Fresh off the press - faculty publication spotlight: criminality, youth, community, intervention
The Faculty of Arts' ongoing research is vital to upholding academic excellence and knowledge mobilization both within academia and in communities. These critical and creative works diversify perspectives, promote engagement, and contribute to their respective fields. Two recent faculty highlights examine youth wellbeing through community intervention.
Left: front cover: Guardians of the Community: The Block Parent Program of Canada (2025). Right: Katerina Holmes / Pexels
Guardians of the Community: The Block Parent® Program of Canada, Kim Varma
Kim Varma is a professor in the Department of Criminology, specializing in community crime prevention and child protection, decision-making in the youth justice system, and Canadian youth justice policy. Varma has authored peer-reviewed articles examining public perceptions of community crime prevention, crime and the criminal justice system, youth sentencing, and bail.
Most recently, she has co-authored Guardians of the Community: The Block Parent® Program of Canada (external link) (2025) with Kanwal Khokhar, a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU) Criminology and Social Justice MA program. In Guardians, Varma and Khokhar explore the history and renewed interest of the Block Parent® Program (external link) —a community-led child safety network that encouraged parents on the block to identify their homes as ‘safe havens’ for children at risk. Popularized around the late 1970s-1980s, the Block Parent Program’s community-based approach to child protection and crime prevention has declined over the last few decades due to various factors, including a lack of volunteers, the prevalence of cell phones and GPS technology, and concerns about the potential misuse of the “Block Parent” signs. However, in recent years, interest in the Block Parent program has resurged. “The Block Parent Program seems to resonate with people who remember their parents volunteering for the program. It appears to be a symbol of a bygone era of community cohesion and trust,” remarked professor Varma. The potential for revitalization could bring about awareness on how communities may provide greater protection for youth, particularly those who experience bullying, as well as other vulnerable members of the population, such as seniors, who are at risk of becoming disoriented and lost.
Guardians is the first book of its kind to trace the history and trajectory of the Block Parent Program—drawing upon interviews with members who were integral to the program’s formation, primary documents, reports, newspaper articles, social media, and debates surrounding public and political perceptions of the program. With the support of a grant from the Faculty of Arts, Varma surveyed almost 1300 Canadians on their views about volunteering, civic engagement, child protection, and fear of crime in order to understand the relevance of a Block Parent approach in today’s context. As a comprehensive view of the program’s initial motivating forces and the complex circumstances contributing to its decline, Guardians prompts readers to examine society’s current state and the viability of community-based youth protection programs.
“I hope readers will get a sense of the powerful force of community mobilization."
"In terms of what this means today, concerns have been raised about isolation and an epidemic of loneliness (for many seniors) and a recognition that children and young people aren't outdoors and independent as they once were, and research suggests that these issues are having an impact on overall health and wellness.”
“While I'm not sure the Block Parent program as originally conceived would be applicable in today's context,” Varma explained, “It may be that there is a reconfigured role for this kind of program aimed at improving the quality of life in our neighborhoods.” Guardians’ examination of the social, political, technological, and cultural changes that ultimately altered the landscape of the program offers novel insights on community engagement and cohesion, civic responsibility, and concerns around child protection.
Criminal Trajectories of SNAP (Stop Now And Plan) and Non-SNAP Children, David Day
David Day is a professor in the Department of Psychology, specializing in developmental criminology and children’s mental health. Professor Day is the Director of the Psychology of Criminalized and Risky Behaviours Lab (PoCARB Lab), which conducts diverse research on issues mainly concerning the criminal justice system.
His recent co-authored longitudinal study, “Criminal Trajectories of SNAP (Stop Now And Plan) and Non-SNAP Children and Predictors of Trajectory Group Membership Among SNAP Children Using the Early Assessment Risk Lists (EARLs) (external link) ,” examines the criminal trajectories of two groups of children, ages 6-11 years—one group admitted to the Stop Now and Plan (SNAP®) Program (external link) and one group who were referred but not admitted. The study aims to investigate the pattern of criminal convictions over a 13-year period and examine the use of the Early Assessment Risk List (EARL)—a tool developed by the Child Development Institute (external link) (CDI)—to predict those youth who had the highest rate of convictions over the follow-up period. EARL’s 21 risk factors are “empirically shown to be associated with later conduct problems,” explained professor Day. “Currently, however, there is a need to evaluate how well the EARL can identify children at risk for contact with the justice system so that appropriate early intervention services may be provided.”
“Children who display serious conduct problem behaviours, such as aggression, stealing, or vandalism, are at risk for contact with the criminal justice system,” shared professor Day.
“Research indicates that youth who have contact with the justice system may be identified as high risk as early as seven years prior to their first court contact. This finding suggests that the early identification of at-risk children, coupled with early intervention or prevention programming may effectively offset this pathway.”
The study’s results showed that most youth (92% SNAP, 89% non-SNAP) had zero or near-zero convictions over the follow-up period, while a small portion had high conviction rates (8% SNAP, 11% non-SNAP). Additionally, non-SNAP youth with high rates had more convictions at ages 18-19 than their SNAP counterparts, suggesting the SNAP program may reduce criminal conviction risks over time. Finally, in the SNAP group, youth with high conviction rates scored higher on Total Risk compared to those with low rates, confirming EARL's validity as a predictive measure for this population.
Figure 1: Trajectory groups for the SNAP group
Figure 2: Trajectory groups for the non-SNAP group
This finding is significant as it allows children’s mental health centers to identify and implement effective early intervention and prevention programs for high-risk children, Day explained. In addition to addressing a gap in developmental criminology literature, the research findings suggest a “need to address early risk factors for children on a developmental pathway towards involvement in criminal activity, particularly for male children.”
The Faculty of Arts is dedicated to sharing ongoing research, highlighting the significance of innovative, impactful, and justice-centered scholarship. As the Faculty of Arts continues to feature recent publications, stay updated with faculty experts via the TMU Experts Database.
