Synopses of presentations

Dr Margaret Shaw

(please see the Background paper: Overview of Recent Developments and Challenges in School-Based Crime Prevention)

Dr Steven Edwards
Vice President, National Crime Prevention Council, Washington, DC, USA.

Overview of National School-Based Crime Prevention in the United States

While there has been a decline in levels of school shootings in the past two years, levels of bullying and harassment continue to rise, and often go unreported. Less media attention and concern with domestic terrorism has resulted in the withdrawal of police school resource officers. In relation to the role of the police, it would be preferable to have a uniformed officer in every school, since this is often the only positive contact between students and the police. Zero tolerance laws and policies remain in conflict with alternative solutions to school violence. School safety centres exist in 16 States, but many communities and policy makers do not want to address the wider societal issues of violence prevention. Schools still tend to operate in isolation from the rest of the community. Crucial components of good crime prevention use a comprehensive strategy, include respect and relationships, youth involvement, meeting parents on their own turf, having small schools. Projects which work include mentoring and after-school programmes - a combination of hard (locks, lights and alarms) and soft (attitudes, beliefs and behaviours) approaches. Planning and evaluation are crucial, as well as involving all stakeholders.

Dr Alexander Butchart
Team Leader, Prevention of Violence Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, World Health Organization, Geneva.

Pdf of summary outline

World Report on Violence: a public health context for school-based violence prevention.

The World report on violence and health shows that violence is among the major causes of death for those of 15-44 years of age. Violence on a global scale results in around the same number of deaths as tuberculosis, yet receives almost no funding. Health cuts across all sectors in society and violence prevention needs to be recognized and funded as a public health problem, and one which can bring huge cost savings to society. The public health sector can collect data, assess risk, provide advocacy services and research to support violence reduction. Youth violence is one of seven major areas identified in the report. WHO participates in three schools-based violence prevention initiatives aimed at enhancing the violence prevention capacity of schools: the development of a global school health surveillance system in collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control; working with the Finnish CONNECT group which has developed a "Proposal for an action plan to combat violence in schools" and to secure its implementation; and integrating violence prevention into WHO's health promoting schools programme.

Mme Costa Lascoux Photo: Emmanuel Crooy

Mme Jacqueline Costa Lascoux
Présidente de la Ligue de L'Enseignement, Centre d'Étude de la Vie Politique Française, France

Education in the law and citizenship education: are they the same, are they both necessary?

The place of education in the law and citizenship education is central to the reduction of youth crime and the promotion of healthy schools. There is a distinction between the two - and there has been a deterioration of justice in relation to young people in European countries. The law exists without citizenship, prescribing what young people should or must do, but failing to explain why or how. Notions of reciprocity and principles of responsibility are difficult to teach through law. The law is also seen as unjust or discriminatory by young immigrants in particular. Too many people do not know what the law is, not what rights they have - as men or women. There needs to be complementary education in citizenship and democracy. Old civics courses need to be re-invented, and Maison de Justice or Salon d'Éducation need to extend their links with schools.

Commissioner M. Wilson Makhubela & Assistant Commissioner Susan Pienaar
South African Police Service (SAPS)

Pdf of summary

Mr. M. Wilson Makhubela Photo: Emmanuel Crooy

Towards a Model for Building Safe Schools: Reflecting on South African Experiences in School Safety

SAPS's Crime Prevention Division undertakes both social and situational/environmental crime prevention. A Adopt-a-Cop Programme at the local station level allows the police to play a supporting role in the school. As part of their social crime prevention work they commissioned an evaluation of the Tiisa Thuto ('strengthening education') schools project. Tiisa Thuto began in 1996-8 in the Alexandra Township as part of an urban renewal project, an area where levels of reported rape among under17 year-olds were as high as 40%. The project uses an action-based research approach which helps to build partnerships, and involves the development of a range of carefully tailored programmes in collaboration with parents and community-based organizations. Positive evaluation has led to its development on a much larger scale. The CRISP project (Crime Reduction in Schools Project) is based in family resource centres outside schools, and works with families to build resilience, better reporting of incidents, and clusters schools to provide greater support and exchange of experiences. Local school safety teams include parents, local business, community representatives etc. and police involvement is seen as one key to success. Both projects tailor programmes to local needs and resources and based on careful assessment.

