Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
by philanthropic organizations like the Gates Foundation. In general, these smaller
schools provide better results and less violence. However it must be noted that the
creation of smaller elite schools in poor areas always run the risk of siphoning off
good students, and by rejecting those already delinquent, they make the existing
schools worse. More generally, some cities also have tried to eradicate some of the
more obvious anti-social behaviours, such as littering and spitting, by criminalizing
the behaviours and making offenders pay an 'on the spot' fine, although catching
offenders is often a problem and may lead to antagonistic relationships between
police and the public.
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Secondary Behavioural Policies
These are targeted at people that are 'at risk', those individuals deemed to be poten-
tial recruits to anti-social and criminal behaviour, primarily, although not exclusive-
ly of people from problem families, or of low educational attainment. Unfortunately
it has been easier in most cities to get money to put more police on the streets than to
get enough trained nurses or counsellors to work on remedial issues. Most of these
secondary programmes are delivered by various social welfare agencies and a prob-
lem has been the inadequacy of both funding and the availability of enough trained
personnel to deal with these issues that need urgent attention if the interventionist
programmes are to be successful. Rather than the 'hit or miss' type of approach in
terms of policy implementation in the past, there is now rigorous evidence-based
reviews of the effectiveness of secondary behaviour interventionist policies (Olds
et al.
1997
). In the U.S. Greenwood (
2004
, p. 207) identified ten programmes aimed
at different stages in a child's development with proven success in reducing crime
and delinquency in various at-risk populations compared to those who were not able
to take advantage of the programmes.
In the
early years
of children the Nurse Home Visitation Programme uses spe-
cially trained nurses to regularly visit poor, high-risk mothers before pregnancy and
for the following 2 years, providing advice and support. For children in kindergar-
ten and elementary schools three programmes have been effective, although these
may also be used in early teens: the Incredible Years Programme involves teachers,
parents and child training services in treating behaviour problems and promoting
social competence in young children; the PATHS programme (Promoting Alterna-
tive Thinking Strategy) has already been mentioned, a school-based programme de-
signed to increase social competence among children and control of their emotions;
the Bullying Prevention Programme operates in schools to promote awareness of
the problem and creating rules to reduce and prevent such behaviours.
Two other programmes are also based in
classrooms
, usually but not exclusively
for teens: Life Skills Training is designed to prevent drug-use and boost social re-
sistance to pressure to use drugs and alcohol and impart general life skills; the Mid-
western Prevention Project is also designed to prevent drug use but includes com-
munity as well as classroom components. Big Sisters and Brothers is a well-known
and long lasting programme providing adults to mentor 'at risk' children from 6 to
