Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

104
Urban crime and violence
Initiatives to reduce
crime and violence
are likely to be of
help to the city as a
social and economic
entity by addressing
one of the main
barriers that it faces
Young people
need to have
opportunities for
them to participate
in, and to contribute
to, society that offer
them better
alternatives than
a life of crime
accepts as a fundamental principle that young people
are more likely to be comfortable with, and respond
positively to, attempts at mediation by other young
people rather than adults.
• Peaceable classroom and peaceable school: these
approaches incorporate conflict resolution within the
core subjects of the curriculum and within classroom
and institutional management processes. An important
feature of approaches of this nature is that they seek to
involve everyone connected with the unit of management
in question (e.g. individual class or whole school),
irrespective of their roles. Peaceable school approaches
challenge both youth and adults to act on the
understanding that a diverse, non-violent society is a
realistic goal. 82
The US Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention summarized the experience of applying these
approaches in 1997 as follows:
Most conflict resolution and peer mediation
programs, an estimated 7500 to 10,000, have
been implemented in our nation’s elementary,
middle and high schools. However, conflict
resolution programs are also a meaningful
component of safe and violence-free juvenile
justice facilities, alternative education
programs, and community mobilization efforts
to combat violence. 83
During recent years in the US, there have been cases of
armed individuals (including students) gaining entry to
school grounds and killing or injuring staff and pupils.
Typically, this has caused school authorities to revisit issues
of school security in order to make entry of this kind more
difficult, often including the application of the principles of
CPTED. 84 Thus, strategies of this nature can often co-exist
alongside the application of non-violent methods of conflict
resolution both inside schools and in their surrounding
communities.
It is probably fair to say that compared with many of
the other policy responses discussed in the chapter, this one
is still in its infancy in terms of its application to issues of
crime and violence. But the evidence from American experience
suggests that it has much to offer as an element in the
range of responses. For example, an evaluation of the New
Mexico Centre for Dispute Resolution’s Youth Corrections
Mediation Programme found that the recidivism rate among
youth trained as mediators was 18 per cent lower during the
first six months after returning to the community than for a
control group not trained in mediation. 85
Strengthening social capital
Elements of approaches to the strengthening of social capital
can be found in many of the discussions of other policy
responses since this seems to be a very common factor in
crime prevention programmes that combine several of these
approaches. This is particularly the case because the
approach adopted earlier in this chapter to the definition of
social capital is a broad-based one. It is not only about
improving the ability of groups and communities to respond
positively to problems of crime and violence, but is also
about the creation of community assets that assist with these
processes. More broadly still, it can also be argued that the
economic prospects of cities, the social welfare of their
citizens, and the safety of the public realm are interrelated.
Initiatives to reduce crime and violence are likely to
be of help to the city as a social and economic entity by
addressing one of the main barriers that it faces. Similarly,
measures to improve what the city offers its residents and
users in terms of education, employment, sporting and
cultural activities are likely to be helpful in tackling crime
and violence because they improve opportunities to participate
positively in the life of the city, and offer positive
lifestyle alternatives to individuals. This approach is reflected
in UN-Habitat’s <strong>Global</strong> Campaign on Urban Governance,
which takes as its theme the idea of the inclusive city, where
all urban inhabitants, regardless of economic means, gender,
race, ethnicity or religion, are able to participate fully in the
social, economic and political opportunities that cities have
to offer.
A particular feature of efforts to improve social capital
in many of the case examples is the use of this approach to
address issues of youth crime. This is very visible in the
Toronto programmes summarized in Box 4.7, where there is
a strong emphasis on employment, on appropriate training
and on work experience. It is also evident in the Diadema
case, through educational opportunities and participation in
cultural activities. 86 The argument in both cases is essentially
the same: young people need to have opportunities for
them to participate in, and to contribute to, society that offer
them better alternatives than a life of crime. Therefore,
investing in the creation of these opportunities for young
people is also investing in the future welfare of the city and
its citizens. It is also envisaged that this will develop the
willingness in these individuals as adults to contribute
positively to the welfare of their communities in the future.
There are several examples in individual UN-Habitat
Safer City Programmes that can be seen as including the
creation of social capital. These include:
• Durban, where urban renewal efforts have concentrated
on areas with the highest rates of poverty, unemployment
and violent crime, with several projects in these
areas that provide employment opportunities for local
youth; 87
• Dar es Salaam, where pilot projects have included
employment creation and skills training for youth; 88 and
• Support for street lighting initiatives, as well as for
improvement of community and recreation facilities in
slums (Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Douala).
There can be little doubt about the importance of activities
of this nature because they address some of the underlying
causes of crime and violence in cities by offering youths a
better alternative. But it is also clear that efforts of this
nature can be financially demanding, involve a wide range of