Identify potential child-killers before they snap

• Source: Global Times
• [21:42 May 09 2010]
• Comments

Photo:CFP

Editor's Note:

Beginning with the murder of eight children in Nanping, Fujian Province on March 23, there have been five bloody attacks at Chinese schools and kindergartens within a month and a half. Parents are in a panic, school administrators have promised more guards, and everything from the media to social breakdown is being blamed for the attacks. Are China's children safe?

The following is an interview between the Qiangguo Forum of People.com. cn (PO) and Lu Deping (Lu), executive vice president of the Youth Development Institute of China Youth University for Political Sciences, and Deng Xiquan (Deng), deputy director of the Youth Study Institute of China Youth and Children's Research Association, on the issue of school security.

PO: What lies behind this series of school attacks?

Lu: We can find something in common in these cases. They all happened in small or medium-sized cities, and the motivation of the attackers was not robbery, but a brutal venting of their pent-up feelings.

We need to look at the psychology of the individual criminals. Does his family give him psychological comfort? Does his view of society lead to a morbid psychology?

Most explanations for these attacks so far have focused on the increasing social inequality and the unfair social system, but these are all indirect reasons. China has over 1.3 billion people, but why do very few commit such crimes?

Thus we should not explain all the special cases as a result of large-scale social factors.

Deng: We have been concerned about school security for a long time, but these five cases of school violence have brought up a new problem.

Previously, school violences were mainly among students, or attempts by unemployed thugs to extort money. It did not severely threaten students' lives.

But the recent attacks were different. Therefore, school security should be further highlighted.

I think the overall reason is the intensification of social conflicts, and that especially in recent years some contradictions have been accumulated to a critical point. However, we did not handle them well, which have made things worse.

There are also gaps in school security, and students lack security awareness. We should teach them how to respond to such events in order to protect themselves.

PO: How can we prevent such cases in the future?

Lu: Everyone should be aware that children are the most precious thing we have. We need to be aware of children's safety at all times and not just in school.

The authorities concerned should take the initiative to establish the needed policies and create a comprehensive system for children's protection. This needs the integration of different resources, including personnel, equipment and skilled officers in charge of campus security.

We can draw upon existing resources to do this. For instance, the fire departments bear a big responsibility, since it can assist the school to train students to be aware of security issues.

And we also need the long-time cooperation from the police. When a suspect is found in a community, the information should be given to the police in time. In this way we can create a more effective system.

PO: Do we have a long-term strategy for school security?

Lu: Some countries, such as Japan and the US, already have mature methods to guarantee school security.

They promote public awareness and have special volunteers, and they can instantly communicate with the police.

Moreover, Japanese schools have parents' clubs, which function as community watchdogs. Parents can share school security information at all time.

What's more, many elementary and high school students in developed countries have portable warning devices which can send out an alarm or give his exact position to the police.

I think we can learn this technology from Japan, where it has been developed for years.

Now, in China, security guards are basically distributed around schools, especially at entrances. But there are still many loopholes, such as the routes to the school. The police should also check these routes and register potential criminals, ensuring students' safety at all times.

Deng: There are two key points to decide whether police patrolling is a long-term measure.

First, increasing financial and material support from the government will be a great contribution in making it a long-term policy.

Second, ordinary people should supervise the police to ensure that the policy would accomplish their task well.

What's more, rural areas need more focus. In case of danger, security measures in these places should be established quickly and effectively.

PO: What is the most urgent task?

Lu: We should identify people who have the potential to be child murderers and ease their psychological problems.

Not all these people target the government. Some of them are burnt by personal problems, failure in love or disputes with colleagues. Their common characteristic is that they have no social life and have no friends to release their psychological pressure.

Deng: Lacking access to social support or people to confide in, they have no way to release their psychological problems, and finally they snap.

Some people take revenge on society in a pathological way, targeting the most vulnerable. To help these people and stop attacks, we should focus more on prevention.

Social injustice is only one cause of these incidents, but it does not necessarily mean that alleviating the injustice can solve all the problems. The authorities should have more contact with the public, which can decrease the potential danger.

At the same time, enterprises should better balance their inter-personnel and internal relationships, and do not exclude certain groups or individuals which may otherwise not develop a morbid psychology.

Lu: I said that these cases all took place in small and medium-sized cities. One reason for this is that in such places, people have frequent contacts with each other. So once they made a mistake, it is very difficult for them to rebuild their reputations.

Deng: Therefore, we should promote social tolerance. We should learn to accept those who have committed crimes or been in a vulnerable place.