[339] SCHOOLS AND DELINQUENCY PREVENTION STRATEGIES

Schools have been widely criticized for not dealing with or solving the problems of youth vulnerable to involvement in the justice system. This paper maintains that schools today are not likely to solve the problems that produce delinquency in American society and that overemphasizing educational strategies for preventing delinquency or for correcting injustices to the disadvantaged is likely to be unproductive. The incremental gain from even a radical redistribution of investment in schools is likely to be small in relation to the problems of poverty or the excessive involvement of low-income youth in the justice system. Instead, it is suggested that youths should be presented with alternative means of entry-other than schools-into the occupational world. oust youth who are officially processed as delinquents or statues offenders come from lower-income families. A disproportionate number are minorities, although numerically whites far outnumber blacks and other minorities. Conse-quently &dquo;the delinquency problem&dquo; in the United States, a