Riitta Koivisto - Rikoksentorjuntaneuvosto

Boooo!
We already thought the yelling might be a problem. Minister Donner had suggested this as an option in
Parliament in 2003. Several newspapers had commented in an derogatory way to his ‘yelling boo!’ as an
answer to violent street crime and just about every comedian in Holland had made jokes about it.
But knowing it does work, we decided to include this tip anyway until at the next test, our audience voted it
off. Our test-group didn’t really understand the significance of yelling except to attract the attention of other
bystanders. And mobilising fellow bystanders of course was the other tip. Some of our viewers even
considered it ‘bad advice’ to draw attention to yourself by making noise.
Too smart posters
Our next brilliant ideas to be sent packing were the two slogans we had chosen for the posters. We had
meant to give them a little twist, just like the 2001 and 2002 campaign. One of the slogans had said then: “I if
you see violence you just start hitting......112”. Our new slogans were:
• when there is a fight, make sure you get a large audience and get in there together;
• when you see violence, turn the other way.for backup.
These slogans were completely misunderstood by our pre-test audience, so we decided to revert to the more
ordinary ‘boring’ slogans you see on the posters now:
• when someone is beaten up, go over there, but not alone;
• when someone gets hit, raise one hell....of a noise.
Budget 1.ooo.ooo euro
To give you some idea of the budget for this campaign, let me give you the following figures.
External management and consultancy 78.820
Development of media (design, test) 273.500
School materials 52.000
Media distribution (radio, tv, ads, outdoor) 595.200
Other 480
Total 1.000.000
Other campaigns
During the past year the Justice Department has supported other campaigns as well. These too were
initiatives from citizens groups willing to devote their time and energy to preventing violence, help victims and
promote mutual respect in the Netherlands. The ‘Landelijke Stichting Tegen Zinloos Geweld’ (National
Foundation Against Senseless Violence; http://www.zinloosgeweld.nl) is by far the most prominent of these
private organisation. Their symbol, the ladybird, has become THE symbol in Holland for respect and against
violence. Our department has supported two of their campaigns in the last year:
• KidsTegenGeweld (kids against violence (http://www.kidstegengeweld.nl) seeks to incite children,
usually groups of children, to take action. The foundation supports them by providing them with a ‘trunk’
filled with inspiring materials like leaflets, stickers, T-shirts, postcards and other stuff they can use for their
own campaign. An enormous variety of activities has come from this campaign over the past 3 years.
Children appeared on local television, wrote letters offering their condolences to the family of one of the
violence victims, put up posters in local shops, distributed leaflets, made a banner, baked cookies in the
shape of ladybirds, wrote a song against violence, etc. etc.
• Stop geweld op school (stop school violence (http://www.stopgeweldopschool.nl) launched October 13
of this year in the presence of our Minister of Education, Maria van der Hoeven. School violence is hot in
Holland. This started with an incident in January of this year at the Terra College in The Hague, where 16
year old Murat D. shot and killed deputy principle Hans van Wieren. There have been incidents before
and since, of course, but shooting incidents are rare. Teachers do have to deal with all sorts of
aggression, most notably the aggression of parents. It seems to have become fashionable to threaten or
attack a teacher whenever you think your child has been wronged: too little personal attention, unjust
punishment, low grade, etc.. As far as the pupils are concerned, bullying is a more important problem.
During a public debate at the start-up of the campaign, many of the children there had their own
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