After-School Crime orAfter-School Programs: Tuning In to the Prime Time for Violent Juvenile Crime and Implications for National Policy A Report to the United States Attorney General from FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS by James Alan Fox, Ph.D., Dean, College of Criminal Justice, Northeastern University Sanford A. Newman, J.D., President, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids

Executive Summary

Prime Time for Juvenile Crime

Until recently, the only solid data available to tell us at what time of day most juvenile crime occurs have been data from South Carolina. These data have been criticized because they came from only one state, and because that state had a more modest juvenile gang problem than many others.

New data have been compiled from FBI reports by the National Center on Juvenile Justice and the Office for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. These data which have recently become available are based on eight states: Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, North Dakota, South Carolina, and Utah.

These new data make clear that the peak hours for violent juvenile crime are 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM. They tell us that when the school bell rings, leaving millions of young people without responsible adult supervision or constructive activities, juvenile crime suddenly triples and prime time for juvenile crime begins.

Nearly half of all violent juvenile crime takes place during the six-hour period between 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM, and nearly two thirds of all violent juvenile crime takes place during the nine hours between 2:00 PM and 11:00 PM . In contrast, just one seventh occurs during the eight hours from 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM, the period for which curfew laws are often suggested.

This report focuses on days when school is in session ó the days when after-school programs could conceivably have a major impact on youth activity during the prime time juvenile crime hours. About half of the days of the year are school days, but 57% of violent crime committed by juveniles occur on these days.

Foolish Policy Choices

These data are a wake-up call telling us that we as a nation are making a foolish choiceóand paying a tragic price. When we send millions of young people out on the streets after school with no responsible supervision or constructive activities, we reap a massive dose of juvenile crime. If, instead, we were to provide students with quality after-school programs, safe havens from negative influences, and constructive recreational, academic enrichment and community service activities, we would dramatically reduce crime while helping students develop the values and skills they need to become good neighbors and responsible adults. For example:

ï Juvenile arrests declined by 75% when an after-school recreation program was instituted in a housing project, while they were rising by 67% in a comparison housing project.

ï Boys And Girls Clubs operating in housing projects cut juvenile arrests by 13% and drug activity by 22% compared to projects without a Club.

ï Denying at-risk high school kids participation in a special Quantum Opportunities Program of counseling, academic and life-skills support and other incentives quadrupled their risk of being arrested while in high school.

ï A University of Wisconsin Study of 64 after-school programs found that programs reduced vandalism, and promoted better behavior and improved academic performance of participants.

Decisions Ahead

Americaís leaders must decide whether they are ready to invest in the after-school programs which can ensure that the school dismissal bell signals the start of a rich afternoon of constructive child and youth development and of community service rather than the start of a daily surge in juvenile crime.

Acknowledgment

The authors gratefully acknowledge: FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS Associate Director Brendan Fitzsimons, who provided principal analytic support for this analysis; FIGHT CRIME Associate Director Amy Dawson; Communications Director John Bartlett; Research Director Bernard Reese; Office Manager Wendy Tucker; and interns Karen Breslin and Adam Lewin.

    I. Critical New Information for Crime Prevention Policy: Peak Juvenile Crime Hours are 3:00 PM-8:00 PM

The evidence is indisputable. After spiking between 3:00 PM and 4:00 PM, violent juvenile crime begins a steady drop until 7:00 AM the next morning, and remains low until school is dismissed the next day. This pattern is illustrated below.

The hour immediately following school dismissal (3:00 PM-4:00 PM) yields three times as much juvenile crime as the hour from 1:00 PM-2:00 PM.

Almost half (45.4%) of all violent juvenile crime on school days takes place between 2:00 in the afternoon, when youngsters begin to be let out of school, and 8:00 in the evening. An additional 17.9% takes place between 8:00 PM and 11:00 PM., for a total of almost two thirds (63%) taking place in this eight-hour after-school and evening time period. In contrast, only about one seventh (14.6%) of all juvenile crime takes place during the ìgraveyard shiftî from 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM.

