NCJ Number
87672
Date Published
1981
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This chapter describes appropriate social policy approaches which would effectively reduce violent behavior in the community.
Abstract
In addition to a concerted effort to control the individual violence of the most powerful members of society, it is argued that for prevention of violence among the powerless, a nonspecific or general/systems level social policy is required. One aspect of such a social policy might include increasing the availability of crisis or advocacy centers. Also recommended are the community control of schools, elimination of intelligence testing, and an ecological view of society that looks for ways to mobilize the strengths and resources in a community rather than looking for deficits to repair. Such policies are to a large extent under the control of the education, mental health, and social science professions. A second aspect of a general/systems-oriented social policy will require the study of naturally occurring helping systems that evolve in families, neighborhoods, and social networks where people find meaning in life and a psychological sense of community. By understanding these systems, we may be better able to provide alternatives for those who do not fit in than by trying to force such people into existing limited options as defined by professionals. A third aspect of such social policies might involve support for community organization and social advocacy as a specific strategy with nonspecific goals. The goals of such strategies can be various, depending on the group's values. Social policy steps such as the serious mobilization of community development corporations as well as neighborhood organizations and churches may do more to prevent the violence of street crime in poor neighborhoods than would designing programs aimed at prediction and control of violence among the powerless. The chapter provides 97 references. (Author summary modified)