Abstract:

As in most countries, juvenile crime is at a striking level in Turkey. Such a deeply-rooted societal problem cannot be solved solely by means of criminal justice policy and interventions. Based on official crime statistics, this paper first presents data on the extent and nature of juvenile crime in Turkey. Second, based on recent criminological research findings in Turkey and the developed world, this paper discussed why policy makers should also focus on crime prevention strategies outside the criminal justice system in order to reduce juvenile crime more effectively. Finally, this paper focuses on “developmental (risk-focused) crime prevention”—a crime prevention paradigm which has been brought into the field of criminology from public health sector in the 1990s and since then has been increasingly adopted in several Western countries—and discuss the advantages of these programmes over other crime prevention strategies, especially criminal justice policy and interventions. Developmental (risk-focused) crime prevention strategies, a highly neglected area in Turkey, can interfere early in the life-course before the onset of serious delinquent behaviour through programmes designed to support children by targeting individual, family, school and community risk factors and prevent the accumulation of antisocial behaviour and associated negative effects over the life-course. Given that crime incurs considerable costs for both the individual and the society, early intervention programmes—if effective in reducing crime—will bring substantial benefits to the whole society

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