Included in the newly released statistics are important data collected by the University of California-Irvine's Focused Research Group on Orange County Street Gangs. These data collected in 1994 and 1995, show that 60% of all juvenile gang crime occurred on school days, and, like other juvenile crime, it peaks immediately following school dismissal.


 

II. Impact of After-School Programs on Juvenile Crime

Quality after-school (and summer) programs can be expected to reduce juvenile crime in two ways:

A. Immediate ìSafe Haven and Controlî Effects. Immediately upon implementation, after-school programs provide responsible adult supervision, constructive activities, and insulation from deleterious pressure from peers and older children during high-risk hours. By replacing unsupervised hours spent exposed to dangerous influences on a street corner with hours spent under supervision, after-school programs might be expected to eliminate all or most of the crimes participating youngsters might otherwise commit during those hours.

If the juvenile violent crime rate for the period from 3:00 PM-8:00 PM were brought down to school-hour levels, this would eliminate nearly one quarter (23%) of all juvenile violent crime committed on school days. (Of course, investments in weekend and summer programs could also be expected to have a major impact on crime committed on days when school is not in session, but consideration of that impact is reserved for a future analysis.)

Of course, not all youngsters would participate in after-school programs even if a wide variety of high-quality programs were available. It is difficult to predict voluntary participation rates, much less to predict how many teens might be required to participate by their parents. In addition, if quality after-school programs were accessible to all families, some localities might choose to require for children of specified ages that parents either provide supervision themselves, or make arrangements for alternative adult supervision. As a result, the immediate ìcontrol impactî would fall somewhat short of the one-quarter to one-third reduction which might otherwise be indicated.

B. Values and Skills Effect -- beginning quickly and building steadily. Recent research makes clear that the impact of after-school and other quality programs for children and youth far exceeds the ìSafe Haven and Controlî effect. Beginning in the first months and building steadily, quality after-school programs can be expected to have an enormous impact on the attitudes, values and skills of participating children.

Children spend only about one hour in school for every five hours awake. How they spend the other four hours, not surprisingly, plays a major role in their development. Quality programs help children learn the skills they need to succeed academically, gain experience in serving their communities, and develop the attitudes, values and skills they need to contribute as good neighbors, family members and citizens.

1. Developmental risks for latchkey children and youth.

The need for after-school care has grown dramatically in recent years. In 1970, 37% of families with children under eighteen--already a very substantial percentage-- lacked full-time parental supervision. By 1992, that percentage had increased to 57%. Part of this increase is attributable to the growing number of single-parent families due to both increasing divorce and increasing out-of-wedlock births. However, two-thirds of this increase is a result of the increased number of families in which both parents work outside the home, often by necessity.

Today, an estimated 17 million parents need care for their school-aged children. Experts estimate that between five and seven million ìlatchkey childrenî go home alone after school, and that roughly 35% of twelve-year-olds are regularly left to fend for themselves while their parents are at work.

Latchkey children are at significantly greater risk of truancy, receiving poor grades, and risk-taking behavior including substance abuse. The more hours they spend on their own, and the earlier they begin doing so, the greater the risk. Eighth-graders who were unsupervised for eleven or more hours per week were twice as likely to abuse drugs or alcohol as those under adult supervision.

Even among those who have adult supervision, the quality of their after-school care varies widely-- and matters a great deal.

We know, for example, that children spend more of their out-of-school time watching TV than any other activity. Childrenís television viewing has been associated with lower reading achievement, behavioral problems, and increased aggression. When children watch more than three hours a day of television or watch violent programs, these risks increase.

While upper middle-class families are often able to patch together a series of lessons or other activities to fill much of their out-of-school time, many children are left to spend their out-of-school time at home alone or on a dangerous street corner. This problem has been exacerbated by funding cuts for youth programs beginning in the early 1980's.

