This book brings together an international group of experts to present the latest psychosocial and developmental criminological research on cyberbullying, cybervictimization and intervention. With contributions from a wide range of European countries, including Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, France, Hungary, Spain, and the United Kingdom, as well as from Canada and the USA, this authoritative volume explores the nature, risk factors, and prevalence of cyberbullying among children and adolescents. A particularly original focus is directed towards the Tabby project (Threat Assessment of online Bullying Behaviour among Youngsters), an intervention programme based on the threat and risk assessment approach which seeks to prevent the occurrence of violence and its recidivism. Presenting cutting-edge research on developmental criminology and legal psychology, International Perspectives on Cyberbullying is a comprehensive resource for practitioners, teachers, parents, and researchers, as well as scholars of criminology, psychology, and education.

"This sourcebook provides outstandingly important, up-to-date, and comprehensive reviews of knowledge about the prevention and treatment of serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders. It is an essential reference work for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers who are interested in this topic." --David P. Farrington, Professor of Psychological Criminology, University of Cambridge "At a time when the basic unit of policy about youth crime is often the sound bite, this volume shows the value of information and sustained analysis in creating a balanced program for dealing with the serious juvenile offender. The book is of value both as a specific set of youth crime proposals and as a model of the policy planning process in a difficult area." --Franklin E. Zimring, William Simon Professor of Law and Director, Earl Warren Legal Institute, University of California at Berkeley This indispensable sourcebook sculpts an alternative response to juvenile crime. The rise of violent crimes committed by youths and the lack of effective responses to treating juvenile offenders have underscored the dire need for a different approach. Some of the most respected experts in juvenile justice answer that need in this authoritative volume, presenting a balanced, humane, and effective strategy for change. The result is a comprehensive approach to preventing, treating, and controlling serious juvenile criminal behavior. Thorough analysis of strategy implementation complements discussion of core issues such as controlling delinquency, developing early and intensive intervention programs, risk assessment, and classification tools. The inclusion of special chapters on recent gang research and juveniles in the criminal court system make this volume the essential up-to-date resource for juvenile justice specialists. A Sourcebook: Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders gathers together information integral to the work of policymakers, lawmakers, law enforcement personnel, and social workers as well as criminal justice researchers, sociologists, and advanced students in these fields.

This book documents the state of the art on Victim-Offender Mediation with youth offenders in 15 European nations (Austria, Belgium, England and Wales, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden). It provides an up-do date review of current theory and practice and presents a critical discussion of problems and benefits which may help guide future policy decisions and applications. The book informs both those who are interested in evaluating the current state of affairs of Victim-Offender Mediation with youth offenders in Europe, and those who would like to promote Victim-Offender Mediation in their own countries.

The common format used in each chapter facilitates comparison across countries. Per country, five areas of investigation are explored and discussed: norms and legislation allowing for the implementation of victim-offender mediation programmes; values and theoretical frameworks of victim-offender mediation; organizational structure of victim-offender mediation services; professional characteristics of mediators; benefits, potential problems, and criticisms of current practice.

Legal socialization is the process by which children and adolescents acquire their law related values, attitudes, and reasoning capacities. Such values and attitudes, in particular legitimacy, underlie the ability and willingness to consent to laws and defer to legal authorities that make legitimacy based legal systems possible. By age eighteen a person's orientation toward law is largely established, yet legal scholarship has largely ignored this process in favor of studying adults and their relationship to the law. Why Children Follow Rules focuses upon legal socialization outlining what is known about the process across three related, but distinct, contexts: the family, the school, and the juvenile justice system. Throughout, Tom Tyler and Rick Trinkner emphasize the degree to which individuals develop their orientations toward law and legal authority upon values connected to responsibility and obligation as opposed to fear of punishment. They argue that authorities can act in ways that internalize legal values and promote supportive attitudes. In particular, consensual legal authority is linked to three issues: how authorities make decisions, how they treat people, and whether they recognize the boundaries of their authority. When individuals experience authority that is fair, respectful, and aware of the limits of power, they are more likely to consent and follow directives. Despite clear evidence showing the benefits of consensual authority, strong pressures and popular support for the exercise of authority based on dominance and force persist in America's families, schools, and within the juvenile justice system. As the currently low levels of public trust and confidence in the police, the courts, and the law undermine the effectiveness of our legal system, Tom Tyler and Rick Trinkner point to alternative way to foster the popular legitimacy of the law in an era of mistrust.

