Although some may believe that incarceration may be the most concrete way to stop recidivism, there are other alternatives that have had success as well. One in particular is the diversion program. The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice states that “processing certain youth through the juvenile justice system may do more harm than good”. There can be many reasons why it can do more harm, one being that they may have committed a petty crime and now they are being placed among more dangerous influential offenders. Offenders may also have a bad record due to a petty act which is something that can be avoided by completing the diversion program. The diversion program can offer alternatives such as community service instead of incarceration.
There have been studies done showing that the diversion program can be very successful. Pogrebin and Poole did a study on two groups of juveniles in the state of Colorado. One group received the diversion program and the other was the control group which received the normal sentence. Pogrebin found that “the diversion program
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One of these prevention programs is the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program. According to BBBS.org the mission of the program is to “help children realize their potential and build their futures” while “nurturing children and strengthening communities”. As you can see this program specifically targets youth and molding them in to good civilians. BBBs.org also states that “89 percent of youth in our program improve their ability to avoid risky behavior”. This directly relates to helping the youth avoid crime. The big brothers and big sisters youth outcome report for January 2012 found “Statistically significant improvement” in avoiding activities such as drugs, skipping school, hitting and breaking rules at school. Improvements in these areas show that this is an effective program in preventing