By Simon Van Vliet
“To reduce the murder rate, sexual and conjugal violence as well as violence done to children, we have to first of all attack toxic masculinity,” argues Irwin Waller, criminology professor at the University of Ottawa and the founding Executive Director of the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime affiliated with the United Nations.
Whether in Canada, where crime rates are rather low, or in parts of the world with high violence rates, like the United States or Latin America, Irwin Waller finds that men are responsible for most violent crime.
Street violence and gender violence are mostly attributable to men. “Men are clearly responsible. Because of their attitudes, and the way that they’re educated.” He has spent 50 years on preventing violence across the four corners of the globe.
Faced with this unbendable constant, the criminologist calls for a change in culture among public decision-makers. “Basically, you say violence, they say police,” he observes, deploring that oppressive approaches are based on punishing young men, often poor, indigenous, black or immigrants.
This culture, which has been rooted in politics for decades, is, according to Prof. Waller, “reinforced by the interests of different police, lawyers and prison employees’ unions,” as well as by the media, which sometimes feed the discourse on imprisonment as a form of rehabilitation.
As a defender of the rights of victims of criminal acts, Irwin Waller maintains that investment in repressiveness (police, courts, prisons) are inefficient to reduce violence and crimes. He pleads for a preventive approach, whose efficiency is well demonstrated, especially when it comes to sexual and gender violence.
Many initiatives put into play here and abroad for youth have succeeded. For example, the Fourth R program, launched by the University of Western Ontario, brought down non-consensual sexual acts down by half in the high schools where it was brought to bear.
“It’s the type of program that we should deploy in all our schools!” Waller enthuses.
He also raves about the merits of programs based on a cognitive-behavioral approach, such as Stop Now and Plan (SNAP), developed by the Child Development Institute in Toronto. It was aimed at children from ages 6 to 11. There is also the Becoming A Man program run by the University of Chicago Crime Lab, aimed at kids at risk of dropping out and becoming delinquent. “These are examples of positive things that are easily understood, so they shouldn’t meet much resistance.”
Other approaches, like interventions, have also shown positive results. These programs incite people to intervene when they see inappropriate conduct or sexual incidents. In colleges and universities where this is done, violent acts are halved.
“A 50% reduction Is extraordinary!” says the criminologist, who thinks it is possible to reduce gender violence by 100% by the turn of the decade.
Canada has set as a goal the elimination of gender violence by 2030 as part of its UN sustainable development objectives. To get there, words must become deeds, and there must be a better balance between repression after acts and efficient prevention before acts, the criminologist insists. He favors that very young boys are given programs that deconstruct toxic masculinity.
Leave a Reply