Recent years have seen an explosion of new research dedicated to understanding the link between psychological trauma and juvenile delinquency. Building on the work of the previous decade which uncovered shocking rates of trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress among juvenile justice-involved youth, more recent work has focused on uncovering the underlying developmental mechanisms that account for the association between trauma and antisocial behavior, as well as identifying the intervening processes that might encourage youth to be more positively social. Part I of this volume is dedicated to research investigating the moderating and mediating variables that might explain how childhood trauma is transformed into adolescent misbehavior. Expert contributors analyse a wide range of both traumas and traumatic reactions, and diverse samples, including little-studied sexual minority youth. This volume is unique in the particular attention it pays to the relatively neglected female offender. Part II describes innovative evidence-based treatments designed specifically to intervene with trauma among delinquent youth, including milieu, individual, group, family and parenting interventions, as well as a novel youth theatre. The collection concludes with reflections on social policy related to the development of a trauma-informed juvenile justice system. This book was originally published as two special issues of the Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma.

The book aims at providing an empirically based, psychoanalytic understanding about juvenile sex offenders. It details the extent and nature of juvenile offending and its impact on victims. It also provides an extensive psychoanalytically-oriented description of the characteristics of juvenile sex offenders. In doing so, it compares the characteristics and characterizes the differences between juvenile sex offenders and non-offenders. The background of such offenders is examined, focusing on their experiences of abuse, especially sexual abuse, in considering a developmental view of juvenile sex offending. Attention is paid to the unique characteristics of these offenders, especially their attachment difficulties and the level of psychopathy some juvenile sex offenders reveal. The implications of these characteristics of the offender group are then considered in relation to their assessment and treatment.These considerations are also used to highlight the importance of understanding the internal world of these offenders. Their internal world is viewed through an empirical lens, which reveals them to have impaired psychic representations of human relationship and, in the most psychopathic group, an obfuscation of the need for relationship. The differing problems concerning capacity for relationship and attachment and the means of assessing such problems are suggested to be essential to appropriate interventions. The book provides case examples to illustrate these issues and ultimately proposes an approach to assessment, recommendations for disposition and treatment of this offender group. In particular, it proposes the utility of Mentalization Based Therapy (MBT) with modifications to the most psychopathic and thus, hard to treat offenders.

What should we do with teenagers who commit crimes? Are they children whose offenses are the result of immaturity and circumstances, or are they in fact criminals? "Adult time for adult crime" has been the justice system's mantra for the last twenty years. But locking up so many young people puts a strain on state budgets-and ironically, the evidence suggests it ultimately increases crime. In this bold book, two leading scholars in law and adolescent development offer a comprehensive and pragmatic way forward. They argue that juvenile justice should be grounded in the best available psychological science, which shows that adolescence is a distinctive state of cognitive and emotional development. Although adolescents are not children, they are also not fully responsible adults. Elizabeth Scott and Laurence Steinberg outline a new developmental model of juvenile justice that recognizes adolescents' immaturity but also holds them accountable. Developmentally based laws and policies would make it possible for young people who have committed crimes to grow into responsible adults, rather than career criminals, and would lighten the present burden on the legal and prison systems. In the end, this model would better serve the interests of justice, and it would also be less wasteful of money and lives than the harsh and ineffective policies of the last generation.

Innocent people are regularly convicted of crimes they did not commit. A number of systemic factors have been found to contribute to wrongful convictions, including eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, informant testimony, official misconduct, and faulty forensic evidence. In Miscarriages of Justice in Canada, Kathryn M. Campbell offers an extensive overview of wrongful convictions, bringing together current sociological, criminological, and legal research, as well as current case-law examples. For the first time, information on all known and suspected cases of wrongful conviction in Canada is included and interspersed with discussions of how wrongful convictions happen, how existing remedies to rectify them are inadequate, and how those who have been victimized by these errors are rarely compensated. Campbell reveals that the causes of wrongful convictions are, in fact, avoidable, and that those in the criminal justice system must exercise greater vigilance and openness to the possibility of error if the problem of wrongful conviction is to be resolved.

