Police, Schools and Crime Prevention: A Preliminary Review of Current Practices

The involvement of the police in school is not a new phenomenon.They have been associated with schools in many countries,and in a variety of ways, for most of the previous Century. For much of that time, that role was limited to collecting truants, ensuring bicycle or traffic safety, or the prevention of child abuse. Since 1960s, however, there have been gradual changes, resulting by the 1990s in the development of a variety of much more formalized and closer links between local police and schools. In the USA, for example, the development of dedicated police officers as school resource officers,have all brought the police the much closer to the day to day running of schools.Much of this change has been in response to the general increase in youth offending which was characteristic of most Western counrries from the 1960's to the 1990's. It also reflects more general changes in attitudes towards aggression and violence by young people. The public and policy markers, in many countries, now recognize the issue of school- based violence as a problem.Bullying.School fights, truancy and drug use have all been characteristic of school life for many years, but their important links with offending and victimization, and their impact on health and social development, are now much more widely acknowleged. There is also much more willingness to label school behaviours as violent, and to see the police, rather than the school, as the appropriate response. Finally, extreme incidents of violence such as the Clumbine tragedy in the United States or the school shooting in Erfurt, Germany, have also helped to increase concerns about the need to develop effective prevention programmes in schools.The result is that in many countries, schools are now actively collaborating with the police to combat crime and violenece in and around their premises.School violence and problems behaviours are also incressingly seen as a community and family issue too.Regional forums such as the Council of Europe have urged governments to promote the development of local partnership for preventing and combating violence at school, and the police are seen as one of the most important parties in such partnerships.