STRYVE is a juvenile delinquency prevention program led by the CDC that aims to reduce youth violence. It is based on Social Bond Theory, which suggests that strong bonds between individuals and society prevent criminal behavior. STRYVE works to strengthen these bonds through community programs focused on parenting, relationships, activities, and belief systems. Research shows STRYVE effectively addresses known risk factors for youth violence and helps prevent this problem.

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Colton Robinson
Dr. Kocian
Juvenile Justice
4/14/16

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Programs that prevent juvenile delinquency are important factors in the criminal justice
system. There are programs that help reduce problems that start while individuals are in the
juvenile age range. There are many types of programs that serve in multiple categories of
juvenile delinquency. An example of this would be D.A.R.E. to reduce drug and alcohol use.
However, I will be talking about a different program called STRYVE. This stands for Striving
To Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere. This is a method of preventing violence from a young
age. Travis Hirschi created the Social Bond Theory that corresponds with youth violence.
Youth violence consists of bonds or lack of bonds that cause them to act in this behavior. The
overall goal of STRYVE is to reduce the amount of youth violence in today’s society. The
program suggests various strategies to overcome this epidemic of violence starting at a young
age.
As directed, STRYVE is a juvenile delinquency program aimed towards preventing youth
violence. Before explaining about STRYVE itself, I would like to explain what youth violence
is and why it needs to be brought to the attention of the public. “Youth violence refers to harmful
behaviors that can start early and continue into young adulthood. The young person can be a
victim, an offender, or a witness to the offender.” (“Youth Violence,” 2015). This is saying that
youth violence is one behaving with physical or verbal violence and that if their behavior is not
handled correctly or early enough, violence can be carried into adulthood. According to notes in
class, if one has a violent childhood, they are more likely to be violent as an adult. “Youth
violence, especially school violence and bullying among children, has emerged as a major focus
for educators, psychologists, and human service workers everywhere.” (Englander, 2007, pg. 1).
In reference to (Massetti & Vivolo, 2010) the main concern with youth violence is that “violence
is a leading cause of death and disability for U.S. youth”.

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Now that youth violence has been explained, why is this a concern that needs awareness?
“STRYVE and other programmatic efforts require better scientific information regarding how to
best support the scale-up of evidence-based approaches, and build prevention infrastructure and
capacity in communities to allow sustainability.” (Haegerich, Gorman-Smith, Wiebe, 2010). I
found different statistics and tables of information that shows violence upon juveniles should be
looked into as much as possible. One helpful article I found interesting listed three facts about
the significance of youth violence. The first is that homicide is the second leading cause of death
for ages 15-24. Second, there was a study done in 2010 that found 738,000 people ages 10-24
were taken to the emergency room from violence. In the same study, 30% of kids said they have
been in at least one physical fight and 20% of the kids questioned said they have been bullied on
school property. The third study conducted lead to the evidence of Americans spending over
16.2 billion dollars in medical and work costs loss in only one year from people 10-24 being
involved in homicides or physical injuries. (“Youth Violence Prevention at CDC,” 2013). This
data was found to express the significance youth violence has in public health. In a study done
by (Criminal Victimization in the United States, 2003) they found victimization rates of
teenagers in 2004 were more than double those of individuals over age 25. As talked about in
class, the juvenile age range is the prime time in someone’s life that they commit violent crimes.
So this should not be a shock that the rate for teenagers were much higher than at age 25 but at
the same time, this expresses why preventing violence at such a young age is necessary. “In one
study, 1 in 10 juveniles admitted hitting their parents. Among peers, Duncan (1999) found that
28% of 375 American children surveyed admitted being bullied.” (Englander, 2007). Using this
data found in these conducted studies and surveys, youth violence is seen as an epidemic that

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needs assistance in preventing it from growing. To further the knowledge of youth violence over
time I found this chart:
(Blumstein, 1995).
This chart helps show the homicide rates of 14-17 year old males over 16 years.
Homicide is a huge category in youth violence so I think it deserved to be looked at. At the time
range this study was done, it shows that there was a major increase in violence into the early
1990s. One reason this may be would be for the fact it was at the time of the War on Drugs.
This historical event would influence the rate dramatically, but it also shows that there could be a
jump in juvenile violence if there were another event to take place and even though it has been
decreasing recently, it may not always continue to go down in growth.