Delinquency is one of those social problem areas that calls upon the contributions of many different disciplines. A wide variety of social, psychological, economic, and political forces interact in the organization and operation of agencies of delinquency prevention and control as well as in the lives of delinquents. As a result, research on delinquency is exceedingly complex. To understand what is required to understand delinquency, it is necessary to grasp all of its facets, and the contributions of each of the forces contributing to delinquency as they relate to one another. Measures to prevent and control delinquency constitute a system of organizations, facilities, and practices with a great deal of inherent conflict. Some agencies even perceive themselves as being able to operate successfully without regard to the work of other agencies. From the standpoint of the delinquent, a total system is in operation, and the delinquent's experience reflects all the conflict and lack of clarity that such a complex system encompasses. To understand the delinquent's experience, it is essential to explore the joint effects of the various agencies that deal with him. The comparative study of the organization and operations of similar agencies in different jurisdictions greatly enhances the accuracy with which the crucial questions and variables that affect delinquency can be identified. This study by Stanton Wheeler and his associates about the handling of juvenile offenders in two different police departments continues to provide a striking contribution to understanding delinquency.

This book highlights the developmental changes in aggression and violence during adolescence from a uniquely psychological perspective. Developmental changes and risk factors as direct causes for violence and psychopathy have started to receive increased recognition over the last few years, and in this volume Marcus charts these changes against criminological activity. A meta-theoretical model consisting of developmental, personality, and situational factors which are common, or unique, to each form of aggression and violence are offered with research support. Empirically supported by rigorous data studies, this innovative work goes a long way towards addressing the methods of prevention by which we might lower the frequency and prevalence of aggression and violence. Well-researched and timely in its findings, this book will be of special interest to scholars of violence and crime, as well as developmental psychologists.

What knowledge and skills do you need to practise effectively as a professional within the youth justice system? What values should inform your work with children and young people subject to criminal justice sanctions? These are the central questions addressed by the editors and contributors in this comprehensive new text.
The Youth Justice Handbook provides an essential resource for practitioners in youth justice as well as those who are studying the subject as part of their training or an academic course. Its aim is to equip practitioners in youth justice and the wider children s workforce with an understanding of key theoretical concepts from a range of disciplines that might inform and enhance their work. It encourages a critical interrogation of the ideas that underpin practice by drawing on social constructionist approaches to issues such as child development, crime and punishment and related concepts. It provides a descriptive account of current practice in
areas such as community corrections and incarceration, examining the evidence base for this and suggesting where appropriate alternative strategies.
The key objective of the Handbook is to provide students with the confidence to critically reflect on the ideas and debates that currently influence the work undertaken with young people as well as those that may shape practice in the future. By equipping them with the basic skills of analysis and an understanding of key themes and developments, it aims to further promote their progression as reflective practitioners and autonomous learners.
The Youth Justice Handbook takes a multidisciplinary approach, and contains chapters from leading experts in the field which draw on original research and practical experience of working in the area. It is divided into five parts:
Contexts of childhood and youth
Research, knowledge and evidence in youth justice
Policy, possibilities and penal realities in youth justice
Reflective practice
Widening contexts

What knowledge and skills do you need to practise effectively as a professional within the youth justice system? What values should inform your work with children and young people subject to criminal justice sanctions? These are the central questions addressed by the editors and contributors in this comprehensive new text.
The Youth Justice Handbook provides an essential resource for practitioners in youth justice as well as those who are studying the subject as part of their training or an academic course. Its aim is to equip practitioners in youth justice and the wider children's workforce with an understanding of key theoretical concepts from a range of disciplines that might inform and enhance their work. It encourages a critical interrogation of the ideas that underpin practice by drawing on social constructionist approaches to issues such as ?child development?, ?crime? and ?punishment? and related concepts. It provides a descriptive account of current practice in
areas such as community corrections and incarceration, examining the evidence base for this and suggesting ? where appropriate ? alternative strategies.
The key objective of the Handbook is to provide students with the confidence to critically reflect on the ideas and debates that currently influence the work undertaken with young people as well as those that may shape practice in the future. By equipping them with the basic skills of analysis and an understanding of key themes and developments, it aims to further promote their progression as reflective practitioners and autonomous learners.
The Youth Justice Handbook takes a multidisciplinary approach, and contains chapters from leading experts in the field which draw on original research and practical experience of working in the area. It is divided into five parts:
? Contexts of childhood and youth
? Research, knowledge and evidence in youth justice
? Policy, possibilities and penal realities in youth justice
? Reflective practice
? Widening contexts

