Clinton School holds discussion between Southwest High School students and Little Rock police to prevent youth violence
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – In an effort to build a better relationship between police and teens, the Clinton School of Public Service and Little Rock Police Department held a discussion with students at Southwest High School about their perceptions of police Thursday.
Jonisha Graham, Community Youth Crime Prevention Advocate for the LRPD, said they partnered with a graduate research team from the Clinton School to study youth perceptions and find solutions to deal with violence among youth.
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“We want to understand how LRPD can work better with young people to get them involved in institutions such as the police, the city, community organizations; because they are our future,” Graham stated.
She said the reason for this meeting came after a poll last year during a teen summit provided data from teens showcasing mixed feelings about the police.
Graham said the research team gathered students ages 14-17 at the high school in focus groups as part of a larger student group about youth perceptions and how they feel about police, including what solutions they think could be made to prevent youth violence.
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Discussions like this are important, especially because of the data they have seen over the past couple of years, according to Graham.
“It’s important because from the crime statistics a couple of years ago, we see that a lot of the violent crime victims and suspects were under 25, so we wanted to conduct a study to really understand what are their perceptions, how they feel and what are the solutions,” Graham stated.
Graham said that if they are going to make change, they must understand what the perceptions are so they can fix it.
“Hopefully, these young people’s voices will be an opportunity to change some of that and aid and enhance some of those decisions when it comes to programming and things for young people to do to prevent crime in the city of Little Rock,” Graham said.
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After the graduate research team collects the data, they should make a final presentation of their findings in April.
Graham said that she hopes this could be the first of many steps preventing violence among youth.
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