The Campaign Company specialises in social research and behaviour change. This is your guide to what we’ve been reading. Here’s what’s coming up this week:
Behaviour Change ~ Targeting violence in Glasgow – formerly the murder capital of Europe
We look today, in our Behaviour Change section, at Glasgow’s highly successful programme to reduce street violence over the past 20 years. Do highly targeted approaches work, we ask?
And of course, there’s Charlie’s Attic, this week including footage of an octopus nightmare.
Glasgow's approach to tackling violence
We were really taken with this recent Twitter thread by Jon Yates, about how Glasgow – formerly the murder capital of Europe according to WHO - has managed to dramatically cut street violence and knife crime over a 20-year period. It described a fascinating journey in terms of public policy, rooted in everyday common sense and strong emotional intelligence. The Glasgow approach, Yates suggests, was neither tough on crime nor soft on crime, but was instead ‘smart on crime’.
One of the learnings which Yates picks out at the end is the importance of pinpointing where issues are arising – and among whom. “Targeting is essential. If we want to make everyone safe,” he writes. “We need to understand which places and people need support and action. Violence is sticky.”
This is an interesting point, and is arguably one which applies more broadly, to a whole set of public policy questions – ranging from troubled families to public health to A&E usage. An approach which speaks directly to a comparatively small number of individuals – or which strives for early intervention – can often reap greater rewards than one which prioritises breadth over depth.
Yet this is also an area where both the left and right of the political spectrum are often squeamish. The former fear profiling or typecasting; the latter suggest that a badly behaved few are getting extra support and resources – at the expense of those ‘doing the right thing’. Neither of these arguments are completely baseless. But reading about the success of the programme run in Glasgow we also wonder of it is worth acknowledging more often the upsides of a targeted approach.
And finally, Charlie’s Attic, the part of the Weekly where bad behaviour is always rewarded:
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