Lord Norman Warner Photo: Emmanuel Crooy

Lord Norman Warner
Chairman, Youth Justice Board, United Kingdom

Restorative Justice, Schools and Youth Crime Prevention

Where does school work fit into the wider youth justice agenda? A lot of youth are not in school so it is essential to work on outside influences too. The Youth Justice Board (YJB) has the statutory duty to work on youth crime prevention: there are now 155 multi-agency crime prevention teams in England & Wales, who are required to work in partnership with health, education, employment, justice departments and schools. There is no silver bullet but a menu of options which work. These range from summer SPLASH schemes which target 80,000 at risk youth in the poorest neighbourhoods, and have made substantial reductions to youth crime; Acceptable Behaviour Contracts with housing departments; Parenting Contracts and Orders, and10 week parenting programmes which have cut recidivism by half; Youth Inclusion projects target high-risk youngsters and have led to major reductions in crime. Restorative justice is used in a number of pre-court and court-based options and in schools. Recent Youth Surveys show 11-16 year-olds experience very high levels of assault (51%) bullying (30% ) and racism (29%) in schools. Restorative justice has been very successful in schools in terms of high victim satisfaction - even if there is reoffending. Family Group Conferencing and mediation are being used in 9 pilot projects to reduce school exclusions. The recently launched Safer Schools initiative will develop new police-school partnerships in 100 schools in high crime areas, to help reduce problems at peak times after and before school, on transport to school etc.

The Police Panel Discussion on the role of the police in schools for an exchange on the range of current practices. Mme. Katia Fievet, assistante de concertation of Zone 5344, Brussels Police, explained that Belgium has recently completed a reorganization of its police forces into a federal and 196 local police districts, using a community policing, local partnership model. Prevention projects focus on reducing criminality around the school and school absenteeism, and include mediation, school adoption schemes. Dr Wim Ruijsendaal Project Manager of the Amsterdam School Safety Project in the Netherlands, outlined the Amsterdam School Safety Project which was initiated in 1998-9. It includes 40 secondary schools, and has undertaken detailed surveys of crime and victimization in and around schools, and set up a number of panels to plan strategic responses to problems identified. It uses a multi-agency approach which includes the police as one of the partners in the coalition. Mme Linda Veillette Chef de Service, Crime Prevention, Ministry of Public Security, Quebec, outlined new policies and structures on community policing (2000) and crime prevention (2001). Both have important implications for the police and schools. A recent survey found considerable police presence in schools - 75% of it for prevention, 24% for enquiries and 2% emergencies, and around of fifth of schools contributed financially to police presence, indicating their interest in involvement. Mr Erling Borstad, Assistant Chief of Police, National Police Directorate, Norway, argued that in Norway the police are embedded in society and the school. The police have generalist training, but there are some 50 crime prevention specialists who work in partnership with local authorities and child welfare departments. Police work with every school as a support and a resource, hold regular class and parent meetings, give lessons in primary schools, and take part in sports and events etc.

Roundtables on each of the four Colloquium themes included presentations from relevant Belgian organizations. Each roundtable was asked to address the key questions which good school interventions much strive for:

• Balancing safety with well-planned prevention;
• Contribute to comprehensive strategies which go beyond the immediate school community;
• Minimize the stigmatization or exclusion of pupils;
• What are the positive benefits, and specific implementation challenges?
  
  
• Role of Police in Schools

The discussion was introduced by Mme.Katia Fievet, of Zone 5344, Brussels Police, who presented a number of issues related to problems faced by police in the schools. These include acceptance of police in the school professional milieu, difficulties in building trust, combining enforcement with mentoring, building relationships with parents, etc. A comment on Dutch experience of police in schools, also touched on the difficulties associated with the various roles expected of police officers. An intervention based on British experience suggested that placing the police at the centre of school-based prevention could lead to a form of exclusion … of parents, other professions, families. Similarly, problems of exclusion exist if prevention initiatives are restricted to the school, and do not include the surrounding community. An intervention from Hungary suggested that when the police officer is able to spend enough time to be known and trusted, and is seen to act also in the role of parent him/herself, the results are much better.

