Approaches and methods in engaging with schoolaged children for community crime prevention

1
Approaches and methods in engaging with
school-aged children for community crime
prevention

• Mat Saat, G A Abdullah, A F L Nik Hassan, N F
  Natarajamoorthy, T Yaacob, M H
• Forensic Science Programme, Universiti Sains
  Malaysia
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• Dr. Sakinah Harith, Dr. Affizal Ahmad, Mr.
  Rosliza Haron, Mrs. Rosniah Yusof, Mrs. Hafizah
  Harun, Mr. Wan Mohd. Sahnusi Wan Alias, Mr.
  Zulkhairi Othman, Mr. Muhammad Azwan Hasan, and
  Forensic Science Undergraduate volunteers.

2
Introduction

• According to UNICEF, millions of children
  worldwide are at risk of becoming victims of
  crime.
• Estimates from 2000 suggest that 5.7 million
  children participated in forced or bonded labour,
  1.8 million were exploited in prostitution and
  pornography, and 1.2 million were victims of
  trafficking.
• Almost 53,000 children were estimated to have
  been murdered worldwide in 2002.
• Between 80 and 98 of children suffer physical
  punishment in their homes, with a third or more
  experiencing severe physical punishment.

3
Introduction

• In the same report, between 133 million and 275
  million children witness frequent violence
  between their parents.
• Between 20 and 65 of school-aged children in
  developing countries reported having been
  verbally or physically bullied in the previous 30
  days.
• In 2004, 218 million children worldwide were
  involved in child labour, of whom 126 million
  were in hazardous work

4
Introduction

• The World Health Organization Guide complements
  the World Report on Violence and Health and the
  World Health Assembly Resolution 56-25 for
  governments to implement several recommendations
  which included to create, implement and monitor a
  national plan for-
• a) violence prevention
• b) promote primary prevention responses
• c) strengthen responses for victims of violence
  and
• d) integrate violence prevention into social and
  educational policies and thereby promote gender
  and social equality.

5
Policy on Violence against Children

• Children as future leaders of the nation are
  entitled to protection from crime and violence.
  One manner to fulfill this obligation is to
  educate them on their rights and equip them with
  the knowledge and skills of crime prevention.
• Efforts have been made by the Malaysian
  government to provide a protective environment
  for children in the Ninth Malaysian Plan covering
  the period 2006-2010.
• the enforcement of the Child Act 2001,
• National Child Policy July 2009)
• nation-wide awareness campaigns by government and
  non-government agencies
• the specificity of Section D11 in the Royal
  Malaysian Police (RMP) (focusing on children
• and women-related cases)
• in-house training for counselors, social workers,
  and healthcare providers
• nation-wide parental courses
• Efforts have also been made to improve the level
  of care and education for children placed in
  protective custody or in institutions

6
Community Crime Prevention

• Community crime prevention involves long-term,
  integrated strategies that address the root
  causes of crime.
• Its aim are to reduce risk factors that start
  people, particularly children and youth, on the
  road to crime and to build protective factors
  that may mitigate those risks.
• When people and organizations strive to prevent
  crime they are also working to make communities
  safe. Based on the bio-medical approach, there
  are three levels of crime prevention.

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Community Crime Prevention

• a) Primary crime prevention
• Primary crime prevention addresses the underlying
  individual, social, economic, and physical
  environment conditions that produce crime.
• This level of prevention involves the active
  participation of individuals and the immediate
  society. It is specifically targeted on the
  dynamics of the family institution.
• b) Secondary crime prevention.
• Secondary crime prevention refers to two types of
  actions. The first is the immediate action after
  the occurrence of a crime. The second are
  short-term endeavors or mitigations against that
  specific incident.
• Its focus are on situations and groups of high
  risk for example crime-riddled neighborhoods,
  proximity to industrial zones, and youths in
  conflict with various authorities. It also
  focuses on social service and community
  programmes, the implementation of existing laws,
  and active monitoring of at-risk neighbourhoods

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Community Crime Prevention

• c) Tertiary crime prevention.
• Tertiary prevention efforts are directed toward
  already existing and specific crime problems.
  This type of prevention is long-term, and focuses
  on nation-wide crime trends.
• Examples include stringent amendments to laws
  governing all modes of public transport and
  travel following the September 11, 2001 attack of
  the US World Trade Centre and the amendments of
  existing Malaysian laws on criminal procedures
  and the punishment of criminals.
• Findings from the mini situational analysis of
  crime presented in this paper have implications
  for this type of crime prevention.
• In response to the above, the Forensic Science
  Programme (ForCeS) of University Sains Malaysia
  (USM) proposed a community outreach programme
  targeting school-aged children and teachers. The
  purpose of this paper is to elucidate the
  experiences of a team of Forensic Science
  academia in engaging this subset of the
  community.

