” “Preventing deviance

A project to prevent youth crime has been launched within the European Union to promote the social rehabilitation of youngsters who have committed offences or are in situations of risk of deviance in some EU member states or candidate countries. Called “Jump” (“Juveniles and models of prevention”), it is being funded by the European Commission, as part of its Programme “Oisin II” (General Directorate of Justice and Internal Affairs) with the coordination of Censis (Centre of Studies on Social Investments). The phenomenon which the project is intended to address “presents similar characteristics in all states: namely, forms of urban delinquency, strongly connected with situations of social exclusion, in which the youth presence is increasingly disturbing and precocious – explains Anna Italia of Censis, coordinator of the Jump project –.This situation has determined the conviction that actions of repressive character must be combined with measures of social prevention”. The involvement of social workers. The complexity of the issue of the prevention of youth crime will be analyzed in the course of the project that will promote the exchange of experiences between EU member states and candidate countries, through the organization of four seminars in each country participating in the project. The first was held in recent days in the Police College of Catalogna (Spain). The second seminar will be held in Berlin on 27 September. It will have as its theme: “The role of social workers in the management of projects for the social prevention of youth crime”; the most important measures being implemented in member states with the involvement of social workers active in the world of education and voluntary service will be described during the meeting. Another seminar on “The prevention of youth crime in the candidate countries” will be held in Romania in October, organized by the Provincial Police Inspectorate of Constanta. The role of the local administrations will be examined in the concluding seminar, scheduled to be held in Rome in December and organized by Censis. The strategy of “proximity”. “A widespread malaise has been registered among young people in recent years; it often erupts into acts of vandalism and transgression – points out Anna Italia –. In a situation characterized by widespread prosperity, the tendency of adolescents to commit acts that clearly conflict with the rules of civil society, and that were thought to be the prerogative of youngsters inserted in situations of serious social exclusion, can be ascertained”. To respond to the demand for security in the community, a “philosophy of proximity” has been introduced in the action of the police of many European states; traditional repressive measures and the cracking down on criminality have thus been combined with “policies of social prevention”. In France, for example, this strategy of proximity in the action of the police has led to policies for security being combined with those for youth employment, through the promotion of new professional roles, such as “local agents of social mediation”: young people are taken onto the workforce of public institutions (with the exception of the State) or private bodies (that are contracted to perform public services) and then employed in prevention through the animation of youth in sport, culture and education. European experiences. Denmark has set up a “National Council for Crime Prevention”, an independent body composed of representatives of the educational sector, the voluntary services, healthcare and the police. It has implemented a series of systems of prevention especially aimed at young people in risk of deviance. In the United Kingdom “neighbourhood watch groups” are formed of volunteer citizens, and coordinated by the police, in the surveillance of local districts. At the European level what is needed – stresses Anna Italia – is “a multisectorial approach, a joint action by various social protagonists, such as the family, the school, the church, to recover the complex of positive traditions and values that may induce a young person not to become a delinquent”. Laura Badaracchi