Now that summer is in full swing, Crime Stoppers of Northwest Ontario would like to remind boaters about the risks of drinking and boating.

Operating a boat while under the influence of alcohol or drugs is an offence under the Criminal Code of Canada and is illegal in every state across the U.S.A. (BOATsmart! and MADD). Penalties can includes large fines, suspension and/or revocation of boating and/or drivers license, and jail time. In some areas, the fines and penalties for driving a boat while under the influence are treated the same as drinking and driving a motor vehicle (U.S. Coast Guard’s Boating Division). Although these penalties vary between provinces and territories in Canada and states in the U.S.A., the message is the same – a boat is still a vehicle and operating it under the influence is illegal and dangerous to yourself and those around you.

Also keep in mind that these laws also apply to other types of watercraft including jet skis, canoes, kayaks and paddle boards. If youre unsure about the regulations in your area, contact your local law enforcement for more information.

Effects of Alcohol While Boating

Alcohol impairs judgement, effects your balance, coordination, vision and reaction time – increasing the risk of accidents occurring on the water.

Alcohol is a factor in almost 40% of boating incidents and many people do not understand that there are stressors, such as noise, sun/wind exposure, waves and rocking of the boat that can greatly increase the effects of alcohol and threaten the safety of boat operators and passengers while on the water. All of these factors make boating while drinking just as dangerous as drinking and driving a motor vehicle (Canadian Safe Boating Council).

Carrying Alcohol on Your Boat

In Canada, passengers can legally drink alcohol on a boat as long as it is equipped with permanent sleeping facilities, permanent cooking facilities, permanent toilet and it is anchored or secured alongside a dock. Not all boat types meet these requirements therefore before any passenger consumes alcohol on your boat it is your responsibility as the operator to make sure your boat meets these requirements. Provinces and territories have their own rules for when you can drink and how you can carry alcohol on board – contact your local law enforcement for more information (BOATsmart!).

As the operator, you are responsible for the safety of your passengers and for making the waterways safe for others. Stay sober and make sure everyone arrives home safely.

Stay Safe While Out on the Water This Summer

Follow some of these tips while youre out on your boat to avoid boating and driving:

Pack a selection of non-alcholic drinks like water, juice, soft drinks and iced tea along with lots of food and snack.

Its going to get hot out there – bring clothing that will keep you and your passengers cool.

Plan your trip so that you can avoid getting tired. Stressors like sun and wind exposure can tire you out more quickly while out on the water.

If you stop somewhere and drink alcohol with your meal, wait a reasonable time (estimated at a minimum of an hour per drink) before heading back out on your boat.

Not carrying any alcohol at all on your boat is the safest solution. Even passengers that have consumed alcohol are at risk of getting hurt while on your boat.

Get this message out to as many boaters as possible. A boat is a vehicle and as the operator, you are responsible for the safety of your passengers and for making the waterways safe for others.

Resources:

• Transport Canada – “Safe Boating Guide”
• MADD – “Boating While Intoxicated”
• Canadian Safe Boating Council – “Operation Dry Water”
• Boat U.S. Foundation – “Alcohol and Boating”
• U.S. Coast Guard’s Boating Division – “BUI Initiatives”
• BOATsmart! – “KNOW THE FACTS ABOUT DRINKING AND BOATING IN CANADA!”

Every year an untold number of individuals die as a result of intentionally inhaling common, legal, everyday home, school and office products. The National Inhalant Prevention Coalition (NIPC) reports approximately 100 to 125 inhalant deaths per year, based on contacts with families of victims and media accounts.

Intoxicating Inhalants: The Problem

There has always been a problem with juveniles, teens and young adults misusing and abusing over the counter and prescription drugs. Yet, in this instance, we define the term, “drug”, as any mood or mind altering substance obtained and consumed or inhaled without the knowledge and legal consent of a prescribing licensed physician. This may include any household product when used contrary to manufacturer’s intended purpose. Misuse of inhalants and volatile solvents are especially dangerous to such extent a single use can and has resulted in sudden death for some Canadian youths.

As a parent, if inhalant use and abuse is a subject unfamiliar, in a moment you will understand why parents allow proper attention to this group of quirky substances and why the threat to users is especially serious in some communities. More to the point, this threat increases exponentially because it is highly likely several of these chemicals and/or chemical compounds are sitting in your home at present. Of course, this alone makes for the easy access since unlike alcohol, nicotine and cocaine, where acquisition and access are prohibited by law and potentially costly to acquire.

Inhalants Defined

Inhalants may be anything from gasoline, lacquers or spray paints, paint thinners, glue, compressed air, a chemical in whipped cream, a component of Sharpie markers, furniture polish, chemicals in pesticides and a thousand other common household products. These products typically contain any or all of three common chemicals: Toluene, fluorocarbons, and nitrous oxide.

Manufacturers of lacquers and other materials routinely publish full disclosure statements warning those who work with or have contact with their product of dangers stemming from exposure. An actual example, of one such warning shown.

Just as we have stated in this article, so do manufacturers warn… death can result from misuse and prolonged exposure. Truth is this… anything in an aerosol and vapor form can ignite and potentially explode. Intentional misuse via inhalation and especially prolonged use is essentially the equivalent of a loaded shotgun and a death wish. Do not do it and tell your children not to and why – you may save someone’s life by sharing this information.

How Inhalants Enter the Body

Inhalants and volatile solvents enter the body much the same as oxygen -users breathe in through the mouth or via nasal passages. Inhaled chemicals quickly pass through the lungs and enter bloodstream, easily passing blood-brain barrier -a boundary human bodies possess designed to keep poisons from interrupting brain functioning. From this point, anything goes. There are, however, various stages users commonly report experiencing.

What Inhalants Do

Initial physical response to inhalants a user loses inhibitions and begins to feel “high”. This feeling of euphoria is actually a state of confusion within the body and mind. The “high”, or euphoria, begins sometimes within seconds or may take as long as a few minutes before the feeling initially occurs. Inhalant users have reported dizziness, nausea, vomiting and even loss of consciousness as side effects. Minutes later, a user may hallucinate. Once the high passes, solvents act much as depressant drugs or alcohol slowing down the body’s central nervous system.

