Toespraak Burgemeester Job Cohen
ter gelegenheid van de tiende verjaardag
van de European Association for Forensic
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychology
and other involved professions (EFCAP),
21 oktober 2008
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is my pleasure to welcome you in Amsterdam on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of your Association. I congratulate you with that. But there is more. It gives me great pleasure you organised your conference in Amsterdam, because I think we need you in Amsterdam: We need your insights, we need your brains and we need them badly. Let me explain by taking the opportunity to tell you something about the "Amsterdam approach" of youth criminality and harassment, one of the most prominent issues of our time.
Since about 6 years the city government pursues an active policy concerning youth criminality and harassment. We think that the goals of bringing juvenile offenders back on the right track, keeping them on the right track, and offering them a chance to a future, are all related. And must thus be treated as such in policy and action.
We have chosen to focus on youth between 12 and 25 years old.
Our main focus when it comes to youth from 12 to 18 is prevention by long-lasting and intensive coaching. An example of a project we started this year is the 8 -to -8 approach with coaches supervising individuals during the day. Making sure he (or she) is in time at school or internship, making sure he keeps his appointments, making sure he is not stumbling around on the streets.
Furthermore we try to decrease harassment in the streets by youth, by investing in so called street- coaches. They are selected for being able to connect with the target group. Youth causing harassment on the street - being aggressive either verbally or physically - is addressed directly by those street coaches, right on the spot, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. At the same time the parents of these children or adolescents are paid a visit by so called 'family -visitors'. These parents are told they are responsible for the behaviour of their under aged children. Of course they know, but often they do not know how, and these family-visitors advise them, set goals for them and their children, or send them to people who can help them.
We co-developed and invested in projects like these. About 2000 children and adolescents between 12 and 25 are at this moment involved in one of these projects. We are spending annually 10 million euros in this area, which of course is a lot of money. All these projects aim to either prevent further criminalization and harassment, or to intervene as quickly as possible. Another example of an approach we co-developed in Amsterdam, is the FFT : Functional Family Therapy. This is a short-term intervention where the whole family is involved. In a limited number of sessions the family gets counselling and learns how to deal with the offending family member. Our facts and figures show this is a relatively successful project.
In spite of these apparent successes, we continually have to look closely and critically to our activities. We have to ask ourselves whether our efforts lead to the desired effects. And if not, we have to face a number of questions: Is the execution weak? Do we simply lack the necessary instruments? Or is the policy, or the scientific views that our policy is based upon, superseded..?
We recently evaluated our projects, and not all of them are successful in terms of recidivism. Of course, the successful projects will be continued. But it seems that especially projects aimed at adolescents of 18 to 25 years do not show the desired effects.
My conclusion is that we need an approach that is more custom-made. We have to develop different policies and therefore we need new scientific views on this matter. And that is where you and your conference come in, that is where we need you. I would like to make an appeal to all the scientists present. Because of the evaluation I just mentioned, we started an inquiry into profiles of different types of young offenders. We need forensic psychologists and psychiatrists to help us with this inquiry and to develop new models of intervention. Our goal is to lead the different types of juvenile offenders as quickly as possible in the right project and to customize when needed.
Now you understand why I am grateful that you confer here. And I really do hope that during your discussions you remember the urgency of your work; cities and young people need your research. Therefore I wish you a very good conference in this nice city. Although you have a lot to do, I hope you'll have the opportunity to look around in the city. It is worthwhile.
Once again, welcome, have a good conference, and enjoy!
