CRIME BILL WON'T PROTECT US, EXPERT SAYS

Roots Of Violence Must Be Addressed, Criminologist Warns

The Harper government's much-touted Tackling Violent Crime bill will
do little to make people in Ottawa and other cities safer because it
fails to address crime's root causes, a University of Ottawa
criminologist said yesterday.

The bill "lacks the key ingredients to make any significant difference
to the safety of Canadians on our streets, in our schools and in our
homes," Irvin Waller, director of the university's Institute for the
Prevention of Crime, told a Senate committee studying the crime bill.

The government has made the bill a centrepiece of its legislative
agenda. It staged a confidence vote this week urging the Senate to
pass the bill by March 1. The motion, which is non-binding on the
Senate, carried easily after Liberal MPs boycotted the vote.

Mr. Waller said he endorses Parliament's desire to tackle violent
crime. However, "I am deeply concerned that the debate on this bill
has left out the most important elements that would reduce violent
crime in Canada."

While the crime bill might achieve "some small gains" by keeping a few
dangerous offenders off the streets, he said governments need to
invest "in a smart and sustained way in targeted programs that tackle
the roots of violence."

He cited Statistics Canada figures that show one in four Canadians was
a victim of crime in 2004. Close to half a million women were sexually
assaulted and two million people were victims of physical assault.

To reduce those numbers, Mr. Waller, whose 2006 book, Less Law, More
Order, lays out his prescription for reducing victimization, called
for a three-pronged strategy of enforcement, prevention and treatment.

Crime-reduction policies should target troubled youth, providing
incentives to complete school and find jobs, he said.

And they require the engagement of education, housing, social
services, public health and law enforcement.

"Nowhere is this clearer than in relation to street violence, where
innocent bystanders and our sons are being killed at rates that are
appalling."

Such strategies, he argued, are the best way to respond to the growing
youth gang problem in Canadian cities, including Ottawa, where gang
membership has increased to 600 from 250 in 2002, according to a study
released this week.

In Boston, a program in the 1990s used "smart enforcement and smart
social programming" to cut homicides committed by youth by 71 per cent
within two years.

Youth inclusion programs in England and Wales reduced youth arrests by
65 per cent and overall crime in neighbourhoods by as much as 27 per
cent.

Similarly, he said, adding courses about relationships, alcohol and
drug use to the school curriculum is an effective way to reduce
violence against women.

The Fourth R curriculum, an experimental Ontario school-based program
designed to prevent bullying, dating violence and peer violence, has
already significantly reduced aggressive behaviour.

Mr. Waller said the strategy he advocates would reduce crime
victimization by 50 per cent over a decade, and cost about 10 per cent
of the $13 billion Canada spends annually on police, corrections and
other criminal justice services.

The "single greatest impediment" to reducing violence is the lack of
knowledge by politicians, the public and the media about what works,
he said.

A rare exception is Alberta, which announced a three-pronged strategy
of enforcement, prevention and treatment to reduce crime last
November. "They provide an inspiring example to the federal Parliament
of what is needed," Mr. Waller said.