Some users suffocate after becoming unconscious when “bagging”. Some experience hyper-sensations of being invincible that may result in an individual inadvertently taking their own life in an accidental death circumstance. Still other users have burnt to death because inhalants and solvents are highly flammable and may catch fire from sparks of a misplaced lit cigarette.

Inhalants Long Term Effects

If users do not die from volatile solvents and inhalants in short term, long-term effects are quite serious. Some examples: chronic nose bleeds, hearing loss and brain damage. Impaired functioning of vital body organs such as liver, kidneys, heart and lungs, as well as bone marrow. Most of these disorders never go away and continue to plaque users until death. (CPHA.ca)

Immediate Signs of Inhalant Use

According to Canada Public Health Association web page offering an overview on inhalants and solvents, the following are a few day after signs and examples of telltale signs parents should watch for. These symptoms include:

• Watery or bloodshot eyes
• Stomach ache or vomiting
• Bleeding or runny nose
• Diarrhea and abdominal pain
• Drooling and spitting
• Headache
• Dizziness
• Stains on fingers or hands
• Chemical smell on clothing, hair or breath

Source: CAPHA

Not For Human Consumption

Little oversight prevents a child or teen from purchasing these common household products. Police lack authority to police these type chemicals. No proof of age nor age requirement prevents kids from acquiring these chemicals taking them home and misusing them. Even though at least one product may result in instant and sudden death. This product is canned air used by many clerical workers as an office cleaning supply. Canned air is actually a mixture of chemicals heavier than oxygen in weight. Inhaling these chemicals has proven deadly in many cases.

Intoxicating inhalants have consequences when one develops dependence. Despite potential harms, intoxicating inhalants are available in most stores because legitimate uses out number official reports of deaths from misuse. When death occurs from misuse of inhaled volatile solvents it is difficult to directly link to actual cause unless there are witnesses on scene.

Indigenous Youth Inhalant Use

Studies of First Nations communities in Canada and United States suggest up to 60 percent of youth living on Indigenous lands use and abuse of chemical inhalants. Inhalants are inexpensive and almost anyone can buy them off the shelf at a local store. (NAHO). Some household products open to abuse include gasoline, Sharpies, paint thinner, air duster in a spray can, different types of glue, and others. A statistic published by Foundation for Drug-Free World states, 22% of inhalant abusers who died of Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome had no history of previous inhalant abuse – they were first-time users (Drugfreeworld.org).

Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey

The Centre for Addiction Mental Health’s conducts an on-going study designed to assess youth drug use is an ongoing school survey that asks participating students about prior drug use in the previous year. This study, Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey or OSDUHS, is the longest ongoing study of its kind. To date, reported findings are based on 19 survey cycles conducted every two years since 1977.

In 2013, 10,272 students (63% of selected students in participating classes) in grades 7 through 12 from 42 participating school boards, 198 schools and 671 classes participated in the OSDUHS administered by the Institute for Social Research, York University. The 2013 survey concluded:

• a total of 3.4 percent of the students have or are abusing inhalants
• 2.4% of the males and 4.1% of the females
• Highest use of 7.6% by students in the 8th grade.

Further 2013 OSDUHS Survey results found a significant decrease in inhalants use for non-Indigenous youth (and 17 other drugs that were highly abused) from 1999 to 2013. For inhalants, glues and solvents a decline from 8.9% in 1999 to 3.4% in 2013 (OSDUHS). The survey found students reporting inhalant use in 2011 declined in 2013 for most provinces, while others showed no decline. Aboriginal communities are examples of those showing no decline. Moreover, according to participants, average age of initiation to inhalants and solvents is becoming increasingly lower now between the ages of 10 and 13. This places the median age of first inhalant experience at the tender age of 11.5. Of course, this factor alone is indicative of serious future issue since this youth demographic (persons under fifteen years of age) is the fastest growing segment of Canada’s overall population making up 5-6 percent. This may prove big trouble for Canada’s future healthcare system, economically speaking since two Indigenous communities have youth populations almost twice the national average. Do the math and realize 5-6 percent amounts to large numbers of at-risk youth.

In Northwest Territories “one person in five, or 21.4%, living in this territory are under 15 years of age, while only six persons in 100 (6.2%) are aged 65 and over. In Nanavut, 31.7% of the population are under 15 years of age”. A proportion almost twice Canada’s national average.

Imagine the damage that inhalants may inflict on human bodies before adulthood if inhalant use becomes habitual. For these and other reasons, Crime Stoppers urges teachers, parents, guardians and lawmakers to gain an understanding as to how to curtail Canadian youth inhalant problem. If left unchecked, this growing problem will reach pandemic proportions and most certainly place a future economic strain on Canada’s health care system in the future.

The following table published by Canada’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in 2013, offers an at a glance comparison of the above statistics including those regarding inhalant use by Canadian school children and teens:

Parents Not Enlightened to Child’s Inhalant Use

With such numbers widely reported, it is no wonder, at least one source calls it “startling” when the Partnership for a Drug-Free America reported in their 2002 Parent Attitude Survey (PATS) reports parents knowledge of a child’s drug use lags far behind at a ratio of 18:1. More to the point, 18 percent of teens (ages 12-17) reported having tried inhalants while only 1 percent of parents of teens believe their child has tried inhalants.

Further, the 2002 PATS reported most parents of school-aged children who discuss drugs with their child are less likely to discuss inhalants than marijuana or other drugs such as heroin, cocaine and crack. For example, 50% of parents discussed marijuana, 39% discussed heroin, cocaine and crack; while only 33% discussed inhalants.

Prevention Education Programs

In those communities with declining inhalant abuse rates there exists a direct link to the presence of prevention education programs, substance abuse treatment centers and adequately staffed clinical and social services. All undeniably absent in those other communities where use, abuse and addiction rates continue to climb. Teachers, community leaders and health care professionals tend to agree educational efforts empower youth to make the right decisions in life.