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Objectives

• Public communiqué of crime prevention provides an
  important link between the forensic science
  community and society, giving visibility to
  scientific success and supporting both formal and
  informal forensic science education. While the
  task of a forensic scientist is to aid in the
  apprehension and trial of criminals, as well as
  to provide empirical evidence for crime
  reduction disseminating new information to a
  wider audience than the scientific community is
  becoming increasingly important.

• The objectives of this community effort were as
  follows
• increase public awareness and understanding of
  forensic science in Malaysia
• increase public awareness regarding primary crime
  prevention
• educate the public on secondary crime prevention
• help the government in tertiary crime prevention

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Methodology
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Mini situational analysis of community-related
crime

• This method was used to initiate viable
  approaches that would benefit all stakeholders
  concerned with rising crime rates
• vulnerable school-aged children as either
  potential victims or perpetrators
• concerned teachers and counselors who commonly
  become the first point for help and support after
  the commencement of a crime against school-aged
  children
• parents of at-risk children
• academics in the fields of forensic science,
  social and community care, and public reform and
• the general public.

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Sample Criteria

• Based on the risk of violence against children
  especially those within the age range of early
  adolescence and results of the mini situational
  analysis, the criteria for participants were as
  follows-
• a) School-aged children, namely those in
  secondary four who were not facing any
  national-level examinations in 2009.
• b) Children irrespective of gender, type of
  government school, school position, educational
  excellence, and having conflict with school
  authorities.
• c) Children and teachers from government or
  government-aided schools in either Kelantan or
  Terengganu.
• d) Response from respective State Education
  Departments regarding participating schools of
  each state.
• Kelantan 120 government or government-aided
  secondary schools covering ten districts. A total
  enrolment of 159,140 secondary school enrolment
  for 2009.
• Terengganu 136 government or government-aided
  secondary schools covering seven districts. A
  total enrolment of 118,766 secondary school
  enrolment for 2009.
• e) Each school was limited to five participants
  (including the accompanying teacher) due to
  budgetary allocations for meals and workshops
  (RM20,000.00), and the lack of transportation for
  participants. It was estimated that 600 form four
  students and teachers from 120 schools would
  participant.
• After the programme was implemented, the total
  number of participants was 750 from 69 schools.
  52 schools were from Kelantan and 17 schools were
  from Terengganu.

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Outreach Approach

• Outreach approach is basically an effort by
  individuals in an organization to connect its
  ideas or practices to specific audiences or the
  general public.
• Outreach often takes on an educational component
  but it is increasingly common for organizations
  to conceive of their outreach strategy as a
  two-way street in which outreach is framed as
  engagement rather than solely dissemination or
  education.
• It is aimed at promoting public awareness (and
  understanding) of science and making informal
  contributions to science education.
• Among the methods employed in engaging the
  attention participants included topics of
  interest to participants, visual and audio
  stimulations, direct verbal communication,
  forensic science demonstrations, and a workshop.
  In this manner, the objectives of the outreach
  programme could be maximized.

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Outreach Approach

• Topics of interest
• During the planning stage of the outreach, the
  ForCeS Team discussed various topics that would
  engage the interest of school-aged children while
  at the same time, meet the objectives of the
  programme. Four topics were finally selected and
  prepared from a list of twelve possible topics
• Peranan Bidang Sains Forensik di Malaysia (The
  Role of Forensic Science in Malaysia),
• Bukti-bukti Forensik (Forensic Evidence),
• Personaliti Penjenayah (Personality of the
  Criminal), and
• Santun Bahasa, Jenayah Tiada (Polite Language, No
  Violence).
• The main aims of the topic were to share
  knowledge and provide scientific exposure to
  participants regarding the following-
• Forensic Science Programme of University Sains
  Malaysia
• The role of forensic science in aiding police in
  criminal investigations.
• Crimes are solvable with the aid of various
  forensic science methodologies based on
  chemistry, biology, anthropology, post-mortem,
  crime scene investigation, and criminal
  profiling.
• Committing crimes does not pay off, especially
  for juveniles.
• How to identify and avoid people with criminal
  tendencies.
• Children have the right to defend and protect
  themselves from criminals.

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Outreach Approach

• Visual and audio stimulations
• In order to maximize childrens understanding of
  community-related crime as well as to engage
  their attention on the subject matter, visual and
  audio stimulations in the form of crime
  investigation documentaries were used.
• Pamphlets on forensic science and community crime
  prevention were distributed to participants and
  the schools.
• The documentaries were from various sources and
  provided demonstrations on crime investigation,
  the consequences of crime, and support for
  victims of crime.

