Pubdate: Wed, 07 Nov 2007 Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU) Copyright: 2007 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274 Author: Janet Bagnall, The Gazette EARLY INTERVENTION CAN KEEP HIGH-RISK BOYS OUT OF TROUBLE It Is Better to Spend the Money Now Than Spend It Later on Prisons Law-and-order enthusiasts like members of the Harper government invariably end up tackling the problem of criminality at the wrong end. They want results, which to them means spending money on policing and prisons. They persuade themselves that automatic sentences of increasing severity will be dissuasive, even though there is little proof of this. Prevention, worth its weight in gold in crime-fighting, is somehow not muscular enough to take to the voters. And yet research continues to suggest that prevention is - dollar for dollar - the right way to go. Even more important, prevention can spare people the pain of lives compromised by failure and wrongdoing. Very few people ever grow up wanting to be a criminal or an illiterate drop-out; if they could avoid being either, they would. Ground-breaking research out of Montreal has shown that intensive intervention in childhood can have a far-reaching influence in the lives of boys. In study published last week in the British Journal of Psychiatry, researchers with the Universite de Montreal found that early intensive intervention among boys at high risk of anti-social behaviour can lead to greatly improved educational achievements and a much reduced probability of having a criminal record. More than 15 years ago, a group of 895 boys was selected from among Kindergarten pupils in a poor, inner-city Montreal neighbourhood. Two hundred and fifty of the boys were identified as disruptive and aggressive. This group was divided in two, with one half receiving intensive intervention and the other half no intervention. The remaining 645 boys served as a low-risk comparison group. Interventions, which were spread over two years, were aimed at the boys, their parents and their teachers. The boys, ages 7 to 9, were taught how to resolve conflict without resorting to violence. Parents were helped to set clear, reasonable limits and to use positive reinforcement, steering well clear of what Rachel Boisjoli, lead author of the study. described as "abusive punishment." The findings were categorical: The program benefited both the boys and society at large. The boys in the intervention group were twice as likely to finish high school as those who received no help and half as likely to have a criminal record. The effects of the prevention program put the boys who had gone through it on the same level as the boys who had been judged to be at low risk for problems in later life. "We deliberately chose boys from a very disadvantaged neighbourhood," Boisjoli said. "Risk factors accumulate in poor, urban neighbourhoods. People tend to have a lower educational level, they work at jobs that are poorly paid, the neighbourhood is poor and there are higher levels of criminality and mental-health problems." Two important conclusions can be drawn from the study: One is that early disruptiveness and aggression (which shows up in small children as a lot of biting and hitting) is a strong predictor of later educational and social problems. The other is that an early, intensive prevention program can to some degree successfully counteract the effects of a difficult home and social environment. "It is not always a question of the environment alone," Boisjoli said. "More and more the temperament or personality a child is born with is seen as a very important part of the equation." Frederic Simard was one of the boys from inner-city Montreal who took part in the prevention program and today attributes his success and happiness in life to that program. In an interview with the Journal de Montreal, Simard, an aeronautics worker, said that he was so disruptive as a child that "there were even people who said that Ritalin was invented because of me." Boisjoli argues that more is needed to help youngsters from difficult environments overcome the accumulated risk factors. Even among the group that benefited from intervention, only 46 per cent had graduated from high school by age 24 and a rather sizeable 22 per cent had accumulated a criminal record. More should be done in children's lives before they start school, Boisjoli said. Another critically important element is to tutor any child who is struggling with schoolwork. Intensive, supportive interventions work, Boisjoli said. We know that now and if there is one message politicians and other authorities should pay attention to, it's that programs like this should be become the norm. Better them than prison. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake