|
Delinquency Prevention in South Chicago:
A Fifty-Year Assessment of the Chicago
Area Project
A Rand Corporation Report, 1984
Summary
In 1984, Chicago Area Project (CAP)
, one of the most remarkable social experiments in modern urban
America, celebrated its 50th Anniversary. During this year, The
Rand Corporation Report on CAP, the nation's first community-based
delinquency prevention program, was prepared for the National Institute
of Education.
The report examines CAP from both a
historical and a contemporary perspective. The analysis is divided
into three parts. The first part describes Cap's founding and analyzes
the process through which it was established and the operation of
its prevention programs. The second part examines the operation
of the CAP program in south Chicago in 1980, in light of assumptions
derived from the historical analysis of the salient features of
CAP philosophy and practice. In both parts, the Rand report focuses
on the ways CAP was implemented and the implications they may have
had for its success, or lack of success, in preventing delinquency.
In the third part of the analysis, the report combines census data,
data on delinquency rates, and data on program participation and
operations to develop a rudimentary quantitative method to enlarge
upon and with which to make a preliminary validation of earlier
analyses.
The Rand data consistently suggested
that CAP has long been effective in organizing local communities
and reducing juvenile delinquency. The report stated that this analysis
"raises significant doubts about the loudly trumpeted conclusion
that 'nothing works' in crime prevention, and it indicates several
dimensions of successful program implementation that may be especially
relevant, now that resources for prevention efforts are shrinking."
Download PDF file
|