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Outreach Approach

• Direct verbal communication.
• When engaging with children, the language level
  was revised. All topics were presented in the
  Malay language medium using less scientific terms
  and language. For example, exchanging the use of
  H2O and CO to water and carbon dioxide,
  kecelaruan minda (mental illness) to kurang
  siuman (mentally impaired), immunogenetik
  (immunogenetics) to genetik molekular dalam
  sistem imuninasi (molecular genetics in the
  immune system), and incendiary fire to kebakaran
  yang dibuat dengan sengaja.
• In addition, several Forensic Science
  Undergraduate students aided participants in
  providing explanations which were better
  understood by participants based on the narrower
  age and language level disparity.
• After each topic, a quiz was presented to
  participants to gauge their understanding of the
  topic and present a livelier atmosphere. Correct
  answers were rewarded and made the quizzes
  competitive.
• Participants were encouraged to ask questions
  throughout the community outreach programme.

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Outreach Approach

• Forensic science demonstrations
• To provide tactile and sensory input regarding
  how forensic science is able to assist in crime
  investigations, demonstrations of finger print
  detection, skull reconstruction, DNA sequencing,
  money fraud, and signature fraud were shown. In
  addition, samples of fibers and chemical
  constructs were made available for viewing using
  microscopes.
• Included were several poster presentations
  prepared by forensic science staff relating to
  various aspects of forensic science
  investigation, crime, and victim support.
• Selecting appropriate team members
• Some members of the team were nearer in age to
  the school-aged children in order to facilitate
  better rapport and reduce the probability of
  language and cultural norm gaps.
• Furthermore, the selection of team members was
  based on their knowledge of the local lingua and
  ways of communicating.

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Outreach Approach

• Workshop Projective psychological assessment
  demonstration
• In order to enrich understanding of the diverse
  ways forensic science may be utilized to identify
  risk and potential delinquency concerns, a
  projective assessment was used - Art Therapy and
  Victimization.
• In this assessment, all school-aged participants
  were asked to draw a picture of themselves. At
  the end of the session, several drawings were
  interpreted. The main purpose of this assessment
  is to educate teachers and students alike on how
  self depictions may aid school counselors and
  educators in understanding the types of crime in
  their community in general, and violence in
  particular against or by children.
• It was interesting to find that some
  self-depictions illustrate the occurrence of
  bullying and violence victimization amongst
  female students, the tendency for violence by
  male students, and the perception of tolerance
  with regard to the level of violence.

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Post-outreach (public- ForCeS engagement)

• In this stage, an analysis of participant
  feedback regarding the programme was carried out.
  
• The feedback centered on the following-
• Whether participants felt that the outreach
  programme was beneficial
• 100 of respondents felt that the programme was
  beneficial and provided a better understanding of
  community crime, victimization, and criminal
  tendencies amongst children.
• 100 of the people were of the opinion that
  similar outreach programmes should be carried out
  on a national level.

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Post-outreach (public- ForCeS engagement)

• Exposure to forensic science
• Around 99 of respondents considered that
  evidence investigation was part of forensic
  science.
• Around 72 of school-children and teachers knew
  that pathology was part of forensic science.
• Nearly 98 knew that forensic science involved
  crime scene investigation.
• All respondents believed that the finding and
  validation of evidence were integral in crime
  investigation.
• Nearly 71 of school-children and teachers
  understood that policing concerns was an
  important aspect of forensic science.
• 67 of respondents knew that the punishment of
  crime was part of forensic science.
• Around 92 of the people were of the opinion that
  the perpetrators psychological profile was a
  determining factor in the occurrence of crime.
• Around 91 of respondents were of the opinion
  that the victims psychological profile was a
  factor in the victimization of crime.

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Post-outreach (public- ForCeS engagement)

• Awareness of the Forensic Science Undergraduate
  Programme in USM
• 51 of respondents were unaware that there was a
  Forensic Science Undergraduate Programme in USM.
• 100 of school-children and teachers were of the
  opinion that a Forensic Science Programme is
  important in combating crime in Malaysia.
• Around 97 of the people expressed interest to
  learn more about forensic science.
• 83 of respondents expressed interest to learn
  forensic science at the undergraduate level.

22
Post-outreach (public- ForCeS engagement)

• Knowledge and skills relating to crime
  prevention.
• Around 99 of school-children and teachers felt
  that the knowledge and skills learnt was useful
  for them.
• Around 98 of respondents were of the opinion
  that the knowledge provided in the outreach would
  help prevent crime against themselves and their
  families.

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Post-outreach (public- ForCeS engagement)

• Respondent comments
• Among the comments made by respondents were the
  following-
• Have periodic programmes of a similar nature
• Establish a forensic association for youths
• Increase activities and forensic science
  demonstrations
• Increase forensic science posters
• The talks were too lengthy
• Organize group activities
• Conduct outreach programmes to all schools
• Conduct outreach programmes to all levels of the
  society

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Post-outreach (public- ForCeS engagement)

• An indirect result of stage three was the
  intractive relationship between school-aged
  chidlren, teachers, and forensic scientists.
• Rapport was built between the three parties and
  have the potential of reducing crimes against and
  by children within local communities.
• Furthermore, cooperation between State Deparments
  of Education, secondary schools, and the Forensic
  Science Programme with regards to follow-up
  programmes is promising in lieu of the
  participant feedback.

