Community Policing Chp 12

Forman (2004, 2) contends that

community policing has not reached its full potential because a critical group - youths and young adults - has largely been left out of the policing model: "Leaving young people out of the model of community policing has tremendous implications.
Public sa

Rather than leaving young people out community policing effects

youth should be placed alongside other community members and officers in "trust-engendering deliberations regarding matters of community safety

To counteract negative perceptions of police held by children and youths, many departments have programs aimed at

fostering positive relations with them.

The Kops 'n' Kids program, endorsed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), brings together

children and officers to have fun rather than to deliver anti drug or anticrime speeches. Officers come with their motorcycles and their K-9's for demonstrations; they share lunch; they form running clubs; they do whatever helps present police as positive

In the late 1980s, gun violence was on the rise in

Oakland, California and an increasing number of youth homicides were occurring as the result of heightened gang activity, drug dealing, and racial tensions in the schools and the streets.

In 1989 the nonprofit youth agency,

YouthALIVE!, created the Teens on Target (TNT) initiative, the mission of which was to reduce youth injuries and deaths through peer education, peer intervention, mentoring, and leadership development.
The program is still in operation, training urban you

The TNT program trains

high school students and young adults to be Peer Educators, whose role it is to present interactive violence prevention workshops to middle and high school students and to work with community leaders and policy makers to develop solutions to violence.
Som

The Asset Approach: Giving Kids What They Need to Succeed" was developed by

the Search Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Search Institute promotes establishing

40 ideals, experiences, and qualities - "development assets" that are associated with reduced high-risk behaviors and increased thriving behaviors.

These 40 developmental assets are grouped into eight categories

1) Support
2) Empowerment
3) Boundaries and Expectations
4) Constructive use of time
5) Commitment to learning
6) Positive values
7) Social competence
8) Positive identity to help youngsters succeed in school and in life.

Developmental assets are

40 ideals, experiences and qualities established by the Search Institute to "help young people make wise decisions, choose positive paths, and grow up competent, caring, and responsible.

A condition, characteristic, or variable that increases the likelihood that a child will become delinquent; often the opposite of a protective factors is a

Risk factor

A condition, characteristic, or variable that increases the likelihood that a child will avoid delinquency; often the opposite of a risk factor is a

protective factor

Exposure to multiple risk factors can have a

cumulative effect, and the relative impact any risk factor has on a child may be either augmented or diminished by the developmental state of that child.
Conversely, the existence of certain protective factors can work to offset the risk factors

In 2005, the Rand Corporation released a research report,

Stoping Violence before It Starts: Identifying Early Predictors of Adolescent Violence, which identified several early predictors of middle school students becoming perpetrators of violence in high school.

The Stoping Violence before It Starts: Identifying Early Predictors of Adolescent Violence study showed that the presence of three characteristics in 7th graders made it more likely that a student would frequently resort to overall violence 5 years later:

1) having poor grades
2) having experienced frequent moves between elementary schools and
3) exhibiting early deviant behavior.
Although these findings held true for both boys and girls, there were differences

Having low self-esteem and living in a poor neighborhood were additional risk factors for

girls

Just being born a ______ and going to a school with high drug use were additional risk factors for

boys
In addition, boys were more affected than girls by elementary school mobility.

Federal initiatives to protect our nation's youths include passage of the

1) Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act
2) America's Promise Alliance
3) Project Safety Childhood
4) The Safe Start Initiative

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, also known as the

Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), went into effect in 2006 and strengthens the national standards for sex offender registration and notification as well as provides statutory authorization for Project Safe Childhood, described later

Of the hundreds of thousands of registered sex offenders nationally, the whereabouts of a large number - approaching

20% by some estimates - are currently unknown.

The Adam Walsh Act creates stricter requirements for sex offender registration - to

prevent offenders from slipping through the cracks and harming children.

The Safe Start Initiative, funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinqueny Prevention (OJJDP), was developed to

prevent and reduce the impact of family and community violence on young children (primarily from birth to age 6) and their families in response to emerging statistics and research on the prevalence and effects of children's exposure of violence.

The Safe Start Initiative program, is designed to expand current partnerships among service providers in key areas such as (10)

1) early childhood education/development,
2)health
3) mental health
4) child welfare
5) family support
6) substance abuse prevention/intervention,
7) domestic violence/crisis intervention
8) law enforcement
9) the courts
10) legal services

The family is viewed by many as the cornerstone of the

community.