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(“STRYVE Online Data Tools,” 2013)

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In the tables above, one can see how youth violence can be shown over different types of
communities. Using STRYVE Online Data Tools, data is used to define a community’s
boundaries so they can predict what sort of planning they need to construct to prevent any youth
violence in the area. The three tables shown can help explain by breaking down the indicator,
measure, geographic location type, and data source. This helps in planning different programs
that can help prevent violence depending on the location and types of resources they have.
Briefly, I would like to talk about the individuals that take part in youth violence. The
average age for the offenders are 10-24, often times in the teenager years. According to the
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, there are three major behavioral
characteristics that are correlated with later violent behavior. The first is hyperactivity. This is
the problem with concentration and being in a restless state. The second characteristic is
aggressiveness. Being aggressive from ages 6-13 predict that males will be violent at later ages.
Lastly, beliefs and attitudes favorable to deviant or antisocial behavior. Being dishonest,
antisocial, and hostility toward police predict later violence. (Thompson, Bynum, 2010).
I have covered what youth violence is and the part it plays in society. The definition,
individual characteristics, and data was presented to demonstrate why the topic is relevant in the
community over time. What is STRYVE and how is STRYVE a program that can help with this
situation? STRYVE is a guide to lead away from violence portrayed by the youth. Striving To
Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere is a division of the Centers of Disease Control and
Prevention. Youth violence has been a problem with concern over time. In the late 1990s,
multiple school shootings grabbed the attention of the media. This violence in school setting
leads to believe the violence of the youth was becoming more of a problem. This youth violence
was influencing reduced productivity, property value, and social services in negative ways. In

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1999, the White House established the Council on Youth Violence to try to contain juvenile
violence. Another service produced in 2004 was the National Youth Violence Prevention
Resource Center. This was created by the CDC and was web accessible. Later in 2007, this
program produced information that could be implemented strategies in communities. The next
two years consisted of the CDC talking to other experts and other agencies to create safer
communities. They wanted to use practices that could prevent the violence before it took place
rather than the impacts that it could leave. This is to stop violence from happening in the first
place instead of waiting to deal with the consequences. STRYVE and STRYVE Online are
outcomes of the CDC working with others. They are both used to understand how to use
different strategies to prevent youth violence. Now they continue to provide information to
effectively deal with national, state, and community level activities. (Injury Prevention &
Control, n.d.).
STRYVE came from the origins of school shootings and is now trying to improve
communities by preventing the violence from happening in the beginning. Now that STRYVE
has grown to the level it is at, what exactly is STRYVE? “STRYVE is a national initiative led
by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Injury Prevention
and Control (NCIPC), Division of Violence Prevention (DVP).” (David-Ferdon, Simon, p.4;
2012). STRYVE is to keep the youth in a safe and healthy environment to reach their full
potential. For their full potential to be achieved, STRYVE consists of main goals for their
program. The first goal is “Increase public health leadership in preventing youth violence.” This
goal is meant to make the public realize the problem of youth violence. This is something that
occurs and needs to be brought to attention. Youth violence is a public safety concern and there
should be an awareness that it can and should be prevented. The next goal is to promote youth

