OUT-OF-SCHOOL YOUTH DELINQUENCY: LOCAL GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION

This study aimed to find out the rate of delinquency of out of school youth and to examine the extent of intervention by the local government, as well as its effects on the delinquency of out-of-school youth in Dipolog City, Province of Zamboanga del Norte during the Academic Year 2017-2018. The study revealed that four barangays had equal representations; each barangay had 50 or 25 percent of out-of-school youths; most of the respondents in the four barangay came from a family with low socioeconomic status; more than half or 68.00 percent of the respondent out-of-school youth were males and 32.00 percent were females; delinquency was experienced by out–of–school youth in the barangay, which included acts such as drinking alcoholic liquor, buying cigarettes in small retail stores, spitting in public places and littering of garbage in the streets; there was the inequitable institution of intervention programs by the LGU in four barangays; the effects of intervention programs varied in four barangays; the rates of delinquency of out-of-school youth significantly varied when analyzed according to address, socioeconomic status and sex; the intervention program of the LGU was meaningful in the transition of delinquency of out-of-school youth into acceptable behaviors. The delinquency, thus, concluded was prevalent among out-of-school youth can be best curbed by the intervention program of the Local Government Unit.