Teaching children and teens how misuse of common household chemicals like lacquers, gasoline, paints and glues or other household chemicals harm human organs such as lungs, kidneys, brain functionality, oral health. Or, how too often, misuse of inhalants leads to mental health issues for habitual users, it is highly likely most will elect to avoid experiential learning.

Advice for Parents

As a parent or guardian, lack of prevention education in schools and communities makes this conversation with children ultimately a parental responsibility; in the event you feel a bit intimidated by the thought of opening dialogue with your child – you are not alone. Remind yourself that the child’s life may depend on establishing an open line of communication in effort to enlighten children about probable hazards and cumulative harm to human bodies. This is especially true for parents of elementary age kids because inhalant and volatile solvent use now occurs at significantly younger age. Thus, making this type conversation a must.

We suggest a good starting point is explaining adverse bodily responses associated with inhalants such as gasoline and paint thinners. Perhaps even an impromptu role-playing where you ask your child to hold his or her breath for as long as possible which likely brings forth a certain gasping for oxygen in mere minutes. This suggestion is an ad hoc suffocation assimilation. Hopefully, this simulation is enough to convince vulnerable youth there are far better experiences to be had than dying from the misuse of gasoline, spray paints as inhalants, glues and solvents in pursuit of a quick high. In most instances, the attraction for most youth is in challenging the outside world, pushing and stepping on lines and boundaries relating to illicit drug experimentation.

If the thought of entertaining these conversations give you reason to pause, please visit any of the resources cited for additional facts and information relating to inhalant, glue and solvent abuse, substance abuse in general and youth suicide prevention.

Parents, youth and citizens can also contact your local Crime Stoppers agency or local law enforcement if you need information and/or assistance with an at-risk youth or substance abuser.

Resources:

• National Inhalant Prevention Coalition (NIPC).
• Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA).
• G. Roberts, World Youth Report, United Nations Economic and Social Council, In press.
• World Youth Report
• DrugFreeWorld.org
• Boak, A., Hamilton, H.A., Adlaf, E.M., & Mann, R.E. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 2013
• Foundation for a Drug-Free World, “International Statistics”.
• Statistics Canada. September, 2012. Catalogue no. 91-215-X. ISSN 1911-2408.

Cannabis is still the number one consumed drug in the country and, according to a study made by the Addiction Foundation of Manitoba, in 2004, 44.5 percent of Canadians tried marijuana at least once in their life and men with 18 and 19 years old are the biggest consumers.

In both countries, experimenting and consuming marijuana has been a “normal part of growing up”, like professor Peter Reuter, from the University of Maryland, described (If Marijuana Is Legal, Will Addiction Rise? 2009). But, it’s not because most people tend to ignore the dissemination of marijuana that the problem will disappear. The consumption of cannabis continues to increase and the crime scenarios in which the drug is present keep multiplying, not only when drugs are the crime, but also when drugs are one of the reasons why the crime happened. This is not a complete shock if you think that marijuana has psychoactive and physiological effects, especially because of the component THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol.

Several scientific studies report that the drug changes not only the consumer’s perception of reality, but also their mood, blood pressure, memory and psychomotor coordination.

This psychoactive drug ends up provoking a mix of feelings, from lethargy to euphoria, not forgetting violence. The long-term effects are still being studied, but soon there will be millions of investigation “samples”, if you think that, in 2009, Roger Roffman, a professor at the University of Washington, assured that “approximately 3.6 million Americans are daily or near daily users” of marijuana (If Marijuana Is Legal, Will Addiction Rise?, 2009).

That’s why Crime Stoppers of Northwestern Ontario and Northern Minnesotahave been fighting for years against marijuana abuse. Because although cannabis is still considered illegal in Canada and Minnesota, the consumers act as if it wasn’t. And, thanks to the statistics, it hasn’t been difficult relating the consumption of this drug to the increase in crime and violence in these regions.

Cannabis Possession Reporting Increased in 2011

Cannabis possessions increased in 2011, according to Statistics Canada. In Canada, drug offences such as possession, trafficking, importation/exportation and production fall under the purview of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

In 2011, police reported more than 113,100 drug crimes, of which more than half (54%) were for the possession of cannabis.

Drug-related crime reporting increased in 2011. This increase was driven by a 7% rise in the rate of cannabis possession offences. However, the rate of trafficking, production and distribution of cannabis declined 11%.

Can drugs be guilty?

Despite the facts, we still need to ask. Can these two issues – drugs, in this case marijuana, and crime – be connected? The answer is yes if we defer to a document published in Minnesota in 2012. According to the “Minnesota State Substance Abuse Strategy“, a document published in 2012 by the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division of the state of Minnesota, drugs are linked to many of society’s current problems.

Among these problems are “increased crime, illnesses, child abuse and neglect, unwanted pregnancy, birth defects, accidental injuries, motor vehicle crashes and fatalities and accidental overdose deaths” all resulting in or significantly contributing to “increased health care and criminal justice costs” that are borne largely at public expense.

In Minnesota’s case, marijuana is still the most commonly used and available drug in the state, as reported by the National Substance Abuse Index, and the consumption continues to grow. Also, Minnesota was the 17^th state with the biggest rate of marijuana abuse in 2012, according to information published on the website StateMaster.com, and the crime statistics haven’t decreased significantly in the last few years.

However, when we talk about crime, Canada is an example of what should be made to prevent it, as the country is now enjoying the lowest crime rate in the last 40 years. Yet, there’s an exception that is quite baffling and its name is Northwestern Ontario. The crime increase at the region worries Canada because, although the rates continue to fall all over the country, this is not happening in that particular area. And here is where the issue lies.

A complete survey conducted by the Canadian magazine MacLean’s states that Ontario is the 9^th region with the highest rate of violent crimes, such as murder or assault.

