Next: Building better neighbourhoods
Posted Jan. 10/07
When George Rigakos, associate professor of law, criminology and political economy in Carleton’s Department of Law, studied Canadian security firm Intelligarde International, his aim was to investigate how discipline and surveillance are achieved organizationally and made a commodity. His research lead to the publication of his 2002 book The New Parapolice: Risk Markets and Commodified Social Control, but the contacts he made in Toronto’s social housing community led to a new study: the San Romanoway Community Revitalization Project in the Jane and Finch area of Toronto, ON.
“Intelligarde was providing security in a high-risk social-housing neighbourhood, and was involved in launching a community revitalization project when I was doing my security case study,” says Rigakos. “Before the revitalization project began, I was able to do a survey of the community to establish baseline data, and have been measuring progress every two years.”
Now at the end of his six-year study, Rigakos has recorded the neighbourhood’s remarkable improvement.
The key challenges facing San Romanoway in 2000 were such things as high youth unemployment and a recent rise in youth-related crime. Little social programming was offered to address the diverse needs of a community where between 2,800-3,000 of the 4,400 residents are children and youth, where over 50 languages are represented, and where a large number of new immigrants reside.
The San Romanoway Revitalization Association (SRA), a partnership of local businesses, corporations, governments, volunteers and community residents, was established with an initial grant from Canada’s National Crime Prevention Centre to help build and strengthen community capacity, promote community development and safety, find solutions to problems of neighbourhood youth violence and provide cultural and social enrichment programs for children, youth and families.
The SRA has made changes to the environment, such as improved outdoor lighting and landscaping, and introduced strategies for social development, such as a boys and girls club, breakfast and after-school programs, a seniors’ program, and prevention programs for domestic and teen violence.
Rigakos’ study showed that between 2002-2004, violent crime victimization was reduced by 22 per cent, property crime decreased by 23.7 per cent and break and enters declined by 21.1 per cent. There was an increased sense of safety in the community and overall satisfaction rates with community programming were all above 85 per cent approval.
“The community is making real change. As a criminologist, it’s satisfying to see community initiatives make a difference,” says Rigakos. “Often people think that nothing works because it’s hard to show statistically significant results — some differences just aren’t measurable that way. But in this study, we have found statistically significant perceived decreases for things like public use of alcohol and drugs, teens loitering, garbage on the streets, and family violence — and there are many personal stories that attest to the changes.”
Rigakos, currently a visiting fellow at the Centre of Criminology at the University of Toronto while on sabbatical, says people are hungry for information on effective community initiatives. He will publish his findings when the final 2006 data has been analyzed.
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Fast fact…
George Rigakos is among the inaugural winners of a Carty Research Fellowship, established to provide seed funding to support innovative research initiatives and scholarly activities by faculty members who are within the first five years of their appointment at Carleton. He will use the fellowship to study the governance of business improvement associations and what it means for public security.