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Post-outreach (public- ForCeS engagement)

• The outcomes of this outreach programme include
  improving childrens and teachers understanding,
  attitudes, and conduct regarding individual and
  community safety and crime prevention.
• The knowledge and skills learnt may be further
  circulated to the school and home environment of
  the respective participants.
• The scientific and practical use of safe
  lifestyles and understanding personal rights are
  the basic values to minimize the risk of
  victimization, especially among school-aged
  children.
• The most important aspect of stage four is the
  oppurtunity to help the government through this
  programme to educate the masses regarding crime
  prevention.

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27
Gaining Cooperation

• The main reason for the paucity of information
  lies in subjective participant and researcher
  perspectives to describe effective means of
  gaining cooperation. Underlying these
  perspectives are what the child and the
  researcher finds to be of
• a) personal interest to the child,
• b) sufficient to warrant attention and
  participation,
• c) the attention span towards said interest.
• A research program of lab-based experiments
  provided some insights into the method of gaining
  participant cooperation.

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Gaining Cooperation of school-aged children
29
Situational Analysis of Crime - Against Children
30
Situational Analysis of Crime - Against Children
31
Situational Analysis of Crime - By Children

• In 2005, it was estimated that there were about
  7,000 Malaysian children in conflict with the
  law.
• In the year 2007, 6,387 children aged between 7
  and 18 were apprehended for various crimes across
  the country.
• The majority of under-18 student offenders who
  were apprehended in 2007 were aged between 16 and
  18 years old (around 59), male children (nearly
  98), and of Malay ethnicity (around 80).
• During the same year offences by students aged
  between 7 and 10 amounted to 0.56.
• Juvenile justice affects not only children
  involved in criminal activities but also child
  victims of poverty, abuse, neglect, and
  exploitation.
• For example, street children, child prostitutes,
  and illegal child immigrants are often treated as
  criminals. Furthermore, child victims of
  trafficking and sexual exploitation are often
  re-victimised in criminal justice systems.

32
Situational Analysis of Crime - By Children

• Involvement of children and young people in crime
  and violence has highlighted the issue of
  children in conflict with the law, the gaps in
  legislature for juvenile detention and justice,
  and weakness in parenting styles. Illegal
  motorcycling races among youths (Mat Rempit),
  drug abuse, gangsterism in schools, and social
  ills have been a feature in urban areas.
• a) Kuala Lumpur had the highest number of
  juveniles in 2007 with nearly 10 of all
  juvenile-related cases. When compared across city
  states, Kuala Lumpur recorded around 26 of all
  first offence juvenile-related cases.
• b) Crimes committed by first offence juveniles in
  Kota Bharu city accounted to nearly 40 of all
  juvenile-related crimes in Kelantan.
• c) Nearly 71 of juvenile related crimes in
  Melaka occurred in the district of Melaka Tengah.
  
• d) In Sabah, nearly 38 of all juvenile-related
  crimes occurred in the district of Kota Kinabalu,
  where the city state is located.Selangor had the
  highest rate of repeat offences by juveniles with
  123 cases (nearly 21 of all repeat offences) in
  2007.
• e) States with high rates of repeat offences
  included Sabah, Pulau Pinang, and Perak States
  with low rates of repeat offences included
  Perlis, Kedah, and Melaka.

33
Situational Analysis of Crime - By Children
34
Situational Analysis of Crime - By Children
Children apprehended for illicit drug use by the
police 2004 -2008. (Source Royal Malaysian
Police, 2009)
35
Conclusion

• The conclusion is inescapable. The present
  situational analysis of community crime shows a
  clear need for addressing the specific needs of
  the public in understanding the causes, nature,
  and consequences of crime against children and by
  children.
• To date, in the Malaysian context academic
  engagement of school-aged children in community
  crime prevention is scarce.
• The information provided herein is valuable for
  future academics intent on involving children in
  research or outreach programmes.
• The outreach approach and methods used in
  engaging the interest and participation of
  school-aged children was deemed the most suitable
  in order to actualize the programmes four
  objectives.
• The methods included visual and audio
  stimulations, direct verbal communication,
  forensic science crime investigation
  demonstrations, and a workshop on projective
  psychological assessment to identify the
  existence of crime victimization and juvenile
  delinquency amongst participants and to provide
  participants with knowledge and practical skills
  concerning primary, secondary and tertiary crime
  preventions.
• Comments made by respondents supported the
  assertion of the outreachs success and potential
  role to educate the public regarding community
  crime prevention.

36
References (Partial)

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