Academic involvement in juvenile and criminal justice initiatives is largely limited to program design and evaluation. Typically, there is discontinuity of academic involvement over the life of a program and minimal, if any, participation in program delivery. This description of the Southern Region Violence and Substance Abuse Prevention Center illustrates a model for academic-led program delivery, an approach that enables greater realization into practice of theoretically derived and empirically sound delinquency prevention and reduction principles. The VSACprogrammatic orientation, which features youth as resources, is discussed relative to program mission and increased effectiveness attributable to scientific control. © 2003, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
