Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)

Download PDF: Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)

The Nurturing Parenting Programs are family-centered programs proven to help parents and children learn to care for themselves and each other and to replace old, unwanted abusive interactions with newer, more nurturing ones.

The Need for Effective Intervention: In 1979, the National Institute of Mental Health funded a 2-year national project to develop and research a family-centered parenting program to help curb the serious and growing problems of child abuse and neglect. The result was a group- and home-based intervention effort called the Nurturing Parenting Programs.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is dedicated to preventing and reversing trends of increased delinquency and violence among adolescents. These trends have alarmed the public during the past decade and challenged the juvenile justice system.

It is widely accepted that increases in delinquency and violence over the past decade are rooted in a number of interrelated social problems—child abuse and neglect, alcohol and drug abuse, youth conflict and aggression, and early sexual involvement—that may originate within the family structure. The focus of OJJDP’s Family Strengthening Series is to provide assistance to ongoing efforts across the country to strengthen the family unit by discussing the effectiveness of family intervention programs and providing resources to families and communities.

Child abuse and neglect are tragic realities within millions of families worldwide. Each day children are abandoned, neglected, beaten, tortured, mutilated, sexually molested, starved, and terrorized. Sadly, violence toward children is not a new phenomenon; it is deeply rooted in cultural and religious values ... Read the entire article