violence against children WORLD REPORT ON - CRIN

310Violence against children in the communityAlthough urbanisation has historically beenaccompanied by lower rates of child mortality,increased access to education, and improvementsacross all social indicators, it also hasnegative aspects including poverty, inequality,changes in family structure and the breakdownof social networks – factors that all contributeto violence. 158 Few of the environmentsinhabited by poor urban families are friendlyto children. 159 A high proportion of new arrivalslive in informal (and, in the eyes of thelaw, illegal) settlements. The pace and irregularform of urbanisation has put under severepressure the capacity of municipal authoritiesto provide services and amenities. Much of thehousing in newly urbanised areas is cramped,flimsy, and insecure, while the surroundingenvironment does not offer many opportunitiesfor children to play and interact safely withthe world about them. Outdoor space – whichthey enter at an early age – is often contaminatedby garbage and human waste. 160Poverty, inequality and socialexclusionAround 2.8 billion people today survive onless than US$ 2 a day, 161 of whom almost 50%are children. Poverty alone, however, is a lesssignificant correlate of violence – as measuredby homicide rates – than a combination ofhigh income inequality and poverty. Althoughmore research is needed to fully understand thelinks, emerging findings suggest that wealthiersocieties have lower homicide rates, even wherethere is a large income gap between rich andpoor communities. In societies at a lowerlevel of overall economic development, higherhomicide rates are experienced. It may be thatwealthier societies are able to provide a higherlevel of protection and social support for theirpoor communities than those at a lower levelof overall economic development.Measures of economic inequality are powerfulpredictors of homicide rates of 10-19 year-olds,especially boys, and this association is strongerin countries with lower overall gross domesticproduct (GDP). 162 However, the relationshipbetween absolute poverty (as opposed torelative poverty) and violence is not entirelystraightforward. Growth in GDP is associatedwith lower homicide rates, as mightbe expected, but this effect is in many casesnegated by the economic inequality and socialexclusion that often flourish alongside rapideconomic development and urbanisation. 163Poorer communities and their children appearto be most vulnerable to interpersonal violencewhen exposed to economic and populationchanges that contribute to community disorganisationand, ultimately, to a community’sability to control violent behaviour. Recentresearch has supported the theory that theimbalance between concentrations of affluenceand poverty in the same urban area could bean important predictor of community variationsin interpersonal violence.The social exclusion experienced by lowincomeurban populations in all regions hasbeen exacerbated by trends at the internationallevel. The rapid pace of social and politicalchange, and economic globalisation – theadoption of domestic deregulation, trade liberalisationand privatisation of services, a policy