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violence prevention with the best data available. There needs to be data available to prove this is
a problem that needs to be taken seriously. Evidence and statistics need to be up to date and
accurate to show there is enough reason that violence needs to be prevented. Show what
consequences there are with youth violence so people understand why this is an issue that needs
to be taken care of. A third objective of STRYVE is to provide guidance to communities on
how to prevent youth violence. This is very important because this is actually taking steps
towards preventing violence. This goal is trying to come up with strategies and activities to draw
away youth violence. This is the step where they ask themselves, “How do we stop this?” and
brainstorm ideas they can test and spread them to other communities if they seem to have
positive results. These are suggestions that may help a community overcome youth violence
depending on their area and situations. Finally, the last goal is to generally reduce national youth
violence. (Injury Prevention & Control, n.d.).
To describe this juvenile delinquency program, I believe Social Bond Theory is the best
representative. Social Bond Theory was created by Travis Hirschi. This theory states that
people have needs and desires and sometimes committing a crime is the easiest way to obtain
those needs. We are born animalistic in nature. There are four social bonds between the
individual and society. The first is attachment, which is the emotional and psychological
connection you feel towards others and care how others care about you. The second bond is
commitment. Commitment is how much you have invested in society, whether it is money, time,
or relationship. Involvement is the next bond, which deals with what you do in your free time
such as volunteer work or family activities. The last bond in society is belief. Belief is the
acceptance of a conventional value system. As you build these bonds, connection with society is

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strengthened. When you look at the four bonds of this theory, attachment is the strongest bond
that an individual has within society (Chriss, J.J., 2007).
The way to connect this program to Social Bond Theory is through the bonds one has
with society. STRYVE portrays different ways they connect to each other. There are various
key components to STRYVE. I would like to mention the components of taking public health
into account, with the fact that STRYVE is a multi-sector by sharing responsibilities in
organizations, and building capacity within communities. The major component is that
STRYVE is comprehensive. The categories of this component include strengthen the personal
capacity of youth to resist violence, build and support positive relationships between youth and
adults, promote striving, safer, and more connected communities, and to create a society that
promotes safety and health (Key Components of STRYVE, 2012). There are many various ways
that these bonds could be met. The ones who are the offenders of youth violence often lack these
bonds they require with other individuals and society. To reduce youth violence these bonds
need to be strengthened. As I stated, attachment is the most defined bond. Again, attachment is
the emotional connection with others. One major suggestion within STRYVE is parenting skill
and family relationship programs. STRYVE stresses these programs so that the youth generation
builds a relationship with those around them and allows them to realize they should care how he
cares for others and how they care for them. The programs teach the juvenile skills such as
communication, problem solving, and behavioral management. Some ways to strengthen this
bond would be having family dinners or something as simple going to the playground as a
family. Next is commitment and how much they have invested in society. The importance with
this is that they are less likely to commit violent acts if they have time, money, or status in
society and are more worried about losing what they already put in through their life. Examples

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of commitment would be playing a sport. Playing a sport could also relieve the violence they
have in them by exerting it when it is necessary and allowed rather than against someone who is
defenseless. Other commitments they may possess would be a job, an intimate relationship, or
focus on school work with goals of better grades. Thirdly, the involvement of what you do in
your free time is a bond required. Possible achievements for this would be volunteer work for
the community, family activities, or taking up a hobby such as reading or fishing. STRYVE
consists of programs of street outreach and community mobility. These approaches are meant to
interrupt youth violence by putting their focus on something that could help the environment or
others. Belief is another important bond to fortify. Belief is having an acceptance of a
conventional value system. Religion is a significant factor in these bonds also. Having
something to believe in will allow one to come to terms with what is considered right and wrong
in society. STRYVE suggests juveniles joining programs such as church youth groups. This will
allow one to learn more about beliefs and having a balanced value system to keep them from
getting into trouble that could negatively impact their life. Below is a table I found to represent
different activities, suggestions, and youth violence protective factors STRYVE expresses for the
individual and society. (Key Components of STRYVE, 2012).