How to recognize the signs and prevent addiction

If we want to stop this disaster, all the citizens need to be alert and learn to know the signs of cannabis abuse. It’s up to everyone to help prevent the increase of marijuana abuse. Although thousands of consumers deny their addiction, it’s not difficult to identify the signs and avoiding an addiction might be the same as avoiding a crime in the future. Here are some tips that can help:

• Like any other drug, regular use of marijuana creates a tolerance in the user, causing him to need more and more drug to get high. These consumers will get the normal withdrawal symptoms such as loss of appetite, irritability, insomnia or anxiety.
• Being unable to cut down the dosage or stop using marijuana use, what usually results in spending all day getting high.
• Regular users and addicts tend to reduce all other activities of their daily life like, for instance, their hobbies and even school or work. Missing work because of drugs is an important sign of addiction, because it means that the consumer is willing to risk a significant part of its life because of cannabis.
• Addicts usually use marijuana to escape from problems like bad grades or relationship issues. The momentary lethargy that cannabis provides turns into an addiction for these people.
• Someone that chooses relationships or activities based on the possibility of getting high is an obvious sign of addiction to marijuana.

Therefore community groups such as the most obvious, Crime Stoppers of Northwestern Ontario and Northern Minnesota urges citizens to “Know the Signs” as part of its latest public awareness campaign.

Crime Stoppers of Northwestern Ontario and Northern Minnesota further urges citizens not to avoid the issue of increasing marijuana use and abuse and suggests every citizen to become aware of the signs because marijuana users of the present are most likely the up & coming criminals in the future.

The United States Department of Justice explains, “Identity theft and identity fraud are terms used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person’s personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain.”

Officials detail (2004), “Unlike your fingerprints, which are unique to you and cannot be given to someone else for their use, your personal data–especially your Social Security number, your bank accounts or credit card numbers, your telephone calling card number, and other valuable identifying data–can be used, if they fall into the wrong hands, to personally profit at your expense.”

Identity theft is by no means a new phenomenon. Cassius Dio(Gleason, 2011)reports cases of identity theft, impersonation and usurpation in his contemporary histories of ancient Rome; and Shakespeare writes in Othello (iii, 3)”He that filches from me my good name/Robs me of that which not enriches him/And makes me poor indeed.” With his usual command of multiple meanings, Shakespeare literally describes fraud, but he also alludes to the worst consequence of identity theft – loss of reputation and standing in the community. In some cases, victims of identity theft have spent years rehabilitating their good names and restoring their credit rating. Until the late 20th century, identity theft and impersonation remained primarily the province of literature, except when desperate fugitives used their aliases and went underground to elude authorities. In the 21^st century, however, huge cases of data theft and purloined credit information regularly make headlines.

Growth of information technology has made it much easier for identity thieves to gather information and evade detection.

In possession of just one piece of your personal data, a skilled identity thief can recover just about everything about you and can use it to loot your bank accounts, run-up your credit card balances, or open all kinds of new accounts and lines of credit in your name.

Technology and tactics outpace laws and detection.

In 2001, three full years after Congress enacted its groundbreaking “Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act”. Deputy Attorney General, Larry Thompson, told reporters gathered for his announcement of the FBI’s first major operation against Internet fraud: “Internet crimes are growing at an unprecedented rate that exceeds all other types of white collar fraud,” adding, “The Federal Trade Commission has received identity theft claims at the most rapid pace in its history” (Crime Control Digest; May 25, 2001; vol. 35, no. 21, 431). Despite federal and state laws providing harsh penalties for identity theft and fraud, and despite investigators’ increasing sophistication, the pace of identity crimes continued unabated for more than a decade. In its recently released report, 2012 Identity Fraud Industry Report: Social Media and Mobile Forming the New Fraud Frontier,”(2013) Javelin Strategy and Research four highlights four disturbing trends:

• Identity fraud incidents increased, amount stolen remained steady – For the tenth straight year, the number of identity thefts increased, rising 13 percent. However, because of improved prevention and detection tools, consumers’ out-of-pocket costs have decreased by 44 percent since 2004. Researchers caution, however, that the substantial decrease in consumer losses derives almost as much from consumer protection laws that hold account holders and credit card users blameless for fraudulent activity; businesses, especially large retailers, frequently absorb the losses.
• Social behaviors put consumers at risk – Javelin reports, “Despite warnings that social networks are a great resource for fraudsters, consumers are still sharing a significant amount of personal information frequently used to authenticate a consumer’s identity.” Investigators found, not surprisingly, Facebook and Twitter users with profiles visible to everyone were substantially more likely to expose vital personal information than their more cautious fellow users. Javelin specified, “Sixty-eight percent of people with public social media profiles shared their birthday information (with 45 percent sharing month, date and year); 63 percent shared their high school name; 18 percent shared their phone number; and 12 percent shared their pet’s name – all are prime examples of personal information a company would use to verify your identity.” Note that a pet’s name often provides the answer to security questions used to protect online bank and credit card accounts.
• Smartphone owners experience greater incidence of fraud – Although the Javelin group found that only seven percent of smartphone users fell victim to identity theft or fraud, nevertheless that figure is 33 percent higher than the rate among the general public. Reluctant to blame the victims for the crimes, Javelin reporters nevertheless noted that most smartphone users do not take advantage of security features built into their phones. “Thirty-two percent of smartphone owners do not update to a new operating system when it becomes available,” they said, and “Sixty-two percent do not use a password on their home screens – enabling anyone to access their information if the phone is lost; and 32 percent save login information on their device.”
• Data Breaches increasing and more damaging – Well-publicized data breaches, more commonly known as “hacks,” contributed to spikes in identity theft and fraud. Javelin Strategy & Research determined that “victims of data breaches are 9.5 times more likely to be a victim of identity fraud than consumers who did not receive such a data breach letter.”

Peter Graboski (2001,431) explains why law enforcement officials and prosecutors cannot keep pace with identity theft and those thieves who appear to be building criminal alliances online.

“Digital technology creates new opportunities for theft, and criminal law has been slow to respond… Prosecutions are cumbersome, costly, and produce uncertain results. Victims are thus often deterred from initiating prosecution, or even reporting the crime. Cybercrime, as the act of stealing identities is often referred, presents further challenges. Technology often changes too rapidly for effective legislation. Cybercrimes often cross many jurisdictions and nations; the evidence is complicated and highly technical; and development of the necessary forensic tools is costly.”

Therefore, Grabosky joins the majority of experts who suggest that consumer vigilance stands out as the best defense against identity theft and fraud.

