As administrator of the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Shay Bilchik heads the agency that is congressionally mandated to address public-safety issues of juvenile crime and youth victimization. During his tenure, which began in the fall of 1994, Bilchik has focused his efforts on comprehensive, community-based approaches to reducing juvenile crime and victimization. Join Together recently talked with Mr. Bilchik about his views on the relationship between juvenile substance abuse and gun violence.
Q. Do you have any sense that substance-abuse and gun-violence-prevention groups are working together more to reduce the problems?
A. I do. The reason I think they're working closer together is because, particularly over the last four or five years, people have moved more toward the public-health model of defining and then attacking these problems. We've seen more communities use multi-disciplinary teams representing mental health, substance abuse, criminal justice, law enforcement, social services, education and others to identify and analyze the causative factors and some of the solutions, and then address the problems accordingly. We didn't always operate that way, I think we've learned something in the juvenile-justice system in addressing these twin issues, and it's been a change for the good.
Q. Are there any good examples of this multi-disciplinary approach you would point to?
A. I think what happened in Boston (the Boston Strategy to Prevent Youth Violence) is a perfect example. You had multi-disciplinary teams coming together representing law enforcement, the courts, prosecutors, community-based organizations, clergy, businesses, schools, and together they analyzed what was going on in their community with the levels of gun violence they were experiencing. Through the marriage of those various disciplines they attacked the issue by analyzing questions about access (of guns), reasons to carry them and the decisions to use, as a team. I think Boston is a perfect example of how this approach can take hold and resolve these problems.
Q. What lessons can substance-abuse groups learn from the Boston example?
A. When you look at guns as a problem and the risk factors that kids face that may lead them to be involved in violence and use a gun, you also learn the risk factors that need to be addressed to reduce substance abuse. We've learned there's such a tremendous crossover in terms of the root problems and causes that lead to violence and gun use and substance abuse that when we put it together as part of an overall strategy we will impact numerous problems at the same time by attacking the underlying causes.
Q. How do you see the two problems, juvenile gun violence and substance abuse, connecting?
A. A few years ago we an analysis from some of the leading researchers in the area-Al Blumstein and others-talking about the drug trafficking in communities and how that led to an increased number of weapons and guns in those communities-protection and enforcement among rival drug gangs-and how drug dealers started recruiting youth who obtained guns for their protection, a potentially explosive situation. You also have research that shows that a lot of the kids in our juvenile institutions at the point of arrest or at some point in their adolescent life course are drug-involved. There are also some studies that show that kids who are drug-involved are also more likely to be involved in delinquency. The correlation (between delinquency and drug involvement) doesn't surprise us when you look at some of the underlying risk factors that kids face-when there is school failure, a lack of parental supervision, disintegration of the neighborhood, poverty, older siblings involved in delinquency activity, peer group involvement in negative behavior. When you look at those risk factors, they will lead not only to delinquency and violence and gun involvement, but will also lead to substance-abuse involvement as well. I think our mission as a society is to try to look for those red flags, look for those risk factors being present in children's lives and then immediately counter them before those kids go too far down that pathway toward substance abuse and gun violence
Q. How would you suggest that an interested community proceed in achieving this more comprehensive approach to reducing substance abuse and gun violence?
A. I think the first thing they should do is get a copy of our Guide for Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent and Criminal Juvenile Offenders. (The guide can be obtained by phoning 800-638-8736.) The document walks readers through this construct of a balanced approach of prevention, graduated sanctions, accountability, and treatment. They should look through it and see if that's something they want to pursue.
Q. Other than contacting you, what other tips would you have on how to form coalitions or join forces?
A. We talk about these types of approaches so easily and perhaps underestimate how difficult it is to proceed in this fashion. Therefore, my advice for people who undertake this sort of approach is not to give up; that it takes time to solidify relationships across disciplines. It takes time to gather the data and do the assessment on the problem, and then it takes time to do the training and establish the quality programs that will make the difference. But it is extraordinarily meaningful work. It usually takes a year or two to gear up for it and get it underway. It's the best possible long-term solution that we can have for juvenile crime and the victimization of our kids.
Boston University School of Public Health 
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