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Although I think Social Bond Theory is the most relevant criminological theory to
STRYVE, I believe there are certain elements of other theories I would like to make a note of.
These are theories I felt had some support for STRYVE but did not corresponded as much to
Social Bond Theory. One other possible theory I could see some evidence is Rational Choice
Theory created by Cornish and Clark. The steps of this theory are crime has a purpose and not
accidental, offenders do not always make the best decisions, crime specificity, and length of
crime. I thought of this theory for the fact that violence would not be accidental. You do not
accidentally bully a fellow student. Also, juveniles committing youth violence have limited
rationality. Lastly, length of crime deals with initiation, continuation, and desistance. Youth
violence would put up the argument of initiation being early in life and continuation if the
behavior proceeds to exist (Levin, Milgrom, 2004). Another theory I saw applicable to
STRYVE would be General Theory of Crime by Gottfredson and Hirshi. This theory is the
conception that self-control corresponds with deviance, crime, recklessness, and sin. Another
aspect of the General Theory of Crime is parental management to monitor the child, identify bad
behavior, and correct it. I felt this theory had support for STRYVE as most juveniles that are
offenders of violence have low self-control, leading to deviance and crime. Also, many taking
action in youth violence did not have parental management and behavior being corrected when
needed (Armeklev, Elis, Medlicott, 2006). These theories had components that could connect to
STRYVE but I did not find there to be nearly as much evidence to explain the correspondence as
I received from Social Bond Theory.
As the last section to this paper, I want to talk about effectiveness of this program
changing the problem. Personally, I feel STRYVE is a very effective juvenile delinquency
program. I believe this because I think using the Social Bond Theory has a real connection to

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improving prevention of youth violence. Using the principles of the Social Bond Theory,
strengthening the bonds seem to coordinate with preventing youth violence from happening in
the first place or it reduces it before it becomes more influenced. Many children are helped each
year by STRYVE for both the individual and protecting society as a whole. Addressing the
prevention method and theoretical cause throughout this paper, I am convinced that the Social
Bond Theory defines STRYVE and its effectiveness in the community. One way I think it has
success is that it knows what to look for in the individual, their family, and their community. I
found a table that listed the risk factors and I believe this has a large impact on how STRYVE
was able to succeed in reducing youth violence.
(Key Components of STRYVE, 2012).
Research I found on STRYVE also helps me understand that it is a program that is
successful. According to (“Youth Violence Prevention at CDC,” 2013), there is support from
major academic centers for preventing youth violence. John Hopkins University and The

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Virginia Commonwealth University both have programs meant to reduce youth violence. When
using STRYVE programs such as SafeStreets and Ceasefire, they found decreases in youth
violence as they interrupt violence, shootings, and changes norms of acceptability of violence.
Also there was a major decrease in the number of retaliation killing amongst juveniles. The
Business Improvement Districts found there to be a drop in violent crimes in Los Angeles.
There was a 32% decrease in police arrests, 12% decrease in robbery rates, and violent crimes
overall declined by 8%. Another source I found that implied the program was effective was
(“Minneapolis Creates Blueprint to Prevent Youth Violence”, 2011). This followed the violence
crime rates of Minneapolis over time to record if STRYVE had any influence. According to the
study of Minneapolis, they approached the situation by getting juveniles into things that were not
violent such as having a job or hobby. They worked on family relations and school communities
too. These changes set a framework for their success. After recording the data over a few years,
they saw a 28% drop in juvenile suspects from 2008-2010. Similarly declining, the juvenile
arrest rates went down by 18.4% in the span of two years.
More sources that fueled my support for STRYVE programs are their pilot communities.
These are communities that took the goals of STRYVE and applied them to surrounding areas
and recorded the drop in violent crime that occurred after the principles of STRYVE took place.
Some of these pilot communities are Boston Public Health Commission, Houston Department of
Health and Human Services, Monterey County Health Department, and Multnomah County
Health Department. They all found positive feedback after enacting STRYVE and continue to
use STRYVE’s concepts of preventing youth violence. (“STRYVE Pilot Communities”, 2014).
I chose this program for the fact that I believe that youth violence prevention is important
to better individuals and the society. I wanted to research something that could potentially better

