World leaders must shift the focus from criminal justice to crime prevention to reduce violence significantly. The leaders will not meet their commitment to UN Sustainable Development Goals (16.1, 16.2 and 5.2) by 2030, unless they invest now in proven programs, apply intergovernmental guidelines, and multiply successes, particularly in cities.
Covid has shown us the importance of prevention, evidence, and our ability to transform our policies quickly. Unfortunately, it has added urgency to tackling the causes of violence against women and children. Experts will show how affordable and popular actions now will prevent annually 100,000s of homicides, millions of women from intimate partner and sexual violence, and 100s of millions of young people from being victims of violence.
The experts are international leaders in their field based in Africa, Canada, Europe, Latin America, and the US. They have backgrounds in government, intergovernmental agencies, cities and academia. Their solutions address the needs of cities in both high and low violence regions. They shared their proposals at the UN Crime Congress . They highlighted:
- Scientifically proven prevention programs identified by the World Health Organization and others that have reduced violent victimizations by 50% better than the reactive criminal justice system; These include services that outreach to youth, curricula to change attitudes to violence, support for parenting, income support, and reforms to policing.
- Guidelines on how to implement prevention effectively as agreed by the UN Economic and Social Council, UNODC, UN-Habitat and representatives from Latin American governments; These include offices for violence prevention, multi-sectoral ways to tackle causes, and measuring results.
- Cities that have reduced violence by 50% within just a few years. New networks of cities and national congresses share successful and proven experiences, train human talent, support monitoring and get political commitment to achieve reductions by 2030.
- The return on investment from the equivalent to 10% of what is currently spent on the reactive system of criminal justice. Smart investment now will not only reduce violence significantly but will achieve other SDGs and, particularly in high violence zones, will increase GDP, stop refugees fleeing violence, and foster the rule of law.
The panelists conclusions include:
- Intergovernmental organizations must support training and safety monitor tools, foster exchanges to share successes, and require investments in violence prevention for socio- economic development;
- Governments must establish a permanent office for violence prevention to:
- Promote ways to address the long term causes of violence, such as inequality, lack of education, availability of guns, and drug abuse;
- Tackle risk factors for violence, using proven strategies that are cost effective and get results quickly, particularly in cities;
- Raise awareness among the public and support training for decision makers and practitioners on effective strategies.
- Cities must shift to using proven prevention, following implementation guidelines, to tackle causes and risk factors locally, but with adequate and sustained financial and technical support from other orders of government to make it happen.
Additional information, including contacts with panelists, is available from iwaller@uottawa.ca
