Happy Sunday, I hope you’re enjoying a safe and peaceful weekend. We had some brilliant responses from last week’s post. Thank you to all who took the time to reflect your views.
I appreciate these more reflective ALERTS are a departure from our usual posts in content and length. My intention is to compliment the information posts and challenge you to really think about prevention. I believe as citizens we can make a huge contribution to this. You already do, thank you!
I would much rather focus on preventing crime and the misery it causes, than reporting the aftermath. Prevention and intervention focuses on the root causes of criminal behaviour and aims to eliminate it. A good prevention analogy might be – if we pulled someone from a river, then two minutes later someone else appeared. We would go upstream, find out why people were falling in and put in place a fence, bridge etc. thus “preventing” harm to anyone else, rather than just saving those who fell in.
A great example of where prevention has been successful in Scotland is around our homicide rates, did you know the homicide rate has more than halved in the past 20 years!
How has that happened? From personal experience I would describe the outcome as a result of “everything that everyone has done”. We have understood root causes better, educated, raised awareness and worked in effective partnerships, including at resident level, seeing citizens as equal partners and part of the solution.
Job done then? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Having witnessed first-hand how families and communities are devastated, the only acceptable target in relation to the homicide rate is zero. There is still much to be done.
What can we do to reduce all types of crime? – WHAT YOU DO MATTERS. Take a few minutes to rethink your home and personal security (including your cyber security) then take practical steps, within your budget and circumstances, to reduce your risk of being victimised. I would also urge you to go a step further and really think about root causes and how we can help. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE DIFFERENCE YOU CAN MAKE.
If you fancy finding out more about successful prevention and interventions here are some links for you
Advice & Information – Police Scotland
Home – Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (svru.co.uk)
Navigator – Medics Against Violence (mav.scot)
How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime | Nadine Burke Harris | TED – YouTube
samh.org.uk/about-mental-health/suicide/suicide-prevention
Thank you for taking the time to engage and have a great week ahead.
Keith, the not so new boy!