Effective Identity Theft Prevention Practices

On the basis of his exhaustive analysis of crime data, Chad Albrecht (2011) established “the identity theft cycle” and “provides evidence to suggest that if identity theft is detected early, would-be victims of identity theft can protect themselves from the vast and difficult consequences.”

Albrecht summarizes, “Research has suggested that victims of identity theft spend an average of $1,500 in out-of-pocket expenses and an average of 175 hours per incident of identity theft fraud in order to resolve the many problems caused by identity thieves.

The United States Federal Trade Commission has labeled identity theft as the most common type of consumer fraud, affecting thousands of people everyday. In fact, approximately 40 percent of the frauds reported to the United States Federal Trade Commission over the last few years has involved some type of identity theft. Furthermore, research has suggested that victims of identity theft suffer both psychological and physical distresses.” His research indicated that skilled, experienced identity thieves proceed cautiously and test stolen data for accuracy before they undertake major thefts or frauds. Therefore, scrupulous consumers, acting in concert with their banks and financial services providers, can detect and thwart identity theft before it takes an extortionate toll.

Albrecht recommends ten significant actions to guard against identity theft and fraud:

1. Guard mail from theft. Invest in a secure outdoor mailbox – one that allows the mail carrier to deposit mail without opening the box, and one that allows only you to retrieve the box’s contents. When you travel on business or go on vacation, have the postal service hold your personal mail.
2. Opt out of pre-approved credit cards. According to Albrecht, “One of the most common and easiest ways for a perpetrator to commit identity theft is to simply fill out the pre-approved credit card applications consumers receive via the mail and send them in.” Perpetrators often open a victims’ mailboxes and steal pre-approved credit card applications before victims know they arrived. In the United States, you may opt-out of all pre-approved offers by calling 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688); representatives will remove your information from all direct marketing lists.
3. Check your credit report at least once each year. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, the major credit reporting bureaus, to provide consumers with a free copy of their credit report, at the consumer’s request, once every 12 months. Your credit report may give the first signals that someone is taking money from your accounts or making unauthorized charges on existing or new card accounts.
4. Guard your social security card and numbers. Your social security number is “the golden key” that unlocks all of your identity and financial information. You seldom have occasion to use the card itself, so store it in your safe or safe deposit box. Disclose the nine precious digits only to reliable people for legitimate business purposes.
5. Safeguard all personal information. Albrecht advises, “Safeguarding personal information is very important for every individual. Consumers who have roommates, employ outside help to clean or perform other domestic services, or have outside people in their house for any reason need to be particularly careful or risk falling victim to identity theft.”
6. Guard trash from theft. Disgusting as it seems, the majority of identity thefts still originate in pilferage from trash, and determined thieves will dig through all kinds of waste to find valuable words and digits. Invest in a heavy duty shredder and shred any and every document that contains even a hint of personal or financial data. Take advantage of online bill-paying and account management services, minimizing the pieces of sensitive mail you physically receive.
7. Protect your wallet and other valuables. Most people over-stuff their wallets and act pretty cavalier about how they carry them. Albrecht and others urge you to carry only your identification and the credit or debit cards you use every day, keeping careful track of where and how you carry your wallet or purse. As you use your cards or write checks, guard the printed information and account numbers. Store your bank’s “fraud alert” number in your cell phone and keep a copy of them somewhere in your home.
8. Protect passwords. Albrecht reminds, “Individuals should use passwords on credit card, bank, and telephone accounts that are not easily determinable or available. Consumers should avoid using information that can be easily associated with them, such as their birthday, their mother’s maiden name, their spouse’s name, the last four digits of their telephone number, a series of consecutive numbers such as 1-2-3-4, or anything else that is predictable.”
9. Protect your home. Police report that increasing numbers of burglaries do not include property theft; instead, they focus entirely on collection of personal data, and many victims will not see signs of robbery until several weeks after the crimes have occurred. The more assets and accounts you control, the more you need to install a home security system; and, regardless of your net worth, you should store all your important documents and vital information in a safe or safety deposit box.
10. Protect your computer. Because legitimate Internet businesses respect customers’ privacy, they never ask for personal information via e-mail. Albrecht stresses, “If consumers get an e-mail or pop-up message that asks for personal or financial information, they should not reply or click on the link in the message.” If you must send personal data via the Internet, send only via your vendor’s or service provider’s encrypted website.

If you are a victim of identity theft, immediately report the crime to your bank and creditors. You will not be held liable for fraudulent charges, and quick reporting gives your bank’s and creditors’ investigators a timely start in tracking down the thieves. Just as importantly, report the crime to police who have assigned extra high priority to investigation of financial crimes. If you have first-hand knowledge of identity theft crimes in progress, report the information to Crime Stoppers of Northwestern Ontario. Crime Stoppers assures both your anonymity and prompt reporting to law enforcement.

In Canada’s major cities, gang offenses typically are prosecuted under the laws governing “participation in a criminal organization.”

Supplementing the Police Chiefs’ definition, the Montral Police Service’s description stresses anti-social and delinquent behaviours that distinguish youth gangs from other criminal enterprises. Montreal Police identify a gang as, “An organized group of adolescents and/or young adults who rely on group intimidation and violence, and commit criminal acts in order to gain power and recognition and/or control certain areas of unlawful activity.”

Consistent with Montreal’s stress on the value of power and recognition, officials in northern Minnesota and northwestern Ontario stress that gang members flagrantly display their criminal affiliation by wearing gang colours, getting tattoos of common gang symbols, flashing a variety of gang signs – their own specialized hand signals, and sometimes with “signature” modi operandi in their commission of violent crimes.

