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248Towards safer and more secure citiesStrengtheningeducationalopportunities andproviding means tosmooth the pathfrom school towork…are vitalcomponents of manyprogrammes thataddress theproblems of youth inrapidly growingcitiesIt is clear that thestrengthening socialcapital has animportant part toplay in strategies totackle crime andviolence■ The fundamental maintenance issueA critical issue in many initiatives of this nature, however, isthat of maintenance. Typically, this can be problematicbecause while the provision of new facilities usually involvesfinding capital resources for investment at a particular time,their ongoing maintenance usually involves locating revenueresources to, for example, pay people to carry out essentialtasks continuously. This often seems to be trickier than theinitial task of raising capital resources precisely because it isa continuing commitment that has not always been clearlythought through at the time of initiating the project. Wheremaintenance fails, facilities then become neglected, vandalizedor underutilized. There is the risk that this can actuallyundermine the good work done up until then and send outvery negative messages about the communities in whichsuch facilities are located and the level of care for thatcommunity by the people who live there. This argument isakin to that of the ‘broken windows theory’, which statesthat the negative signals sent out by environmental problemsof the type often caused by lack of maintenance conveymessages that an environment is not cared for and, consequently,invites crime.■ Creating social capital and reducing crimethrough educational opportunities andprogrammesOne of the most basic ways of creating social capital is byencouraging young people to attend school regularly in orderto develop skills that are relevant to the world of work.Programmes of this nature are important to the social developmentof the individual since the likelihood is that someonewho missed many years of schooling will be permanentlydisadvantaged and may turn to crime in the absence ofperceived alternatives. Typically, strengthening educationalopportunities and providing means to smooth the path fromschool to work through initiatives such as work experience,training and apprenticeships are vital components of manyprogrammes that address the problems of youth in rapidlygrowing cities.The need for programmes of this nature that providealternatives for young people to a life of crime in a city likeKingston (Jamaica) is, in part, illustrated by the fact that 53per cent of the murders recorded between 1997 and 2005were committed by males aged 25 and under. 24 Many of theyoung people involved in crime come from Kingston’s innercity communities, which are characterized by low levels ofemployment, established gang activities and an associatedculture of violence. 25 Consequently, part of the response hasbeen to tackle the problems of poverty and social marginalizationthat are the breeding grounds for these problems. Aspecific illustration of this approach is in the Fletchers Landcommunity in downtown Kingston, where the CitizensSecurity and Justice Programme has initiated long-termcreation of social capital and short-term training of individuals.These have included remedial education, mentoringprogrammes, identifying jobs and skills training, disputeresolution, homework programmes, continuing educationservices, and parenting workshops.■ Creating social capital and reducinginsecurity through innovative infrastructuredevelopment: Nairobi’s Adopt a LightinitiativeDefining social capital more broadly to include not just thecapacity of communities to address issues of crime andviolence themselves, but also the provision of communityinfrastructure that helps communities in this regard, carrieswith it the likelihood that some elements that fall within thisdefinition are likely to be expensive. There are ways in whichissues of this nature can be addressed without being totallydependent upon the public budget. One of these is the useof sponsorship. An example of this is the Nairobi Adopt aLight initiative, which is part of the Safer Nairobi Initiativethat sought to address the widespread feelings of insecuritybrought about by poor or non-existent street lighting. Here,in order to fill an important gap in public service provision byimproving street lighting in major streets and by adding highmastlighting into Nairobi’s slum districts, sponsors areinvited to pay an agreed annual sum to adopt a light pole inreturn for their advertisement being hoisted on that pole.This project has been well received by firms and advertiserssince its commencement in August 2002.The use of sponsorship, in this instance, enabledmore to be done than would have been the case if reliancehad been solely on public budgets. A project of this naturealso illustrates the point that many activities fall into severalcategories since in one sense this could be seen as a classicCPTED project, as well as something that is about improvingcommunity safety infrastructure as a basis for getting thecommunity more actively involved in the fight against crime.It is clear that strengthening social capital has animportant part to play in strategies to tackle crime andviolence, and that its resource challenges can be tackled bythinking creatively and by working across traditional boundariesbetween sectors. The effect of strengthening what isavailable to a community in terms of physical infrastructuremay also have a positive effect on the dynamics of communityresponses to crime. Although this is hard to calculate inindividual cases if it does result in strengthening the will ofcommunities to fight against unacceptable behaviour, thenthat is undoubtedly a very significant added benefit of thisapproach.EMERGING POLICY TRENDSChapter 4 identified six emerging policy trends that arediscussed in more detail below:1 the move away from the idea that crime prevention andtackling violence are essentially matters for the policeand the criminal justice system, and towards the ideathat these are complex phenomena with a range ofcauses that require broad-based responses. Theemergence of crime prevention as a specific concern ofurban policy and urban actors is an indication of such ashift;