Our society's preoccupation with crime and fear of crime appears to have shifted its focus to the juvenile offender. Both electronic and print media continuously warn us that juvenile offenders are increasingly younger and more virulent. The demographics of our population suggest that there will only be more juvenile offenders to fear in the near future. All of these concerns arise in a social climate that is characterized by an ever increasing demand for stronger retributive measures against the offender. The belief that only harsh justice will protect us from the ravages of juveniles has become dominant. Increasingly, perceptions and politics, rather than scientific data, dominate policy making with regard to youthful offenders. In Assessing the Youthful Offender: Issues and Techniques, Robert D. Hoge and D. A. Andrews make a restrained, rational, and ultimately persuasive argu ment for the use of standardized psychological assessments in the effective management of youth within juvenile justice systems. They clarify how what we already know about the cause and management of youthful criminal activity can be incorporated into standardized testing and that the information obtained from testing can improve the administration of criminal justice. Moreover, this informa tion is useful whatever the theoretical biases of those who administer the justice system. The efficiency of policies of either retribution, deterrence, or rehabilitation is only enhanced by reliance on data."

This book compiles research on female crime and delinquency in Portugal in order to critically and reflectively explore interdisciplinary views on the link between gender, crime and delinquency. Contributions are organized into two main parts, with Part I dedicated to the relationship between women and crime, and Part II focused on female juvenile delinquency. Through the exploration of girls' and women's relationships with delinquency and crime, as well as with the justice system, this original and compelling collection highlights the heterogeneity of girls' and women's experiences, whilst also underlining the convergences and divergences between them. Ultimately, Gomes and Duarte argue that understanding how women and girls explain their offending behaviours and how they relate to the criminal justice system is of the utmost importance for reforming social and legal policies. As such, this book will be of value not only for students, researchers and professionals of the social, behavioural and criminal sciences, but also for policy-makers seeking to provide greater efficiency in preventing crime and delinquency.

Juvenile justice centers have a long tradition as an unfortunate stop for young offenders who need mental health care. Reports estimate that as many as 70% of the youth in detention centers meet criteria for mental health disorders. As juvenile justice systems once again turn their focus from confinement to rehabilitation, mental health providers have major opportunities to inform and improve both practice and policy. The Handbook of Juvenile Forensic Psychology and Psychiatry explores these opportunities by emphasizing a developmental perspective, multifaceted assessment, and evidence-based practice in working with juvenile offenders. This comprehensive volume provides insights at virtually every intersection of mental health practice and juvenile justice, covering areas as wide-ranging as special populations, sentencing issues, educational and pharmacological interventions, family involvement, ethical issues, staff training concerns, and emerging challenges. Together, its chapters contain guidelines not only for changing the culture of detention but also preventing detention facilities from being the venue of choice in placing troubled youth. Key issues addressed in the Handbook include: Developmental risks for delinquency. Race and sex disparities in juvenile justice processing. Establishing standards of practice in juvenile forensic mental health assessment. Serving dually diagnosed youth in the juvenile justice system. PTSD among court-involved youth. Female juvenile offenders. Juvenile sex offenders. The Handbook of Juvenile Forensic Psychology and Psychiatry is an essential reference for researchers, professors, allied clinicians and professionals, and policy makers across multiple fields, including child and school psychology, child and adolescent psychiatry, developmental psychology, criminology, juvenile justice, forensic psychology, neuropsychology, social work, and education.

Anti-social behaviour has become a major political preoccupation of government and combating it is now a major plank of criminal justice policy. Yet anti-social behaviour as a concept has been little studied, and the notion has often been accepted uncritically. This book aims to meet this need, providing a critique of the government's use of the concept of anti-social behaviour and of youth justice strategy more generally. Rougher Justice foregrounds the perspectives and experiences of young people themselves. It draws upon recent developments within the field of cultural criminology to provide an alternative interpretation of the construction of 'youthful criminal careers'. It is underpinned by research in three separate areas which focus on the new youth justice, youthful criminal careers, and anti-social behaviour and acceptable behaviour enforcement. Central to the book is an ambition to understand youthful delinquency from the inside and to recover what is lost in much of New Labour's youth justice strategy --and the methods adopted by the Youth Justice Board to evaluate this strategy, that is to say a situated and interpretive understanding of youthful delinquency drawn from the perspective of and in the voices of young people themselves.

