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Urban crime and violence: Policy responses103nature in Kingston (Jamaica), where in the Grants Pen areathe creation of a peace park has provided recreational opportunitiesfor young people that were previously absent andcontributed to a lowering of the murder rate in the area. 74 Inthe long term, such strategies offer the possibility thatindividuals who benefit from them will contribute more fullyand effectively towards the development of their communityand society than would otherwise have been the case, thusbecoming much less of a burden on overstretched police andcriminal justice systems.One of the major problems in this area is the extentto which young people see criminals as role models and thusseek to emulate them. For example, a study of a poorcommunity in Managua 75 has argued that the most ostentatiouslywealthy people in that community (as reflected in thequality of their houses, clothes and cars) are those involvedin drug trafficking. 76 Under these circumstances, it is notwholly surprising that some young people see this assomething to be aspired to. This is particularly the case whenit is associated with a culture where the macho-type behaviouroften exhibited by such people is seen as evidence oftheir significance in the community. This is apparently thecase in many Latin American cities, where attitudes of thisnature help to encourage the recruitment of child soldiers togangs at a relatively young age. 77From the policy perspective, the problem of youthcrime underscores two points. First, the problem of disaffectedyoung people who see themselves as being largelyoutside the formal economy and who turn to crime andviolence in preference to the other alternatives can rankamong the most intractable issues that national and cityauthorities have to contend with. Second, the response toproblems of this nature goes beyond a concern with crimeand violence – a holistic perspective is necessary. The establishmentof good governance, with comprehensive nationaland urban policies that pay specific attention to the needs ofchildren and youth, is essential. It is likely that encouragingparticipation in economic activity will constitute a large partof this kind of response, with job-related training and experiencebeing made available and major efforts being made toensure that beneficiaries are able to move into employment.The response will also involve investing in alternative activitiessuch as sporting and cultural activities. But it will alsoneed to offer to young people a vision of what life as amember of the community can be like, a vision that is able tocompete successfully with what other visions can offer tothem. Finally, it is important to realize the potential of theyouth themselves, and to engage their participation in thedevelopment of appropriate responses and solutions. All ofthese are likely to be challenging and to require significantinputs of resources over significant periods of time.Non-violent resolution of conflictsThe non-violent resolution of conflicts is perhaps more of anapproach to issues based upon a particular moral philosophy78 than a specific policy response to crime and violence.It, however, deserves a short discussion given its potential tocontribute to the range of ways of thinking about what canBox 4.9 The role of the women’s safety audit in Durban(eThekwini), South AfricaThe inspiration for undertaking a women’s safety audit in Durban came from the discussion ofbest practice in this area at the first International Women Seminar held in Montreal in 2002.The pilot project was conducted in KwaMakutha, a peri-urban area experiencing both highlevels of social crime and unemployment. The process entailed going out and identifyingproblems on site, as well as a needs assessment and a strategic planning workshop undertakenwith service providers. The key environmental factors that were taken into account in thisprocess were lighting, signage, isolation, movement predictors, entrapment sites, escape routes,maintenance and overall design. Since the pilot project was undertaken, this process has beenextended to other parts of the city as part of Durban’s partnership approach to tackling risinglevels of crime and violence. Although this approach has not eradicated crime, it has managedto contain it in comparison with previous experiences.The key challenges that the auditing process faced included getting local authorities tobuy into it; establishing and developing the necessary relationship between local authorities andlocal communities; and effective implementation. This latter point was seen to be particularlysignificant. This is because of the risk of disillusion and eventual apathy on the part of thecommunity if nothing happened after all the effort that had been expended in the process.Much of the action that was identified in specific localities involved applying the principles ofCPTED, and thus one of the important tasks was the need to train city employees who wouldneed to be involved in the implementation of the principles of CPTED.Source: Zambuko and Edwards, 2007be very difficult problems. 79 This idea can also be linkedwith the earlier discussion on restorative justice sinceelements of that approach which emphasize involvingfamilies of both perpetrators and victims seeking solutionsalso highlight non-violent methods of resolving difficulties.Put simply, this approach is about achieving results by meansother than violence. It has been extensively used as a philosophicalidea by the labour, peace, environmental andwomen’s movements. It has also been extensively employedin political actions, especially against repressive regimes inseveral parts of the world. It is also an important philosophyin relation to education, where conflict resolution educationis part of the curriculum in many schools and where conflictresolution techniques are applied to the resolution of manyof the difficulties experienced by pupils. 80The avoidance of violence in schools is an importantissue in its own right, not least because of its potential forinculcating appropriate habits among young people, but alsobecause it is central to the effective functioning of theschool itself and to the quality of the educational experiencethat it offers its pupils. 81 In this sense, this concept of nonviolentapproaches to conflict resolution also relates to thediscussion of tackling youth crime, where school experiencescan be of vital importance.There appear to be four broad approaches to conflictresolution education, the last two of which will be takentogether because, in principle, they are very similar:• Process curriculum: this is where educators teach theprinciples and processes of conflict resolution as adistinct lesson or course.• Peer mediation: this is where trained youth mediatorswork with their peers to find resolutions to conflicts. ItIt is important torealize the potentialof the youththemselves, andto engage theirparticipation in thedevelopment ofappropriateresponses andsolutions