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The following column was originally published in January of 1989, almost 20 years ago. If we want different results than what we've been getting all these years, we have to do some different things and do some other things differently. How long will it take?

The message this past week from Police Commissioner Bean about rising crime must be heeded. If the chief of the agency in our society concerned with maintenance of law and order cries out for help, we must listen, and respond.

Commissioner Bean's plea seems to me to be significantly different from the custom. He is not suggesting more men or more equipment will resolve the problem; he is not suggesting tougher legislation or harsher sentencing.

He is saying, 'this is a community problem which the community must be involved in analysing and solving'. He is asking us, the members of the community, to take an active part in resolving the problem.

I agree with and commend his approach.

In my analysis, the material growth many of us have been experiencing has a price. We will pay the price whether by choice or by force. The concurrent growth in dis-satisfaction, frustration and reaction will get our attention one way or another. Either we will give energy to address the problems, or we will be forced to spend our energy in fear and insecurity, and on locks and bodyguards.

I assume we will want to give Commissioner Bean support while there is time. But where do we start?

The place to begin is with information. We should not leap about in a frenzy of poorly thought out activity. It is the information, the solid statistics, so far collected by the Police Department that has charted the problems and trends. Without that information, we might be vaguely aware that crime seems to be on the rise. But it is the solid information that makes us certain.

My first step would be to immediately begin charting complete social and demographic histories of our known criminals. We should learn enough about them so that any common factors can be clearly, unmistakably identified.

Information I think would be useful:

• Housing history - where have they lived? How often did they move? Size of house(s), number of rooms, number of people per household?

• School history - where schooled and when; which teachers; what grades; what discipline problems;

• Job history - at what age began; types of jobs; incomes; training; promotions; successes; problems;

• Demographic data - race, gender, age, and so on;

• Parents' job and social histories and demographic data.

The ideal would be to generate a social map of the journeys our miscreants have taken through their lives in our society.

We might find nothing of significance. I think it more likely we will find  patterns of inadequacy, feeling uncared-about, and verbal/physical abuse. I think we will discover this group has had deficient goal-setting initiatives and skills, and knows little about budgeting of money or time. I rather hope this will be the case because these are things we can tackle.

Next, we should be clear about the whole range of violent behaviour in our society. It is easy to point to violence that makes the news, but what about the many hidden acts of violence which occur? What about the less obvious abuses of power which reinforce or evolve into violent behaviour?

Unhealthy indulgence

Two examples I offer are Indulgence: an unhealthy level of giving in to wants or desires, and deprivation: an equally unhealthy forced denial of needs satisfaction. Both of these restrict the development of "moral muscle"; one by fostering the idea that there should be no restriction, no restraint; the other by creating dependency on external restraint.

Fortunately, I think most of our child-raising falls tolerably between the extremes. However, We must be alert that giving in to every whim is as bad as giving in to none.

There are other factors contributing to community violence:

• Violence in the home: Violence within the family, child and spouse abuse, is still tolerated in our society. However, considering the weight of scientific studies, we should have no doubts that children who experience violence in their homes tend toward violent behaviour when grown. With this in mind, I believe it is an abdication of responsible leadership for community leaders to promote whipping as a choice child-raising tool.

• Violence in the media: Childrens' TV cartoon writers know that the average young child's attention span is less than 5 minutes. And, as violence is a proven attention-getter, many shows depend on violence to keep kids' eyes glued to the set on behalf of the sponsors. The same tactic is used for adults.

Similarly, violence in newspapers attracts readers' attention. And in addition to the news content I believe the words used to describe events or groups are a form of violence. For example, describing criticism as an 'attack', or a rebuttal as a 'slam' injects the vernacular of violence into otherwise ordinary events (author's note: Bermuda's media have drastically reduced the inappropriate use of violent words).

• Economic conditions: While Bermuda's income level is high, the inequitable distribution of that income and the high costs of living combined with rising expectations can give a spur to crime. As the stakes get higher and frustration levels rise, the likelihood of violence increases.

• Demographic conditions: Population density, for example, influences crime. Increased density means increased anonymity; people are more likely to withdraw and are less likely to get involved. In the densest of areas, streets are abandoned to the violent.

This range of influences supports Commissioner Bean's call for a community-based approach. It is the most likely to succeed.

Of course there will be people who think the problem should be addressed in the "crime-buster" style: you know, 'let's go after them criminals and break some heads'. They figure we've been too soft for too long and unless we get super-tough the whole thing's going to get out of hand.

I can see how this method might take care of the criminals we catch, but will it stop new criminals from developing? And how will it affect those criminals who, like the crime busters, are eager to bust a few heads while working?

Certainly we must give attention to detection and to swift, sure justice. But unless we intend to just keep building bigger courts and jails, hiring more police and judges, and meanwhile staying off the streets at night, we need to look at constructive prevention.

Finally, we must link those facets of our community which are part of the problem and which therefore must be part of the solution. These include:

• care-givers: parents, teachers, baby-sitters, child-care staffs;

• entertainers/influencers: video stores, movie houses, TV and radio programmers, news media;

• leaders: community, state, church, business;

• the legal fraternity;

• prisons and police;

• and the victims and perpetrators of violence.

I would not be surprised if we discovered that the violence problem shares common roots with the problems of inadequate education, inadequate housing, drug and alcohol abuse, shortage of open space and other environmental deterioration.

If we are to solve any of these problems, we will need to work in an integrated way toward solving them all.[[In-content Ad]]

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