Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
tion in the workforce. Such facilities are especially in short supply in the poorest
and socially disorganized parts of the city and their absence often contributes to
impaired cognitive development in young children, which can subsequently lead to
higher crime rates. A related example of early childhood policies can be seen in the
recent initiatives seen in many Dutch and Swedish cities in encouraging immigrant
families to enrol their children in pre-school centres, so they will learn the local
language quickly, as well as being encouraged in recreation time to find playful
positive experiences in the cold winter conditions. This means that children will not
start regular school with a language handicap that many will never overcome, re-
ducing their chances of obtaining good educational qualifications. Success has also
been achieved with
mentoring programmes
, but skilled mentors may be hard to find
in many areas. Ideally, school programmes would seem to be the obvious targets for
intervention, since youths spend a great deal of time there. But it must be admitted
that many schools have difficulty enough in dealing with their primary education
role, and frequently do not have enough skilled professionals to deliver appropriate
delinquency and crime prevention programmes. In any case, the daily proximity of
friends and peers, often with similar problems, makes it difficult to persuade indi-
viduals to change behaviours which would mean they lose status with their friends.
The biggest success is likely to be at kindergarten level, where there is a higher level
of parental involvement and aberrant behaviour is more easily controlled.
Increasingly it is recognized that elementary school programmes should not only
focus on the acquisition of academic skills. The PATHS programme (Promoting
Alternative Thinking Strategy) seeks to
improve social cognition in lessons
and
activities that develop a child's ability to understand the perspectives and actions
of others and to encourage them to recognize and control their emotions, as well as
improving their decision-making and risk avoidance skills. Since good parenting
may already mimic the effect of these programmes, these policies may have their
greatest effect in areas and families where these skills are not developed. Indeed
Bradshaw and Garbarino (
2004
) have stated that although it is well-known that
children who have been badly treated, or exposed to community violence, are prone
to negative behaviours, the way this happens is not clear. They suggest that social
cognition factors are involved. At a later stage in schools, programmes that develop
effective information on the
dangers of drugs and alcohol
are essential and they
should be reinforced by parallel programmes delivered by religious organizations
and communities in areas of high crime and delinquency.
One big problem with high school programmes comes from the very size of
many of these institutions, which makes counselling more difficult. There is also ac-
cumulating American evidence that part of the problem of violence and subsequent
criminal behaviour may be associated with the very
size of the schools
(Devine et al.
2004
). It has been shown that the biggest public schools in the U.S.A. are 6-7 times
larger than the average school in E.U. countries and those with the highest rates of
violent incidents are among the biggest in the country. This has led to what amounts
to a climate of intimidation since these schools have heavy security systems, with
guards, gates and cameras. Such situations did not exist in public schools until the
1970s and drastically impedes educational progress, especially for those who need
it the most. A vigorous movement for
smaller schools
has developed, supported
