Juvenile delinquency is the act of a youngster committing criminal offences but has not yet attained the adult age of the country of residence. There are many programs that various people come up with to try teach the young people of a particular region the values and importance of maintaining law and order. Crime rates have been reported to be on the rise in various communities especially poor ones. These crimes are not limited to adults only but young people, mostly teenagers, are learning these habits and taking them up as means of survival.
Drug Abuse Resistance Education is a national program that focuses on teaching the young people the dangers of usage of drugs, participating in gangs and any form of violent behavior. There are several reasons as to why gangs and juveniles participate in criminal behavior at an early age. Most of the causes of juvenile crimes are caused based on three major theories. These include the psychological, social and biological theories ( Tolan, Henry, et al., 2011) .
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As for psychological theories, it mostly affects people in their subconscious mind. They may have convulsions probably due to drug use. As for the sociological theory, this comes in when the company relating to the individual beginning from the family to the kind of friends that the young ones relate with. Many families of the 21 st century do not put much consideration about how their children’s upbringing or the kind of company which they associate with ( Tolan, Henry, et al., 2011) . Lack of this knowledge by parents and guardians is one reason as to why young people stray and participate in criminal activities without the interference of their parents. The modern world is comprised of people and families that are too busy in their daily endeavors. This has resulted to distance in the relationship between parents and children. In families where the parents are in close connection with their children and monitor their activities have fewer cases of juvenile delinquency. The third theory is biological theory. People have various biological issues such as illnesses that may cause them to react aggressively and thus lead them to committing crimes ( Siegel & Welsh, 2016) .
Most of the robberies and crimes committed especially by young people are done by people who are not well off, searching for money or valuables to sell so as to be able to pay for the various needs in their lives. Use of illegal and hard drugs is another cause of criminal activities among young people. Drugs increase the temperament of individuals making them quite violent and have impaired judgment in most of the cases ( Patacchini & Zenou, 2012) . These two effects of drugs may easily make an individual commit a crime such as gang raping and armed violence. Another factor that may lead to juvenile delinquency is peer pressure and engaging in the wrong company. Many offenders of the law, especially young people, are usually influenced by their peers to do various illegal crimes. Peer pressure is a big factor that makes many young people participate in things even they know is wrong. Programs such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education try to teach against these crimes and these habits before young people begin to participate in them and those already doing them continue to do so at higher frequencies.
The program Drug Abuse Resistance Education should cause a decrease in crime rates caused by juveniles. This is because it is actively involved in making sure young people who join their movement take a pledge not to use any illegal drugs or participate in gang activities. Thus, these people are re-socialized, in confrontation of the sociological theory of crime. There are also lessons by police officers regarding their opinion on the dangers of engaging in criminal activities and the various sentences and punishments an individual is likely to face after participation. The program is also beneficial in the sense that it creates a different perspective about police officers in the minds of youngsters ( Bartollas & Schmalleger, 2014) . Naturally, young people regard law enforcers as people who are hard to reach, tough and mean. The program brings about a different perspective and makes the police approachable in the eyes of the young people. The program somewhat challenges the public opinion about the harshness of the nature of police work. In so doing, it offers an alternative to the psychological reasons for crime. It challenges misconceptions about public policing. This makes it even easy for them to listen to them since there is a friendly relation that has been nurtured. The program also has a big effect on reducing the cases of juvenile crime since it is stated to have a base of around 36million children worldwide.
There are many studies that have been conducted to confirm the effectiveness of Drug Abuse Resistance Education program. There are many people who are willing to fund and have shown their support for the program. This is an indication that the people behind are actually positively impacting the lives of many children not only in the United States but across the world as well. There are key contributors to the program some including the US Department of Defense, Department of Justice among thousands of other personal donors ( Education, 2012) . The fact that the program has spread its wings to international levels means that they are doing a great thing and many young people are benefiting from the program.
However, despite the good cause of the program, there are several researches that have been conducted to determine the effectiveness of the program. Most have come to the conclusion that the program is indeed of benefit but does not have a large impact on its participants as it would have been expected of it ( Singh, Jimerson, et al., 2011) . Various researches done by prominent groups such as the American Psychological Association in 1999 and individuals such as Carol Weiss, Anthony Petrosino and Erin Murphy from Harvard in 2008 have stated that the program does not have such as large impact as it would have been expected ( Esbensen, Peterson, et al., 2011) . All these claims have been positively taken by the program officers and promised to use them as means to improving the methods they use.
References
Bartollas, C. L., & Schmalleger, F. J. (2014). Juvenile delinquency . Prentice Hall. Siegel, L. J., & Welsh, B. C. (2014). Juvenile delinquency: Theory, practice, and law . Cengage Learning.
Education, D. A. R. (2012). Drug Abuse Resistance Education. New York: Harper.
Esbensen, F. A., Peterson, D., Taylor, T. J., Freng, A., Osgood, D. W., Carson, D. C., & Matsuda, K. N. (2011). Evaluation and evolution of the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) program. Journal of School Violence , 10 (1), 53-70.
Patacchini, E., & Zenou, Y. (2012). Juvenile delinquency and conformism. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization , 28 (1), 1-31.
Siegel, L. J., & Welsh, B. C. (2016). Juvenile delinquency: The core . Nelson Education.
Singh, R. D., Jimerson, S. R., Renshaw, T., Saeki, E., Hart, S. R., Earhart, J., & Stewart, K. (2011). A summary and synthesis of contemporary empirical evidence regarding the effects of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (DARE). Contemporary School Psychology: Formerly" The California School Psychologist" , 15 (1), 93-102.
Tolan, P., Henry, D., Schoeny, M., Bass, A., Lovegrove, P., & Nichols, E. (2013). Mentoring interventions to affect juvenile delinquency and associated problems: A systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews , 9 (10).
