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Professor Ross Homel
Rethinking Developmental Prevention
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| This paper presents some recent thoughts about the nature of
developmental prevention, and illustrates some of these ideas by
showing how a community-based early intervention project in a
disadvantaged area of Brisbane has been designed and implemented.
Developmental prevention involves a focus on key life transitions
(such as the transition to school), on multiple levels of the social
ecology (individual, family, school, community), and on the
transformation of social institutions (not just the implementation of
specific programs). Developmental prevention is more than early
childhood intervention, although there are good reasons for
implementing early-in-life interventions as part of an overall
prevention strategy, and it is more than risk-focussed prevention,
although risk and protective factors constitute a valuable analytical
tool. 'Early' should mean 'early in the developmental pathway leading
to problems,' and encompass interventions at any life phase (including
adulthood). Analysis of the fit, or lack of fit, between the resources
that people need to deal with difficulties, challenges or obstacles,
and the resources (internal or external) available to them to overcome
these difficulties, is fruitful in addition to thinking about risk and
protective factors. The conceptual and programmatic challenge is to
design interventions built on evidence but with the capacity to be
modified in the light of outcomes achieved. Interventions must
comprehend the complex ecologic and policy contexts that influence
crime and related problems, and yield insights for policy and
institutional reform. |
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