The Commissioners of Dauphin County decided early in 2002 that Dauphin County needed to be proactive in intervening with the alarming trend of its young people entering a cycle of juvenile delinquency that may precede adult criminal behavior. Dauphin County has experienced a significantly higher number of juveniles per capita engaged in delinquency behavior and subsequently a disproportionate number of juveniles in out-of-home placements, mostly outside of Dauphin County.

Deliquency Prevention Forums

The Human Services Department, on behalf of the Commissioners, held a series of three community forums on juvenile delinquency in Dauphin County. There was joint participation from Children and Youth Services, Juvenile Probation, the Juvenile Court, Schaffner Center, Mental Health/Mental Retardation, Drug and Alcohol Services, and the Harrisburg and Central Dauphin School Districts. The County aggressively sought out feedback from both the normal categorical child-serving systems and these forums to obtain information on the problem and its solutions from any interested stakeholders. In the future, these forums will be repeated annually as part of the Needs Based Plan and Budget of the County Children and Youth Services Department, which is tasked with juvenile delinquency prevention.

The testimony from these forums was extremely valuable and contained several repetitive themes. This information, as well as input from the Children's Collaborative Board of Dauphin County (a broad based collaborative aimed at Family Services System Reform) will be used to enhance preventative services in the County. Overall themes from the forums which will be addressed in future prevention programs include: lack of parental involvement/supervision, impact of drug and alcohol use, truancy, or need to focus on siblings of juvenile delinquents, the lack of positive male role models, and the need to use youth to reach youth.