NCJ Number
195024
Date Published
January 2000
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This report examines quality school readiness child care as a powerful weapon against crime.
Abstract
When police chiefs were asked (in a year 2000 survey) to rate various strategies on their value as crime prevention tools, educational child care was given the highest rating for effectiveness by three to ten times more chiefs than such alternatives as trying more juveniles as adults, building more juvenile detention facilities, or installing more metal detectors in schools. One study randomly assigned at-risk three- and four-year-olds to a preschool program until they started kindergarten. Twenty-two years later, those who had been left out were five times more likely to have become chronic law breakers. The child care programs that have proven most effective in preventing delinquency and crime are those that supplement quality developmental day care with home visits and other efforts to coach parents in child-rearing skills. The report describes five Federal programs that assist families in obtaining child care. Figures, notes