• Mediation and restorative programmes

Mme. Deproost, from the Belgian Prime Minister's Office responsible for integration and the fight against racism, reported that mediation began to be used in schools in the 1980's. This followed investigations into absenteeism and school dropouts. Initially, mediation programs required minimal training of mediators or schools, and there was little participation by people from outside the school. There was also some confusion about the respective roles of police officers, teachers and mediators. Subsequently, mediation has developed, notably allowing more time to listen to young people, and in increasing the involvement of families. At the same time, the role of the police in schools remains ambiguous, ranging from prevention to repression, functioning at times at the request of the school, at others at the request of mediators and welfare officers.

An review of violence in the schools was completed last year, and helped to expose some of these ambiguities, but also to demolish a number of myths: thus, it was shown that violence is not the prerogative of the most disadvantaged schools; that violence is not only caused by young people, but also by the teachers; and that its causes are more often socio-economic than familial. If it is now accepted that the training of mediators is an essential component for the success of interventions, we must question why it is necessary to reduce the use of mediation as soon as conflict situations arise in schools. In the end, we also have to ask at what point can a social mediation worker be a tool for change. Is mediation simply a new way of dealing with the difficulties of living together in an increasingly multi-cultural and diverse environment. Examples of school mediation programmes, and of similar problems, were reported by French, Canadian, Norwegian and Finnish speakers.

• Role of parents and the community outside the school

Presentations were given by Mme Lauterman and Mme Brigitte Moulin of the Federation of parents of students (FAPEO), and M. Wuttorskui of the Union of federations of associations of parents of Catholic students (UFAPEC). These organizations provide information and general as well as individual support to parents, including isolated and immigrant families, to help integration into the school, strengthen democracy and encourage parent-school participation. Forums and participation councils are some of the tools used. In discussion: the importance of publicizing the good school events, not just the problems or violent incidents, was stressed. In France, the DIV works to encourage and engage parents and the community beyond the school - the police, the mayor and the local community - all to work with the schools to increase participation and reduce problems of violence and exclusion. A number of local education contracts have been signed to support this work. The school can be seen as a target for school safety, a resource for mobilizing action and a site for inclusion.

Mr. Leoluca Orlando and Ms. Dianne Heriot Photo: Emmanuel Crooy

The Closing Discussion Panel included presentations by Mr Leoluca Orlando President of the Sicilian Renaissance Institute, Italy. He argued that children are citizens of today as well as tomorrow, and that civic education needs to create respect for one's culture and thus a sense of identity and connection to the community, not just teach the law. The school is a central site for developing this culture of lawfulness. An example is the Adopt a Monument programme developed in schools in Palermo, Sicily, with students becoming tourist guides at the end of the school year. Dr Diane Heriot Assistant Secretary in the Crime Prevention Branch, Commonwealth Attorney General's Department, Australia, outlined recent initiatives by the Commonwealth Government and States who have agreed to the development of a national perspective and framework on safe-school environments. They aim to work towards a consistent approach across the country. Future challenges include the rapid growth of the internet and media, and demands for instant and punitive responses to school-based incidents; the need for more informed community debate and feedback; long-term investment; greater horizontal and vertical integration of policy and practice; and building the capacity of the community. Longer investment and longitudinal research and practice is still needed, such as 8-10 year funded programmes which help build social capital and imbed practice. Mrs Birgit Sommers Deputy Director of the Danish Crime Prevention Council, outlined that in Denmark the school is seen as the institution with the most influence on children up to a certain age, plays a full part in society and is not isolated from the rest of the community. The police have been involved in schools for over 60 years, so that from an early age pupils become accustomed to them. The SSP system which brings together local schools, police and social services has been in existence throughout the country for the past 25 years. This experience has shown that it takes time to build up trust. School Boards, parents, police, pupils and staff work collaboratively on a range of issues from bullying, truancy, vandalism policies to school excursions and events. Schools are used after hours by communities which helps to create feelings of ownership and responsibility.