	Background

Title V of the 1992 reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 authorizes OJJDP to award incentive grant funds to the states, which in turn are to award subgrants to units of general local government to support local juvenile delinquency prevention projects. During calendar years 1994 and 1995, 45 jurisdictions reported awarding about $18.9 million of Title V funds to units of general local government. This represents 64 percent of the $29.6 million in Title V funds awarded to jurisdictions for fiscal years 1994 and 1995. In addition, OJJDP awarded $1 million for six grants under its Safe Futures Program. Juvenile justice officials reported that 197 of the 277 local prevention projects (about 71 percent) were active and had spent about $3.6 million (or about 19 percent) of the Title V funds awarded in subgrants as of December 31, 1995. About two-thirds of the 51 jurisdictions reported that the requirement to comply with Title II core requirements to be eligible to receive Title V funding was not a barrier to local government participation in Title V program activities. This number (23) represents about 3 percent of the 796 local governments that applied for local delinquency prevention subgrants under Title V.

	Other Funding in Support of Delinquency Prevention Activities

Officials in 19 jurisdictions reported that $319 million in state funds were devoted to support delinquency prevention activities in 1995, in addition to that allocated and committed as matching funds in support of Title V projects. A summary of preliminary information OJJDP received from nine other federal agencies indicates that approximately $4.3 billion was spent to support juvenile delinquency related prevention, juvenile justice, or youth-related programs and activities in fiscal year 1995. Specifically, we agreed to determine (1) which states and how many units of local government applied for and received Title V incentive grant funds; (2) how much fiscal years 1994 and 1995 grant money had been awarded and how much had been spent as of December 31, 1995; (3) the sources and amounts of matching funds committed to local delinquency prevention projects; (4) what Title V funds were used for; (5) whether Title II eligibility requirements have affected Title V participation; and (6) what funding, other than Title V, was provided to support local delinquency prevention activities. Intervention Strategy: Community/media mobilization and parent training. The program offered two components; the Saturday School program and AVBP.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Amendments Act's Title V incentive grant program for local delinquency prevention, focusing on: (1) the program's status and what types of projects are being funded; (2) the number of states and local governments that applied for Title V funds; (3) the amount of 1994 and 1995 grants that have been awarded as of December 31, 1995; (4) the sources and amounts of matching funds committed to local delinquency prevention projects; (5) whether eligibility requirements have affected Title V participation; and (6) other types of funding that has supported local delinquency prevention activities.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) as of March 1996, $29.6 of the $33 million in 1994 and 1995 Title V grants had been awarded to 54 jurisdictions and an additional $1 million was awarded for 6 grants to local jurisdictions under the Safe Futures Program; (2) of the 51 jurisdictions reviewed, 45 awarded $18.9 million in Title V subgrants to local governments to support 277 delinquency prevention projects; (3) these subgrantees spent about $3.6 million of their funds as of December 1995; (4) 44 jurisdictions received $17.2 million in Title V matching funds for 1994 and 1995; (5) 7 jurisdictions did not award subgrants; (6) the 2-year total funding for the 277 local delinquency prevention projects was about $36 million; (7) most of these projects addressed delinquency affecting youth in early or middle adolescence; (8) over 75 percent of the projects emphasized the prevention of delinquent activity, attempted to reduce delinquent behavior and recidivism, and addressed multiple risk factors; (9) most projects used community-based outreach intervention programs and services as well as some sort of parent training in conflict resolution and after-school program; (10) local governments generally reported that act's core requirements were not a barrier to local government participation in Title V program activities; (11) while 19 jurisdictions devoted $319 million in funds to support delinquency prevention activities in 1995, 31 jurisdictions did not know how much local or private funding was devoted to these activities; and (12) in 1995, nine other federal agencies reportedly spent $4.3 billion to support juvenile delinquency prevention, juvenile justice, or youth-related programs.