Lutya, T.M. (Thozama Mandisa)2012-10-242012-10-242012-10-15Lutya, TM 2012, 'The importance of a stable home and family environment in the prevention of youth offending in South Africa', International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, vol. 1, pp. 86-92.1929-440910.6000/1929-4409.2012.01.8http://hdl.handle.net/2263/20276This paper aims to present a strategy to prevent youth offending in South Africa. The strategy is motivated by research findings obtained from the study titled “Home and family circumstances of young offenders: A social worker’s view” in 2007. The findings of this study revealed that socio-economic factors; inept parenting and socialisation practices; exposure to inter-parental violence; sibling criminality; negative parent-child relationship; parental response to deviant behaviour of the child as well as the lack of parental interest in the rehabilitation programmes offered to their offending children increases the likelihood of a child partaking in criminal activities. This paper argues that in order to prevent youth offending South Africa should consider the importance of a stable home and family environment in the prevention of youth offending. Firstly, family planning is important. Secondly, parental involvement in a child’s activities is vital to ensure proper supervision and monitoring. Thirdly, in the absence of adequate parenting skills, efficacy and management parenting programmes could help parents learn a conforming manner of rearing their children. Lastly, once they have been caught committing a crime parents ought to take centre stage to ensure that the child’s behavioural transformation takes place.en© 2012 Thozama Mandisa Lutya; Licensee Lifescience Global. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial LicenseFamily stabilityYouth offendersParentingFamiliesJuvenile delinquentsProblem youthCrime preventionFamily lifeArticle