GW Work

This article includes a cost-benefit analysis of Functional Family Therapy (FFT), a program to reduce juvenile crime and delinquency. To illustrate that effective delinquency prevention programs and policy can benefit urban communities, this analysis uses the D.C. government as a case study to examine the expected outcomes of FFT. This analysis predicts that FFT will yield estimated total benefits of $8.3 million and estimated total costs of $4.2 million if the program were implemented over an eight-year period, resulting in a benefit-cost ratio of about 2. Policymakers in urban communities must recognize that the long-term savings of reduced juvenile crime, achieved by implementing evidence-based delinquency prevention and treatment services, exceed program costs. In response to juvenile crime, communities should develop comprehensive strategies of programs designed to reduce juvenile delinquency, guided by the large and growing body of research on effective prevention of delinquency, rather than turn to increased incarceration.

Author

• Poirier, Jeffrey

Identifier

• Volume 14

DOI

•  https://doi.org/10.4079/pp.v14i1.4146

Keyword

• Policy Perspectives
• Economic Policy
• Social Policy
• Criminal Justice Policy

Date created

• 2007

Type of Work

• Article

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/work/ns064655k

License

• All rights reserved

Relationships

In Collection:

• Policy Perspectives

Items

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