Children, especially adolescents, crave excitement and group activity. If they canít find it in programs organized by responsible adults, they become far more likely to find it in gangs. Too many children today have too little access to structured activity with positive role models, and are left to spend too much time ìhanging outî or watching a few savage killings on television.

2. Proven Developmental Benefits from after-school programs

Just as it is now clear that the lack of adult supervision and quality programs in the after-school hours places children at risk, it is clear that quality after-school programs have important impacts which are revealed in immediate crime reduction and enhanced experiences and characteristics which have been shown to be important ìprotective factors,î making children less likely to engage in crime.

For example, a study of a 32-month after-school recreation program in a Canadian public housing project compared arrests of juveniles with those of another housing project providing only minimal recreational services. Compared to the two years prior to the program, the number of juvenile arrests declined by 75% during the course of the program in the experimental project, but increased by 67% in the comparison project. Such dramatic results cannot be explained strictly on the basis of an "immediate control" impact.

A Columbia University study of housing projects in which Boys and Girls Clubs had been established as a part of the Justice Department's Operation Weed and Seed program showed that juvenile arrests were 13% lower than in projects without a Club. Moreover, drug activity was 22% lower in projects with a Club.

A recent study of low-income children attending high-quality after-school programs showed that they got along better with their peers and had better grades, school conduct and emotional adjustment than other children. These children also had more learning opportunities and spent more time in academic or academically enriching activities and less time watching television.

Similarly, a recent University of Wisconsin Study of 64 after-school programs supported by the Cooperative Extension Service found that teachers reported that these programs had helped children become more cooperative and better at handling conflicts. These children also developed greater interest in recreational reading and received better grades. Strikingly, a full third of the school principals at these sites claimed that vandalism at the school had decreased as a result of the programs.

Additional evidence comes from school enrichment, mentoring, and neighborhood activity programs which show what a critical difference constructive use of out-of-school time can make. For example, a Public/Private Ventures study of Big Brothers/Big Sisters' carefully designed mentoring program showed that young people randomly assigned to receive a mentor were only about half as likely to begin illegal drug use during the period of study as those randomly assigned to the control group. Among minority applicants, controls were three times as likely as participants to start using drugs. Those who received mentors were also 38% less likely to initiate alcohol use during the period of study. And, in a sign that the mentoring program had an impact on violent behavior, those in the mentoring program were only half as likely to have hit someone during the period of study.

Moreover, randomly assigned participants in a high school Quantum Opportunities Program, which incorporates counseling, academic enrichment, life skills instruction, community service projects and financial incentives, were less than one quarter as likely to be convicted of a crime as those in a control group. It is important to note that while there are long-term impacts from programs such as these, (for example, those who participated in Quantum Opportunities were 50% more likely to graduate high school on time and two and a half times more likely to attend post-secondary schooling) the impact on arrests was virtually immediate. The program started when the youngsters began high school, and decreased arrests during the four years of high school by 75%.

Conclusion

It is now clear that prime time for juvenile crime begins when the afternoon school bell rings.

By the year 2005, the number of teens will increase by roughly 15% as the baby boomerang generation grows up. If we fail to invest in these children, their increasing numbers could mean an increase in crime. However, the concentration of violent juvenile crime in these after-school hours makes it especially accessible to preventive intervention.

Quality after-school programs are a key part of the solution. It seems reasonable to postulate that if quality after school programs were readily available to all young people, the "Safe Haven and Control" effect alone would result in a major decrease in violent juvenile crime.

The youth development "Values and Skills Effect" of such programs ó their role in providing the adult supervision, positive role models, and constructive activities that help youngsters develop the values and skills they need to become responsible, contributing citizensó would likely have an even larger crime reduction impact.

If after-school programs were combined with both some of the other proven youth development programs described in this report, and some of the early childhood programs proven to reduce subsequent crime and delinquency, even more dramatic reductions in crime could be achieved.

Until the nation makes such investments in after-school and other programs for children and youth, we are likely to continue to pay a heavy price in crime and violence.