activity in targeted high-crime neighborhoods across the country. For information about the Office of Weed and Seed, visit the Community Capacity Development Office Web site.

OJJDP provides technical assistance to communities wishing to implement a comprehensive strategy to address juvenile crime.

The Community Dispute Resolution site offers resources that help schools and youth organizations use dispute resolution to solve problems.

Get Help for Your Community--Grants and Other Assistance

The School-Based Partnership (SBP) grant provides police agencies the opportunity to work with schools and community-based organizations to address persistent school-related crime problems. All applicants are required to focus on one primary school-related crime or disorder problem, occurring in or around an elementary or secondary school. Specific problems targeted may include the following: Drug Dealing or Use on School Grounds, Problems Experienced by Students on the Way to and from School, Assault/Sexual Assault, Alcohol Use or Alcohol-Related Problems, Threat/Intimidation, Vandalism/Graffiti, Loitering and Disorderly Conduct Directly Related to Crime or Student Safety, Disputes that Pose a Threat to Student Safety and Larceny.

The Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program at the Department of Education assists community-based agencies to conduct training, demonstrations, evaluation, and to provide supplementary services for the prevention of drug use and violence among students and youth.