In its extremely handy Gang factsheet, Deal.Org, part of the National Youth Services branch of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Crime Prevention Services, notes that gangs differ dramatically in size, structure, sophistication, and age. In general, though, gangs identify with and seek to control their neighborhoods, and they commit violent crimes to establish their hegemony over both territory and all criminal activity inside their territory. In many cases, gang members employ gratuitous violence to discourage and deter would-be competitors. Deal.Org also describes how youth gangs are responsible for the vast majority of graffiti and vandalism in their territories, and graffiti serves to establish strict, inviolable boundaries for the gang’s operations. Most youth gangs are linked to larger criminal enterprises in order to import and distribute drugs, smuggle and sell weapons, and conduct human trafficking to expand their sex trade. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police say that organized crime groups often employ youth gangs as debt collectors, car thieves, and “enforcers.” Just as importantly, Public Safety Canada adds, “Once thought just to be in larger cities like Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal, youth gangs are now found in more rural areas as well.”

Because most people associate gang activity with depressed American inner cities, the statistics often surprise them. In its ground-breaking report, “Youth Gangs in Canada: What Do We Know?“, Public Safety Canada summarized results of nationwide law enforcement surveys, estimating that…

• Canada has 434 youth gangs with roughly 7,000 members nationally.
• Ontario has the highest number of youth gangs and youth gang members in absolute terms, with 216 youth gangs and 3,320 youth gang members. Saskatchewan is second (28 youth gangs and 1,315 members), followed by British Columbia (102 youth gangs and 1,027 members)^[9]. police in Ontario reported that 38% of gang-related drug trafficking and 15% each of the weapons possession and auto theft/exportation offences were committed in collaboration with organized crime groups.
• For the country as a whole, the vast majority of youth gang members are male (94%).
• Almost half (48%) of all youth gang members are under the age of18. Most (39%) are between 16 and 18 years old.
• The largest proportion of youth gang members are African Canadian (25%), followed by First Nations (21%) and Caucasian (18%).
• Police agencies and Aboriginal organizations indicate that there is a growing percentage of female gang membership in western Canadian provinces, including British Columbia (12%), Manitoba (10%) and Saskatchewan (9%).

Effective Prevention and Intervention

Detailing “Traits of Gang Members,” Edmonton Police say, “The excitement of gang activity, which often involves violence, danger, and outward expressions of cultural biases, coupled with the acceptance given by fellow gang members, provide the social support and community involvement that are often lacking in the lives of young male gang members.”

According to officials atPublic Safety Canada, “From a prevention perspective, it is vital to understand that youth involvement in crime and violence is linked with the experience of the gang itself… Most youth who join gangs have already been involved in crime, violence and illegal drug use. The prevalence and scope of youth gang involvement varies across the country, but the “gang effect” of increased delinquency, drug use and violence is a common thread.” Researchers also explain, “In the United States, studies of large urban samples show that youth gang members are responsible for a large proportion of all violent adolescent offences. On average, 20% of gang members were responsible for committing about 80% of all serious violent adolescent offences.” Similarly, in Canada, one carefully controlled, reliable study found, “Sixteen percent of alleged young offenders who were classified as chronic offenders were responsible for 58% of all alleged criminal incidents.”

More alarming, the specifics call attention to the problem’s urgency:

• There is a correlation between gang presence in schools and the availability of both guns and drugs in schools.
• 18.7% of boys (ages 14 to17) in Montral and 15.1% in Toronto have brought a gun to school.
• School dropouts who get involved in drug selling are at higher risk of being involved in gun-related violence.

Edmonton Police explain gang members’ motivation, detailing how gangs may supplant families and provide friends.

Because of low self-worth and self-esteem, some youth join gangs seeking the status they lack due to unemployment or academic failure at school. If young people do not see themselves as intelligent, leaders, or star athletes, they join other groups where they feel they can excel.

Many youngsters do not have a positive adult role model. Many see domestic violence and alcohol and other drug use in the home. Lack of parental involvement and the absence of rules and family rituals allow older gang members to be viewed as authority figures by young teens and children. Young people join gangs to receive the attention, affirmation, and protection they may feel they are lacking at home. Many street gang members carry on a family tradition established by siblings, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, or cousins who they see as role models. Joining a gang provides friends with whom they can share their free time.

Edmonton Police go on to detail social and environmental problems that contribute to gang membership.

Few job opportunities, no positive recreational choices, or lack of effective responses to peer pressure can create a climate favouring gang membership.

Many people are without jobs or a source of income. Becoming a gang member can provide a teen with an opportunity to make large amounts money quickly, because many gangs are involved in the illegal sale of drugs and firearms. The monetary allure of gang membership is difficult to counteract. Gang members share profits from drug trafficking and other illegal activities. To a teen, money translates into social status.

“The wraparound approach”

In its carefully researched, evidence-based, comprehensive and compelling study, “Prevention of Youth Gang Violence: Overview of Strategies and Approaches,” Canada’s National Crime Prevention Centre strongly advocates, “the wraparound approach” to reduction of gang membership and gang-related crime. The report explains, “The wraparound approach has been implemented in the United States and Canada throughout the 1990s, as well as more recently. The wraparound process is an intensive, individualized care management approach designed for children, youth and individuals with serious or complex emotional and/or behavioural problems.

A comprehensive continuum of individualized services and support networks are adapted to meet the unique needs of individuals. This approach differs from traditional interventions in that it is less prescriptive and allows for flexibility in the design of the service delivery model.” Advocates note that the Centre’s plan treats gang participation as a constellation of emotional and behavioural issues which will respond to proper intervention and treatment.

Taking the problem out of the criminal justice system and assigning it to clinicians and educators, the wraparound approach goes to the heart of most gang members’ motivation.

Advocates concede that effective wraparound programs will differ from one area to another, but they insist a common set of six general principles and practices must guide the development and implementation of local interventions:

1. A collaborative, community-based interagency team (with professionals from youth justice, education, mental health and social services systems) designs, implements and oversees the project.
2. A formal interagency agreement identifies the target population for the initiative: how they will be enrolled in the program; how services will be delivered and paid for; what roles different agencies and individuals will play; and what resources will be committed by various groups.
3. Care coordinators are responsible for helping participants create a customized treatment program for guiding youth and their families through the system of care.
4. Child and family teams (family members, paid service providers, and community members such as teachers and mentors), who know the youth and his/her complex needs, work in partnership to ensure that the young person’s needs in all life domains are addressed with cultural competence.
5. A youth-driven comprehensive plan of care, which is updated continually, identifies the young person’s unique strengths and weaknesses across domains, targets specific goals and outlines action plans. This plan addresses the role of individual team members (young person and family included) in achieving the goals.
6. All wraparound programs articulate specific performance measures to assess the outcome of interventions throughout the course of the initiative.

