Last week I reminded the reader that each one of us occupies a unique space in life and is in possession of special talents. Some of those gifts can be used to contribute to developing ourselves and to helping others through some of the challenges faced in life. A great deal of attention quite rightly so in research, media, community discussions, is devoted to the conditions in society which appear to propel individuals towards certain types of actions such as engaging in crime and violence.
An almost inevitability that if you live in a certain area, are of a particular age, in a specific income bracket, occupy a designated educational attainment level, one will ineluctably, inexorably, end up being featured in the criminal justice statistics ledger. When it comes to Black and ethnic minority individuals in particular, the predictions are even more disastrous because into the mix is added the perceived impact of institutional racism.
I do not question the influence of societal factors on how we see life and possibilities, the limitations that arise because of those, what we have to do to counter those, the energy this consumes and the sheer costs of survival day to day.
What I do question however is the supposed inevitability that because I may be directly affected by all of those societal triggers which research informs us will lead me to commit crime, that I will actually do so. Why do some individuals succumb and appear to allow those triggers to affect behaviour and others do not? A clue perhaps is unintentionally featured in the evidence –based recommendations of Doctor Stephen Schneider of St Mary’s University, in his 2014 research report on how to tackle serious youth crime and violence in the Halifax regional municipality (Schneider, S. 2014, Addressing Youth Crime and Violence in the HRM: Research Findings and Recommendations, Executive Summary). The thread that weaves itself through the recommendations in my opinion is connection between the youth (aged 15-17 and 18-25) and socially competent and credible adults who can engage with the youth in ways that mean something to them. We all can play a role. We all are important players in the solution.
As the factors involved in the formation of youth crime and violence are complex and diverse, no simple one ‘solution’ is going to work. The approach has to incorporate a variety of aspects tackling differing issues simultaneously. Two examples of connection in how to tackle youth crime and violence are:
The Spergel Model –based on the idea that inadequately integrated local infrastructure and insufficient neighbourhood resources to tackle at- risk youth, leads to the creation of chronic gang cultures.
‘Community mobilization’-pulling together local community residents, youth, community groups, locally elected politicians, and church leaders and agencies tasked with addressing such issues, and creating connections to credible organisations for at-risk youth and those already seriously involved in criminality. Coordination of services provided and tasks of staff ‘within and across agencies’ is critical,
- ‘Social intervention’-provision of services by agencies tasked with working with youth including volunteers interested in helping in the area,
- ‘Opportunities provision’-helping at-risk youth and those already seriously involved, to access education, training and employment or services tuned to the at-risk youth,
- ‘Suppression’-use of formal and informal social control measures to seek to hold the at-risk youth accountable for their behaviour. This would include supervision, curfews, targeted duties under the supervision of official agencies and the community including schools,
- ‘Organizational change and development’-attempting restructuring of existing agencies, both formal and informal, using evidence-based measures, to better align their function and procedures to produce more effective outcomes in addressing youth crime.
A number of variations of this ‘Spergel’ model outlined in the 2014 research report of Schneider, have produced positive results, in particular the vital role of the outreach workers in identifying the youth who may benefit from the program in the first place and who are often best placed to assess the needs required to be addressed. Their role in managing the delicate relationship between the youth and agencies working with the youth is essential.
Neighbourhood Integrated Services Teams
- · Staff from different government departments, work together in a coordinated, integrated way to address identified issues in each specific area of the city/province. The idea is simple. Makes perfect sense. A group of staff concentrating their energies on getting to know the area and the community issues and working together with that community to identify how to resolve them within adequate resources. It does not happen in HRM.
Next week I will continue with some other evidence-based success stories including two I have been personally involved with.