Jack Tizard memorial lecture. Delinquency, environment and intervention

Abstract

Twenty years of Home Office research into delinquency prevention support Jack Tizard's belief that greater improvements in performance and behaviour are likely to attend efforts to change environments rather than inner dispositions. Situational measures which reduce opportunities for crime seem more effective than attempts to reform delinquents. Moreover, given that most delinquents desist from crime in early adulthood, minimal interference in their lives may be the best policy. For those requiring institutional placement, humane care rather than reform should be the goal.