Consistent with the Centre’s insistence on evidence-driven investigations and innovations, the report contains case studies of several wraparound programs that succeeded in a variety of geographic, socio-economic and cultural situations.

How you can help

Crime Stoppers of Northwestern Ontario encourage you to report all suspicious activity to police – especially if it shows telltale signs of gang involvement. Moreover, if you have first-hand knowledge of gang activity in your neighborhood, call Crime Stoppers, where representatives always safeguard your anonymity and promptly relay important information to police. Most of all, please support Crime Stoppers’ efforts to combat all kinds of crime in our region.

In 2009, 4.8 million Americans from age 12 and older revealed they had used cocaine (in any form) at least once in their life and 1 million had abused crack at least once in the year before the survey, which was conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2010).

On the other hand, in 2011, Canada registered a decrease in their numbers with 0.9 percent of its population admitting to have used cocaine or crack in the year before, as stated on a research from Health Canada (Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Survey, 2011).

Unlike the United States, Canadian results are clearly a consequence of the great job that the country has been making in the drug prevention area. The study quoted above mentions that, between 2004 and 2011, the statistics regarding the number of cocaine and crack users has diminished from 1.9 to 0.9 percent.

There are some regions in the country that are following a different path and one of them is Northwestern Ontario, where drug abuse among students is skyrocketing.

This is only one more reason for the Crime Stoppers of Northwestern Ontario and Northern Minnesotato continue fighting drug abuse, especially cocaine, which is becoming a bigger source of imminent social scourge. Also, these numbers keep on reflecting on the local crime rates and that’s why the organization wants its fellow citizens to be informed about the signs of drug abuse and criminal danger.

The dangerous effects of cocaine

After a consumption decrease registered in the 90s, when the main hard drug was heroin, cocaine is back in full power, either in its pure form or in crack form. “However, cocaine is not a new drug. In fact, it is one of the oldest known psychoactive substances”, claims a report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (“Cocaine: Abuse and Addiction”, 1999).

The history of the drug goes a long way back to the coca leave, originally used 1,200 years ago by the native south-American tribes that chewed it to cheat their hungry stomachs and to sustain thirst and fatigue.

Still today, some people from countries like Peru and Bolivia use these leaves to, legally, make a weak and traditional coca tea.

Nothing that can resemble what is, today, the consumption levels of cocaine. In its current form, cocaine acts in the nervous system of its users, making the consumers feel extremely excited, conscious and awake.

Many of them report a state of clear mind and the feeling of being stopped in time. This happens because cocaine is a strong enhancer of the connections that occur in the sympathetic nervous system, both in the brain and in its periphery.

Cocaine – scientifically called benzoylmethylecgonine or benzoic acid ester – is an alkaloid drug that is created from the bush Erythroxylum coca, by extraction methods that involve solvents such as alkali, sulfuric acid or kerosene, for instance.

This illegal drug has severe anesthetic effects and its abuse can cause a lot of undesirable effects. The first one is, of course, high dependence, followed by hypertension and psychiatric disorders. It’s said that this drug makes its users feel disconnected of any social, familiar or emotional interests and that is one of the reasons appointed by specialists when trying to find a connection between crime rates and cocaine abuse.

Cocaine has become a weapon of self destruction and has originated a lot of derivatives like the cheaper and dangerous crack, named “cocaine of the poor”. The euphoric effect of crack is stronger when compared to cocaine, but, although the crack’s price is a “street truth”, it’s not a scientific truth. It turns out that crack only looks cheaper than its original drug, but it isn’t because its effect is quicker, an average 20 minutes, depending on the addiction degree. But none of this matters because is the thrill of the sensation that attracts them and leads these consumers to commit crimes in name of the drugs.

Cocaine in the present and future crime

The hazardous effects and the ability to produce a strong dependency turn cocaine and crack into true factories of offenders and criminals. The Minnesota State is the first to recognize this fact, in a report published in 2012: “substance abuse, untreated addiction, underage drinking and tobacco use have a significant and costly impact on the health, well-being and public safety of our state and nation” (Minnesota State Substance Abuse Strategy, 2012).

Although the following data is not recent, it’s great to demonstrate the connection between cocaine and crime rates in a region of interest. From May 1997 to March 1998, in Minnesota, “law enforcement sources continue to report gang involvement in the transportation and distribution of cocaine and related violent crime. Of the homicides committed statewide, 22 percent of the victims and 33 percent of the suspects and arrestees were gang members. In the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, the rise in violent crime is attributable to street gangs’ defense of their turf. The St. Paul Police Department estimates that 50 percent of crime in the city can be attributed to gang-related drug sales, assaults, drive-by shootings, burglaries, and criminal damage to property” (Minnesota Drug Threat Assessment, 2001).

A study published in The British Journal of Criminology assures that “crack cocaine eventually led, and was thus apparently related, to street robbery and snatch theft” (The Links between Heroin, Crack Cocaine and Crime, 2005). So, does society really need more signs before it decides to fight against drug abuse?

This is a growing preoccupation among the populations of Northwestern Ontario and Northern Minnesota, if we take a look at the drug statistics among young students that can, later, become crime authors. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 2011, 3.59 percent of the inhabitants between 18 and 25 years old and also 0.93 percent of the inhabitants with more than 26 years old were cocaine users. And, geographically, Minneapolis was the most worrying city of the state and also the center of cocaine distribution (Minnesota Drug Report Data Source, 2010).

After looking at the Minnesota data, Ontario is the other Crime Stoppers’ concern. As reported by the Thunder Bay District Health Unit in 2006, “cocaine and crack use has historically been low among Northwestern Ontario students”, but it doubled from 3 to 6 percent between 2001 and 2005 (Northwestern Ontario Student Drug Use Survey, 2006). This tells us exactly what we don’t want to hear: that cocaine consumption is abnormally rising in this particular region. This drug was, actually, the 12^th most abused substance by students from this Canadian area (but the 5^th drug in the illegal and hard substances list). According to a study made by the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, 2.8 percent of Ontario students had already consumed cocaine and Northwestern area was, definitely, the most concerning. Also, 10 percent of the interviewees assured it was easy to buy cocaine in that particular region (Drug Use Among Ontario Students, 2011).

