By Jacqueline Allen, Ross Homel, Daniela Vasco, Kate Freiberg

  In this report, we investigate the effects of the Pathways to Prevention Project on the onset of youth offending. We find persuasive evidence for the impact of an enriched preschool program, the communication program, in reducing by more than 50 percent the number of young people becoming involved in court-adjudicated youth crime by age 17. We find equally strong evidence that comprehensive family support increased the efficacy and sense of empowerment of parents receiving family support. No children offended in the communication program if their parents also received family support, but family support on its own did not reduce youth crime. The rate of youth offending between 2008 and 2016 in the Pathways region was at least 20 percent lower than in other Queensland regions at the same low socio‑economic level, consistent with (but not proving) the hypothesis that the Pathways Project reduced youth crime at the aggregate community level.

 Report to the Criminology Research Advisory Council Canberra:  Australian Institute of Criminology 2024 , 86p.