In many American families, the traditional bonds of discipline and respect between partner and child have

loosened considerably, if not unraveled completely.

If the integration process between parents and children is deficient

the children may fail to learn appropriate behaviors: "Ask a guidance counselor, teacher, or law enforcement officer the greatest problem they face when it comes to juvenile crime, and the answer is unanimous - parents

A school should be viewed as a community, not as an

institution

Research suggests that students' academic motivation, commitment to democratic values and resistance to problem behaviors depend on their experience of the school as a

community

At a minimum schools need to link with parents and with local law enforcement departments to

teach students about the dangers of crime

School resource officers (SROs) function as an

integral connection between the school and the community.

In the accepted school resource officer model, SROs engage in three types of activities

1) law enforcement
2) teaching
3) mentoring

The emphasis devoted to each duty varies considerably from school to school. Often efforts start with a focus on law enforcement but evolve into a

more balanced approach. In a teaching capacity, an SRO can educate students about their legal rights and responsibilities.
They can also assist in efforts to teach conflict management and peer mediation skills.

Bullying is

name calling, fistfights, purposeful ostracism, extortion, character assassination, repeated physical attacks, and sexual harassment; also called "peer child abuse"
Its been a common behavior in schools since they first opened their doors. It's occurrence

Peer child abuse is

another term for bullying - name calling, fistfights, purposeful ostracism, extortion, character assassination, repeated physical attacks, and sexual harassment.

Bullying is more accurately termed

Peer Child Abuse

The Virginia Youth Violence Project reports that bullying seems to have increased in

recent years, although it is not clear if the increase reflects more bullying incidents or perhaps greater awareness of bullying as a problem.

According to The Virginia Youth Violence Project, student bullying is one of the most

frequently reported discipline problems in schools with 26% of elementary schools, 43% middle schools and 25% high schools reporting problems with bullying.

Bullying is greatly underreported for many reasons, including the fact that most children and adults view reporting as

tattling.
Other reasons for underreporting include feelings of shame, fear of retaliation, and youngsters' belief that adults will not intervene even if they report the bullying.
In that belief they are often right.

Bullying has been seen as a rite of passage and has resulted in schools where violence is

accepted.

The "tell or tattle" dilemma occurs when students

hesitate to tell anyone that they are being bullied because it is seen as tattling - something they have been taught not to do.

Tattling is

something done to get someone in trouble, in contrast to telling or reporting to keep someone safe.

Olweus recommends seven strategies:

1) adult supervision at recess
2) strict enforcement of clear rules for student behavior
3) consistent, nonphysical punishment of students who misbehave
4) assistance to bullying victims that helps them to assert themselves
5) parental encouragement that

A direct threat identifies a specific act against a

specific target and is delivered in a straightforward, clear, and explicit manner: "I am going to place a bomb in the schools's gym

An indirect threat tend to be

vague, unclear, and ambiguous. The plan, the intended victim, the motivation, and other aspects of the threat are masked or equivocal: "If I wanted to, I could kill everyone at this school!

A veiled threat is one that

strongly implies but does not explicitly threaten violence. "We would be better off without you around anymore" clearly hints at a possible violent act, but leaves it to the potential victim to interpret the message and give a definite meaning to the thre

A conditional threat is the type of threat often seen in

extortion cases. It warns that a violent act will happen unless certain demands or terms are met: :If you don't pay me one million dollars, i will place a bomb in the school.

Leakage occurs when a student

intentionally or unintentionally reveals clues to feelings, thoughts, fantasies, attitudes, or intentions that may signal an impending violent act.

The FBI's four-pronged assessment evaluates four major areas making up the "totality of the circumstances

1) personality of the student
2) family dynamics
3) school dynamics and the student's role in those dynamics
4) social dynamics

Clear policies should be established for

1) tardiness
2) absenteeism/class cutting
3) physical conflicts among students
4) student tobacco use
5) verbal abuse of teachers
6) drug use
7) vandalism of school property
8) alcohol use
9) robbery or theft
10) gangs
11) racial tensions
12) possession o

Many schools have adopted

Zero Tolerance" toward possession of guns, drugs, or alcohol in schools - that is, no matter what the underlying circumstances, a student bringing a weapon, drugs or alcohol to school with be suspended or expelled.

The final prong in effective security is

preparation - planning and practice. A crisis preparedness team might be formed to look at what technologies are available and the procedures that should be followed in a crisis.