Abstract - across the border

This publication comprises a report of an international exploration into promising interventions aimed at influencing the behaviour of juvenile delinquents. The study presents a picture of the main and most typical projects and programmes applied in Germany, England and Sweden. The search was focused mainly on projects or programmes that offer useful leads for an effective approach in our own country of hard-core youngsters and persistent offenders.
Out of the multitude of projects that emerged from the international research, a number of interventions were selected that yielded positive results in the countries in question and that may be interesting for the Netherlands. Basically, these are projects that use methods to affect people's behaviour. Key elements of such methods include: individual intensive association with the youngsters in question, a family-oriented approach, cognitive behavioural therapy, confronting pedagogics, supervised return into society, the application of supervision- and surveillance measures, the possibility of sanctions, close collaboration between institutions and a central coordination. It was concluded that, for an effective approach of persistent offenders and hard-core youngsters, the best possible mix of these elements should be sought.

Ilse van Leiden, Gerdien Verhagen en Henk Ferwerda (2003) Over de grens. Een verkenning van projecten voor probleemjeugd in Duitsland, Engeland en Zweden. Bureau Beke. Politie en Wetenschap, politiewetenschap nr. 12, Arnhem/Apeldoorn.  »