Vera Institute of Justice

Overview

This 1988 testimony discusses a study from the early 1980s in which Vera identified and built rapport with criminally involved young males in three ethnically distinct low-income neighborhoods of Brooklyn and developed profiles of their involvements with crime and drugs as they aged from their early teens to their early twenties. The testimony encourages youth service policies which attempt to improve families' connections with schools and other services, extensive pre-employment and employment services, and criminal justice policies which allow residents to work with police to create safer environments.