U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 

the sites are based in communities, for which TCC was recently

adapted.

The key materials used by TCC are a textbook, a community

binder, and conflict resolution manuals that are adaptable to a

wide range of settings, involve young people in the learning experience, and offer advice that is relevant to the experience and concerns of youth with their family, peers, and other adults.

Publications

Thousands of young people in secondary schools across the

Nation find TCC woven into their civics, social science, health,

and other classes using the program’s textbook (Teens, Crime,

and the Community: Education and Action for Safer Schools and

Neighborhoods, published in 1998). The text is designed to appeal

to a variety of learning styles and to challenge young people to

analyze and apply the information they gain to their own situations and those of their friends and communities. The accompanying teachers’ guide offers references and camera-ready worksheets

with answers and suggested followup questions and activities.

A more recent publication, Community Works! (1999), is designed

for less formal settings such as youth centers, community groups,

juvenile justice settings, and afterschool environments outside of

classrooms. This loose-leaf binder contains 31 lessons, complete

with overview and setup information for the instructor, a timed

lesson plan, detailed activity instructions, and reproducible handouts. Its design is heavily interactive, with young people directly

involved in the lesson plans.

Because resolving disputes peacefully is an important component

of safer schools and communities, TCC has also published We

Can Work It Out! (1993) for middle and high school students and

Let’s Say “We Can Work It Out!” (1998) for the fourth through

sixth grades. Both publications utilize role-playing and mock

mediations to help young people learn and apply the steps of

peacefully resolving conflicts in their daily lives in and outside

the school setting.

The Teens, Crime, and the 

Community Initiative

by John A. Calhoun and Jean F. O’Neil

Teens, Crime, and the Community (TCC), an initiative developed

by the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) and Street

Law, Inc., with funding from the U.S. Department of Justice’s

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, seeks to

prevent the victimization of teens and to engage them as resources for community safety.

TCC teaches young people how to prevent crime and, in doing

so, helps them develop a greater sense of social responsibility,

thereby reducing risk factors associated with delinquency. TCC’s

goals are to help teens feel more connected to their community,

reduce the high rate of youth victimization by teaching them violence prevention strategies, and build relationships between

youth and adults.

TCC achieves its goals in four ways:

◆ Educating young people about the costs and consequences of

crime and ways to reduce the risk of becoming crime victims.

◆ Teaching teens life skills through hands-on classroom activities and community involvement.

◆ Engaging young people in youth-led service projects to

improve community safety.

◆ Enhancing teens’ sense of social responsibility.

Just as important, TCC brings its program into the community by

using resource persons—including police officers, sheriff’s

deputies, victim advocates, social service providers, judges, and

prosecutors—who discuss community efforts to prevent and

respond to crime with young people. These adult volunteers

speak from real-life experience, serve as positive role models,

and often break down stereotypes that students have held about

their professions.

Flexibility, Involvement, Relevance

TCC locations are varied: 73 percent are based in schools, 14

percent are located in juvenile justice settings, and 13 percent of

June 2001 #24
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Washington, DC 20531

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Action Projects

A core element of TCC is the action project. The young people

identify a problem in the school or neighborhood and apply effective crime prevention strategies to address it. They learn by doing

and discover that their work produces positive results. Sample

action projects appear below:

◆ Teaching crime prevention skills to children and younger teens.

◆ Developing educational presentations for peers.

◆ Using arts, drama, and dance to communicate prevention

messages.

◆ Organizing the neighborhood—for example, with a block club

or Neighborhood Watch.

◆ Cleaning up the school or neighborhood by picking up trash

and debris, painting over graffiti, or clearing out a park.

◆ Educating older people about home, personal, and community

security issues and concerns.

◆ Working with local social service agencies to prevent such

problems as date violence and child abuse.

Training and Technical Assistance

The TCC network comprises 16 expansion centers that include

metropolitan areas, entire States, or groups of States. The national

partners, NCPC and Street Law, Inc., provide training to the expansion centers. These centers offer information, training, and

technical assistance to TCC programs within their assigned areas.

The training and technical assistance component includes basic

crime awareness sessions, program implementation training, and

information on effective teaching strategies, local program support, program applications unique to each community and setting,

ideas for action projects, and creative use of resource people,

among other subjects. A TCC newsletter includes project updates

from sites, offers new resources, showcases local events, highlights new developments in TCC, and provides a forum for ongoing communication by the TCC community on new resources.

Evaluations of TCC

The Teens, Crime, and the Community initiative has undergone

more than a dozen third-party evaluations, many using both control groups and TCC participants. These evaluations have found

that TCC:

◆ Increases student knowledge of the risks of victimization, ways

to prevent it, and effective ways to assist victims.

◆ Increases students’ sense of social responsibility, including

bonding to school, feeling more capable of and responsible for

improving their community, supporting teamwork, and holding

stronger views against lawbreaking.

◆ Is perceived to be relevant to young peoples’ lives by students,

teachers, and administrators.

◆ Engages students in a high level of participation compared

with programs presented within other class settings.

◆ Promotes positive changes in attitudes often associated with

delinquent behavior.

For Further Information

For more information about TCC, visit its Web site, www.

nationaltcc.org, or contact NCPC or Street Law, Inc.:

National Crime Prevention Council, 1000 Connecticut Avenue

NW., 13th Floor, Washington, DC 20036, 202–466–6272,

tcc@ncpc.org; Street Law, Inc., 1600 K Street NW., Suite 602,

Washington, DC 20006, 202–293–0088, tcc@erols.com. A complete list of TCC expansion centers is online at www.

nationaltcc.org/centers.htm.

John A. Calhoun is President and Chief Executive Officer of NCPC.

Jean F. O’Neil is NCPC’s Director of Research and Evaluation.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component 

of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice

Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice,

and the Office for Victims of Crime.

FS–200124