Both probation and youth justice have undergone massive changes in recent years, and continue to face important new challenges. A key emphasis of new developments has been on developing effective evidence-based practice and disseminating this throughout the Probation and Youth Justice services. The main aim of this book is to review developments in evidence-based practice in a number of different areas, bringing together the findings of research projects commissioned by the British Home Office, the National Probation Directorate and the Youth Justice Board. This book will be essential reading for anyone involved in probation and youth justice practice, or for those taking courses in these fields.

The first biography of the prison reformer Alexander Paterson (1884-1947). Sir Alexander Paterson (1884-1947) is best remembered for his role as Commissioner of Prisons and as the individual responsible for some of the greatest British innovations in the field of penal practice. All major prison reforms of his day can be associated with his name. One of the key characteristics of Paterson's reform drive was that he brought a much more 'scientific' approach to penology, encouraging psychiatrists and psychologists to work in prison. He was the prime mover behind the rapid expansion and transformation of the Borstal System and the introduction of open prisons, gaining Britain an international reputation for being at the forefront of penal reform. Harry Potter's account is the first biography of Alexander Paterson and it is based on unpublished material from government and family archives. Besides his achievements as prison reformer, Paterson's life encapsulated many trends in English society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: from the influence of Liberalism and Unitarianism in the industrial heartland of his youth, the Idealist philosophy of Thomas Hill Green at Oxford, to the impact of school and university 'missions' in the dark reaches of London. At Oxford he became friends with Clement Atlee. He also knew the radical Winston Churchill and it was Churchill who in 1910 first appointed him to a leading role in the aftercare of prisoners. Paterson's most formative years were undoubtedly spent living in a slum dwelling in South London when he devoted his time and energy to the Oxford and Bermondsey Medical Mission, one of the university settlements so common at the time - Attlee famously spent years in Hailesbury boys' club and Toynbee Hall in the East End. Paterson went on to publish a best-selling book - Across the Bridges - on his experiences in the South London slums. After a distinguished service in the Great War, Paterson devoted the rest of his life to the prison service at home and to penal reform abroad. Given current debates about prison reform and the general challenges the penal system is facing, revisiting Paterson's life and work will be a timely endeavour. Harry Potter - criminal barrister, historian and former prison chaplain - is ideally suited to write this biography.

Why is crime persistent over generations, within families and within certain individuals? Is crime the manifestation of an inherited latent trait or the result of a failure of socialization and norm-setting processes? Why do youths commit crimes? Delinquency and Crime contains essays by nine leading criminologists that seek to answer these and other questions by describing current theories of crime and the research evidence that supports them. The authors' views on crime causation go beyond traditional criminological theories of strain, cultural deviance, social control, differential association and social learning to present emerging and integrated models of the origins of crime, including antisocial peer socialization, social development, interactional theory, behavior genetics, and community determinants. Each essay explores the practical implication of the authors' theoretical work for crime prevention and control.

Examine the factors that contribute to increasingly violent youth crimes in the United States! Kids Who Commit Adult Crimes: Serious Criminality by Juvenile Offenders is an examination of today's serious, chronic, and violent youthful offender. This vital book explores the relationship between youth and serious, violent antisocial behavior in America, examining its antecedents, its onset, and its situational and motivating factors. From the Editor's introduction: "The increasingly serious nature of juvenile criminal behavior has been felt across the country as youth violence, violent youth gangs, drug-related offenses, and other delinquent and criminal conduct has changed the way we regard minors and delinquent behavior. Recent times have seen an explosion in school tragedies, juvenile homicides, teen battering, date rape, youth family violence, teenage alcohol and drug abuse, and related youthful offenses." Kids Who Commit Adult Crimes, divided into four parts, takes an incisive look at these issues and more: Part I explores serious juvenile crime, including its magnitude; youth violence; kids, drugs, and crime; school crime and violence; youth gangs and criminality; dating violence; and family violence. Part II examines explanations of juvenile delinquency and criminal behavior from biological, psychological, and sociological perspectives. Part III addresses juvenile crime and the justice system, including the police and juvenile offenders, youths and the juvenile and adult courts, and juvenile offenders in custody and confinement. Part IV examines responses to the problem of serious and violent juvenile offending and its precursors, including federal laws and prevention, intervention, and control strategies. Kids Who Commit Adult Crimes goes farther in its examination of youth who commit adult-like violence than other books in the field, with chapters on dating violence and family violence, in addition to school and gang violence, substance abuse issues, and more. Visit the author's website at http://www.rbarriflowers.com

