Prevention of crime through school and education
Although in recent years the crime rate in the Republic of Serbia has declined, for a stronger and more stable country, stronger crime prevention is also needed. Especially having in mind the younger population, as the most vulnerable group of people. Criminality prevention itself is in fact the prediction, recognition and assessment of criminological risk and the initiation of an action to eliminate or reduce it. As such, it has an active approach that uses public awareness and preventive measures to reduce crime. In particular, crime prevention reflects the philosophy of self-defense in which the police and the community take action before the crimes are committed. Crime prevention programs reduce crime, encourage public awareness of crime prevention and improve our communities.
The responsibility for preventing crime, does not fall into one person – it’s actually the “business of all.” However, law enforcement agencies often represent the main point in preventing crime in the community.
When it comes to the already mentioned “sensitive group of people”, that is, young people as part of it, especially school age, it is necessary to emphasize that the school, as an organized social institution for education, is a significant factor of socialization, especially because it prevents criminality .
In addition to the family, which is reproductive, economic and social, there is also a psychological, educational and socialization function, also a school, one of the primary groups in which a person is actually formed in a positive sense. Certainly, if one takes into account the way in which the functions of a school in the social environment are made towards the individual, it is possible to see the influence of the school from the standpoint of criminal etiology. It is also noticeable that the shortcomings in the process of achieving the goals of upbringing, developing cultural actions and other characteristics of the pupils, can cause negative effects and contribute to deviant and delinquent behavior.
In relation to the family, the school presents to the child a number of requests and tasks that it is often unable to answer. Thus, as a very important problem, the possibility of adapting to school obligations, teachers’ demands, and arranging school material can be adapted to those students who, in view of their intellectual abilities, can not adapt to the school environment and its demands, resistance to school and learning . These pupils achieve poor learning success, repeat classes, have poorly developed work habits. On this basis, there are various conflicting relationships with teachers and unjustified absence from classes. In addition to these factors, which influence the remedial and delinquent behavior, the negative influence of schools can be manifested through the existence of over-school curricula, frequent school reforms that impose materials indescribably to students, the lack of professionally trained teaching staff, the creation of “privileged” pupils according to their parents’ social status and Fig.
School failure, in addition to low levels of education, is often an important factor in crime. Poor achievement in school, as well as learning, leads to a repetition of grades, and therefore a promotion, for the sake of acquiring knowledge and education. Also, a number of other factors, escape from school, alcoholism, drug addiction, and the commission of crimes should also be mentioned. It is with this fact that the conflicts and the environment in which the child is educated, the unjustified absence from classes, and the interruption in the education itself are closely related. All of this for a variety of reasons, and especially not less of a role, have indiscipline, as well as not accepting teachers’ authority.
In fact, among juvenile delinquents, there are a significant number of those who are indifferent to the school or feel bad about them, who have a poor relationship with their comrades or feel discriminated against by teachers. Conflict relations and other unpleasant experiences of students at school can lead to delinquent behavior because of the desire for revenge, personal affirmation and self-denial. Interruptions in schooling and changing school environment can occur for justified reasons – family relocation, illness, poor financial situation, but also in the midst of the poor success of juveniles at school, school exclusion, bad relations between teachers and pupils,
Also, the change in school environment can affect the failure of adapting juveniles in the new environment. Often absenteeism, which is unjustifiably over a long period of time, is repeated with those students who have been punished for lack of discipline, have a negative attitude towards the school, have no work habits, have poor grades, repeat classes. This form of deviant behavior can become more serious forms of offense. because minors are free from the control and educational influence of the school, they are easily influenced by negative patterns and begin to commit crimes.
Since education implies the acquisition of certain knowledge by education, the relationship between education and crime is not easy, because there are many opposing, but argued, statements about this relationship.
In fact, optimistic currents have persuaded that increasing the level of education reduces the extent of crime, while statistical data have shown that the extent of crime has not decreased with the decrease in the number of illiterates. On the contrary, with the decrease in the number of illiterates in most countries, there has been an increase in crime. In addition, it has been observed that there are certain forms of crime (economic crime, white collar crime, professional and organized crime) that can not be performed by persons with lower education or persons who are not in certain positions in the social hierarchy. A lower level of education does not necessarily have to be regarded as a criminal act, as higher education does not represent inevitable protection from the manifestation of criminal activity.
The research so far is not yet sufficient to confirm or deny the decline or increase in crime with the rise in education. For this reason, further research is certainly needed, which will, in certain time and space, highlight the relationship between education and crime.
Author: Dejan Trajkovic
