Does the Enlightened Youth Project See the Light? A New Enterprise for Youths at Risk

• Date: 01 April 2021
• Author: Hanit Cohen,Efrat Shoham,Lutzy Cojocaru,Ronit Peled-Laskov
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20923263
• Published date: 01 April 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X20923263

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2021, Vol. 65(5) 571 –589

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20923263

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Article

Does the Enlightened Youth

Project See the Light? A New

Enterprise for Youths at Risk

Ronit Peled-Laskov1, Efrat Shoham1,

Lutzy Cojocaru1, and Hanit Cohen2

Abstract

The aim of the present research is to examine the relationship between participation

in the Enlightened Youth project for youths at risk and integration in employment at

the end of the process, type of employment, dropout from school, and enlistment

in the army. A database was prepared containing information on all the youths

(499 in number) who were admitted to a multidisciplinary day Centre for Youths

at Risk in Israel, of whom 86 participated in the project. To match a comparison

group to the youths participating in the project, the propensity score matching

method was operated. The research findings show a significant correlation between

participation in the project and all the parameters examined, with implications

regarding employment as a contributing factor among youths at risk, in terms of

their personal lives, as well as financial and social well-being.

Keywords

youths at risk, rehabilitation, integration in employment, Enlightened Youth project,

propensity score matching

Introduction

The Enlightened Youth project was inaugurated in 2005 by the Patrizio Paoletti non-

profit organization with a view to providing a fitting solution to youths at risk in Israel.

The project includes a holistic program that incorporates therapeutic-educational tools

(among other things, life skills such as shouldering responsibility, accepting authority,

1Ashkelon Academic College, Israel

2Ashkelon Municipality Youth Rehabilitation Service, Israel

Corresponding Author:

Ronit Peled-Laskov, Senior Lecturer, Department of Criminology, Ashkelon Academic College, 78211

Ashkelon, Israel.

Email: peleronit@gmail.com

923263IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X20923263International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyPeled-Laskov et al.

research-article2020

572 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 65(5)

and working in teams). As part of the effort to return youths to a normative community

framework (school, army, etc.), the project places emphasis on preparing them for the

world of work, with employment in a candle production plant serving as the flagship

enterprise for this purpose.

The focus in the present evaluation research is investigation into the integration in

work, schools, and the army of youths at risk who have participated in an Enlightened

Youth project.

Israel has a population of more than two-million children and youths, of whom some

330,000 are at risk and in distress, manifested in some cases by an alienation from nor-

mative frameworks (Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Social Services, 2006).

The concept of youths at risk refers to a youth population that is or could be at risk

in terms of physical, mental, or spiritual well-being, indulging in violence, criminal

activity, and substances use. The definition of a population at risk has evolved against

the background of ongoing efforts by welfare and education services to develop effec-

tive prevention programs for coping with social problems in youths based on early

identification of populations with risk factors and determination of ways for commu-

nity services to deal with them (Lahav, 2000).

Risk factors among youths are generally a function of the ecological-social envi-

ronment in which they live—family, friends—as well as personality variables

(Gruper & Romy, 2014; Monahan et al., 2010). Risk boundaries are determined

based on evaluations by welfare agencies and care providers with a view to placing

the young man or woman in an appropriate therapeutic or prevention framework

(Banai, 2008; Lahav, 2000).

Work as a Rehabilitation Tool Among Offenders

Integration in the work force constitutes an important means of normative integration

in society, attainment of financial independence and prevention of social exclusion

(Lahusen et al., 2013). The research literature deals extensively with the correlation

between a state of employment or unemployment and crime, while presenting various

theories to explain this correlation. The notion of an offender as a rational individual

would, for example, regard unemployment as a situation that leaves the offender at

risk as the loss of income is nothing compared with the gains to be had from commit-

ting an offence, especially a property offence (Uggen & Thompson, 2003).

In similar vein, the theory of desistance from crime (Bersani & Doherty, 2018;

Laub & Sampson, 2001; LeBel et al., 2008) views employment as a key component

contributing to the discontinuance of crime due, among other things, to the offender

fraternizing with normative people at work, thus raising the likelihood of his adopting

pro-social attitudes and values that could eventually lead to his incorporating a normal

lifestyle (Lattessa, 2011, 2012).

As stated, numerous research studies refer to the correlation between a person’s

state of employment and their likelihood of committing a crime (Bellair et al., 2003).

Even after a crime has been committed, employment is one of the principal factors

responsible for desistance from crime (Duwe, 2015; Farrall & Calverley, 2006).