This book applies modern object relations theory-particularly the concept of intersubjectivity as articulated by Thomas Ogden-to a population for which the "treatment du jour" is increasingly cognitive-behavioral. Taking his lead from the delinquent adolescents in his practice, Dr. Brodie presents a treatment approach based on respect rather than condescension. Adolescents are related to as people, rather than as transitory objects passing through a 'stage.' Rather than judging their feelings and behaviors as "aberrant," the author views them as having emerged out of the complex matrix of his patients' lives. Adolescence and Delinqucney: An Object Relations Theory Approach is less an attempt to apply object relations theory to a particular population than it is an attempt to illuminate the seamlessness of theory and application. Theory and case examples are presented in a dialectical relationship, psychological theory having no meaning other than an attempt to understand real people, and the people we work with are unintelligible outside some systematic frame of reference.

This report presents the findings from the first national, representative survey of public attitudes to youth crime and youth justice in England and Wales. Significantly, it highlights that most people are demonstrably ill-informed about youth crime and youth justice issues. It also carries clear policy implications in relation to both public education and reform of the youth justice system. Youth crime and youth justice is essential reading for academics, researchers, policy makers and practitioners in the fields of criminal justice, criminology, social policy, social work and probation. Researching Criminal Justice series Crime and justice are issues of central political and public concern in contemporary Britain. This exciting new series presents top quality research findings in the field. It will contribute significantly to policy and practice debates and aims to improve the knowledge base considerably. The series will be essential reading for politicians and policy makers, academics, researchers and practitioners. For other titles in this series, please follow the series link from the main catalogue page.

That black young people have been subject to unequal treatment in the youth justice system has been the belief of some individuals and groups, reinforced, at best, by anecdotal evidence. Negative Images: A Simple Matter of Black and White? provides not only evidential weight to uphold this view but also provides some insights into the processes by which it comes about. Findings of a case study detailed in the book demonstrate how in one youth court black youths were over-represented amongst those receiving high-tariff sentencing and that this over-representation could not be explained by seriousness or persistence of offending. Whilst responsibility for differential sentencing has often been laid at the door of Magistrates, this study reveals how social work court report practice may be contributing to the situation.

This book presents a study of street children's involvement as workers in Bangladeshi organised crime groups based on a three-year ethnographic study in Dhaka. The book argues that 'mastaans' are Bangladeshi mafia groups that operate in a market for crime, violence and social protection. It considers the crimes mastaans commit, the ways they divide labour, and how and why street children become involved in these groups. The book explores how street children are hired by 'mastaans', to carry weapons, sell drugs, collect extortion money, commit political violence and conduct contract killings. The book argues that these young people are neither victims nor offenders; they are instead 'illicit child labourers', doing what they can to survive on the streets. This book adds to the emerging fields of the sociology of crime and deviance in South Asia and 'Southern criminology'.

This book offers a sociological exploration of street children in India and what pulls and pushes them into delinquency, at a time when the government of India is contemplating strengthening its juvenile justice system. It draws on in-depth, qualitative research carried out by an NGO which included unstructured and structured interviews with over 600 children as well as stakeholders. Through the stories of Indian children, this book examines the major factors which together play a crucial role in their engagement in deviant behaviour as they grow up. However, the authors argue that they should not be viewed not as a dangerous threat but as the country's most valuable resource. The authors conclude that a punitive strategy may not be the best option, advocating instead for a focus on restorative justice which has been found to be effective and beneficial alongside other strategies which help strengthen families and enhance parenting skills.