Among the practices contained therein, certain potential “reserves” of expertise are identified, from which valuable elements could be gleaned to then enrich the Colombian experience, analysing their adaptability to this country’s context.

This document is the result of the technical support which the International Juvenile Justice Observatory (IJJO) implements in Colombia within the framework of EUROsociAL II, a project financed by the European Union in support of national public policy that encourages social cohesion.

Its publication is the result of the “International Forum of Good Practice in Preventing Juvenile Delinquency”, set up in April 2013 in Bogotá, Colombia. Its objective was to present international examples of good practice in preventing juvenile delinquency, and to analyse how adaptable these are to the context of Colombia. The examples were rigorously chosen according to good practice criteria, and the extent to which they were sustainable and transferrable.

During the compilation of this report it was considered fundamental for the selected examples of good practice to meet Colombian demand, with the goal of turning this report into an important resource for formulating the country’s policy making for the prevention of delinquency among adolescents and young people.

The international good practices taken from the regions of Latin America and Europe that were analysed are the following:

• Catalonia’s (Spain) Evaluation and Risk Management Protocol for Penitentiary Services.
• Portugal’s national ‘Escolhas’ programme, which tackles social prevention of youth crime through community intervention and social inclusion.
• Mexico’s ‘Todos somos Juárez (We Are All Juárez)’ campaign, where greater prevention of delinquency was achieved through strengthening and coordination of national and local actors.
• The Canadian model of prevention from a psycho educational perspective.
• A specialised ‘ecosystem’ strategy for tailored intervention, based on the Canadian model in place in Chile.
• Developing an innovative normative proposal for preventing juvenile delinquency by way of the Bill on the National System for Preventing Crime and Violence in El Salvador.
• Peru’s Restorative Juvenile Justice Programme.

Since 2012, through the EUROsociAL II programme, the IJJO has been offering technical support to the National Department for Planning (DNP) and the Law and Justice Ministry, in constructing and implementing Public Policy on Preventing Delinquency among Adolescents and Young People (COPNES), to produce expected results in reducing juvenile delinquency. This new policy will contribute to the strengthening of inter-agency strategies for preventing and reducing juvenile delinquency. 

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