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the future lives of millions of people. After researching this topic, I found that it was a
prevention method that could be effective and I examined the problem it was attempting to fix.
STRYVE had main goals it wanted to achieve to reduce youth violence. The factors it possessed
in planning the steps to recovery lead me to believe it corresponded to the Social Bond Theory
by Hirschi. I saw links between the STRYVE program and the theory itself to support how there
was effectiveness in preventing violence among the juvenile age range. Many sources helped
support the theory and juvenile delinquency action taking place. The statistics being recording in
specific areas, public health issue departments, and academic centers standing behind them over
time support the success of this given subject. Studying all the factors needed to decide on my
opinion of this program leads me to see enough evidence to believe this is a delinquency
program needed to increase success rates of preventing youth violence around the world.

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Works Cited:
*Arneklev, B. J., Elis, L., & Medlicott, S. (2006). Western Criminology Review.Testing the General
Theory of Crime: Comparing the Effects of “Imprudent Behavior” and an Attitudinal Indicator of “Low
Self-Control”. Retrieved from http://www.westerncriminology.org/documents/WCR/v07n3/arneklev.pdf
* Blumstein, A.. (1995). Youth Violence, Guns, and the Illicit-Drug Industry. The Journal of Criminal
Law and Criminology (1973-),86(1),10–36. http://doi.org/10.2307/1143998
*Chriss, J. J. (2007, Fall). The Function of the Social Bond. Retrieved from
http://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=clsoc_crim_facpub
*Criminal Victimization in the United States,2003: Statistical Tables. Bureau of Justice Statistics [2005].
Available from: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cvus03.pdf.
*David-Ferdon, C., & Simon, T. R. (2012). Striving To Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE):
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Initiative to Prevent Youth Violence
Foundational Resource. STRYVE Foundational Resource, 1-36. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/stryve_foundational_resource-a.pdf
* Englander, E. K. (2007). Understanding violence. Mahwah,NJ:Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
* Haegerich, T. M., Gorman-Smith, D., & Wiebe, D. J. (2010, October 4). Advancing research in youth
violence prevention to inform evidence-based policy and practice. Retrieved from
https://savir.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/articles/2010_october__inj_prev.pdf

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*Injury Prevention & Control: Division of Violence Prevention. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://vetoviolence.cdc.gov/apps/stryve/about_stryve.html
* Key Components of STRYVE. (2012, August). Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/stryve_2_pager-final_2012-a.pdf
*Levin, J., & Milgrom, P. (2004). An Introduction to Rational Choice Theory.Rational Choice and
Politics : A Critical Introduction.http://web.stanford.edu/~jdlevin/Econ%20202/Choice%20Theory.pdf
doi:10.5040/9781474213141.ch-001
* Massetti, G. M., & Vivolo, A. M. (2010, February 18). Achieving Public Health Impact in Youth
Violence Prevention Through Community–Research Partnerships. Retrieved from
http://ncys.ksu.edu.sa/sites/ncys.ksu.edu.sa/files/Violence%2054.pdf
*Minneapolis Creates Blueprint to Prevent Youth Violence. (2011, September). Retrieved from
https://vetoviolence.cdc.gov/apps/stryve/CommunitiesInAction_minneapolis.html
* STRYVE Online Data Tools. (2013, November). Retrieved from
http://vetoviolence.cdc.gov/apps/stryvestrategy/sites/all/themes/stryve_bs/css/images/03Using%20Data.p
df
*STRYVE Pilot Communities. (2014, October 8). Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/stryve/pilotcommunities.html
* Thompson, W. E., Bynum, J. E., & Bynum, J. E. (2010). Juvenile delinquency: A sociological
approach. Boston,MA: Allyn & Bacon.
*Wiatrowski, M. D.,Griswold, D. B., & Roberts, M. K.. (1981). Social Control Theory and
Delinquency.American Sociological Review,46(5),525–541. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2094936

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* Youth Violence. (2015, December 18). Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/index.html
* Youth Violence Prevention at CDC. (2013, May). Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/youth-violence-accomplishments-a.pdf