Effectiveness of family-based programs to prevent delinquency and later offending

This paper reviews the effectiveness of family-based prevention programs in reducing delinquency and later offending by children and adolescents. Eleven large-scale randomized experiments and eleven other controlled evaluations (smaller-scale experiments or quasi-experiments) are reviewed. Out of 22 evaluations, the experimental group did better than the control group in 19 cases, and the differences were significant (or nearly significant) in 12 of these 19 evaluations. The median decrease in offending in the experimental group compared with the control group was 35%. It is concluded that the best evaluations generally show that family-based programs are effective in reducing later offending.