Kris Andreychuk is a social worker with the City of Edmonton and a member of a specialized Neighbourhood Empowerment Team working in the McCauley neighbourhood. Kris and his partner, Constable Chapman Lee work with the community to identify and implement ways to prevent violent crime from reoccurring.
We’ve now been in McCauley (A.K.A. Chinatown, Little Italy, Church Street, etc.) for eleven weeks. It’s hard to believe, but this marks the halfway point of our team’s violence reduction deployment.
Whereas a traditional N.E.T. is implemented over two to four years (a timeframe I am certainly more familiar with), Violence Reduction Teams are working with the community for a period of four months. During the deployment, teams investigate the conditions that lead to chronic crime and social disorder and identify and implement ways to reduce and prevent crime from recurring.
Being that we only have four months, teams need to keep their area of focus narrow. There are undoubtedly some challenges with this timeline—but there are also benefits. Being aware that our ‘expiry’ date is December 31, 2011, we’ve been able to shave down our objectives and make them both realistic and achievable. With this focused approach we’ve had the opportunity to, in a short period of time, develop a fairly solid grasp of the problems in McCauley.
Based on what we’ve seen thus far, we believe there is much to be said about the ‘ducks’ and the ‘wolves’ in McCauley. Yeah… you read that correctly.
In their paper, Sitting Ducks, Ravenous Wolves, and Help Hands: New Approaches to Urban Policing, William Spelman and John E. Eck use this animal analogy to discuss the complex nature of crime and victimization. According to the authors, there are three key elements that are required in order for a crime to be committed: a perpetrator (wolf), a target (duck) and an opportunity to commit the crime.
In the case of McCauley, the ducks are the older generation of vulnerable community members. These folks have a long history of ‘living rough’ on the streets and have been in the community for years. The wolves, on the other-hand, are the younger, marginalized demographic who also ‘live rough’ but are relatively new to the area.
This accounts for much of the violence we’ve seen in the community; vulnerable on vulnerable. These young wolves victimize the ducks in the community’s most vulnerable locations; usually for alcohol, food, clothes or whatever money they may have.
It’s a sad and relatively unknown reality of the violence in our city’s ‘distressed communities’. It’s the vulnerable victimizing the vulnerable. This, of course, impacts more than just the victims who are directly involved. In a sense, we are all victims when it comes to violent crime. Beyond the obvious harm is causes, it escalates the fear of crime, causes us to perceive our neighbourhoods differently, and discourages community engagement.
Perception of crime is powerful. If you perceive your community as being unsafe, you’re less likely to participate. If you don’t participate in your community, the likelihood of it becoming unsafe (i.e. a vulnerable space) increases.
It’s a vicious cycle, but the good news is that it’s possible to turn the tide. Meet your neighbours, get involved in your community league, shop local, plan a block party, buy a dog and walk it. Crime prevention and community building do not have to be difficult—have some fun!
McCauley has its challenges—riddled with complexities—and there’s no way to sugar coat it. However, there are unquestionable strengths in this community as well. Compassion, history, culture, diversity, thriving local businesses—as important as it is to acknowledge and respond to the challenges in our communities, it is equally important to not allow these challenges to overshadow what we know, and love, about the people and places of McCauley.
Curious as to what will unfold over the remaining weeks? Follow my Constable Partner Chapman Lee on Twitter for real time updates and highlights.