So, if you’re a concerned parent, relative or friend, here are some dangerous signs of cocaine addiction:

• The first physical signs revealed by cocaine users are dry or chapped nose and lips, permanent bad breath, dilated pupils and also bulging red veins in the white part of the eyes;
• During the high caused by the drug, that lasts about 15 to 30 minutes, users show signs of intense stimulation. They usually appear extremely happy, talk really fast and can also seem anxious or irritable. But, because the high ends quickly, they start to look fatigue and may have to hide to get another dose;
• Cocaine can also mess with eating habits, because it ruins the consumer appetite. Sleeping habits are also affected;
• Like many other drugs, it leads to a disorganized life, making the user miss appointments, ditching school or work and leaving their hobbies behind;
• Generally, cocaine users also show permanent signs of rage and mood swings;
• And, of course, cocaine also affects its consumers’ health, causing respiratory and lung disorders, like asthma and fluid in the lungs, disintegration of the nasal passages, delusions and anxiety disorders, as well as nausea and headaches.

If we look at the available data and believe in the previsions made by Columbia University in 2012, that says that 1 in 4 users who start consuming any addictive substance before the age 18 will become addicted (Addiction: a preventable and treatable disease, 2012), then, there are reasons to be even more worried about the future than we are about the present. That’s exactly the reason why the mission of Crime Stoppers of Northwestern Ontario and Northern Minnesota hinges on prevention. This organization wants citizens to know the signs in an effort to prevent future problems.

Crime Stoppers of Northwest Ontario very strongly encourage citizens to report all bullying incidents – not only the assaults they see and the threats they hear in their home neighborhoods and workplaces, but also the more insidious harassment and intimidation they see on the Internet. Perhaps most importantly, although bullies may face criminal charges or civil penalties, their behavior signals urgent need for psychological intervention and treatment.

Bullies no longer only lurk near bike racks, along alleyways, or just out of sight. They now menace virtual playgrounds, assaulting victims in the presence of worldwide online audiences.

Bullying, and especially cyberbullying, first gained national attention in the wake of Phoebe Prince’s 2010 suicide. In January, 2010, South Hadley High School (Massachusetts) freshman Phoebe Prince, 15, committed suicide after six upper-classmen relentlessly harassed, intimidated, and assaulted her both at school and in their neighborhood. The personable, attractive Irish newcomer originally provoked their ire by dating a popular senior boy, but the attacks continued even after she stopped seeing him. The violence ultimately escalated to the point Ms. Prince no longer felt safe to attend school; and, perhaps most troubling, several faculty knew of the problem and did nothing to stop it.

At the peak of the nation’s hue and cry over the tragedy, The New York Times reported,

The prosecutor brought charges Monday against six teenagers, saying their taunting and physical threats were beyond the pale and led the freshman, Phoebe Prince, to hang herself from a stairwell in January.

The charges were an unusually sharp legal response to the problem of adolescent bullying, which is increasingly conducted in cyberspace as well as in the schoolyard and has drawn growing concern from parents, educators and lawmakers.

Indicted on a “a different mix of felony charges that included statutory rape, violation of civil rights with bodily injury, harassment, and stalking,” all six teens ultimately reached plea agreements with prosecutors, and none has served a single day in jail. The Prince family eventually settled with the City of South Hadley and its school district for $225,000. Most importantly,

In the uproar around the suicides of Ms. Prince, 15, and an 11-year-old boy subjected to harassment in nearby Springfield last year, the Massachusetts legislature stepped up work on an anti-bullying law that is now near passage. The law would require school staff members to report suspected incidents and principals to investigate them. It would also demand that schools teach about the dangers of bullying. Forty-one other states have anti-bullying laws of varying strength.

The Prince cases pales by comparison, however, with the rash of suicides in tiny Anoka, Minnesota. Literally triggered by Samantha Johnson’s death from a self-inflicted hunting-rifle shot, a suicide epidemic took the lives of nine other Anoka teens within just two years. Writing in Rolling Stone, Sabrina Rubin Erdely summarized:

Sam’s death lit the fuse of a suicide epidemic that would take the lives of nine local students in under two years, a rate so high that child psychologist Dan Reidenberg, executive director of the Minnesota-based Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, declared the Anoka-Hennepin school district the site of a “suicide cluster,” adding that the crisis might hold an element of contagion; suicidal thoughts had become catchy, like a lethal virus.

“Here you had a large number of suicides that are really closely connected, all within one school district, in a small amount of time,” explains Reidenberg. “Kids started to feel that the normal response to stress was to take your life.”

There was another common thread: Four of the nine dead were either gay or perceived as such by other kids, and were reportedly bullied. The tragedies come at a national moment when bullying is on everyone’s lips, and a devastating number of gay teens across the country are in the news for killing themselves.

Researchers very strongly emphasize that sexual orientation fits within a much larger constellation of qualities that distinguish some children as “different” and therefore invite bullies’ abuse. Pediatricians Susan Kim and Frederick Rivara highlight traits common among children who are bullied (2010):

• Victims often are exceptionally sensitive, anxious, and acquiescent.
• Victims generally are socially withdrawn and very unlikely to stand up for themselves or bravely walk away from confrontation.
• Given these characteristics, victims are exceptionally prone to deep depression and suicidal ideation after repeated attacks.

Kim and Rivara point out that these shy children may feel ashamed of being bullied and reluctant to report their abuse. They caution teachers and parents to be alert to warning signs, including poor sleep and nightmares, unexplained cuts and bruises, frequent bouts of uncontrollable crying, and making up excuses not to attend school.

Cyberbullying grows among adults.

Adults routinely use content from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social-media services to intimidate and harass subordinates and rivals at work
Byron Achohido, USA Today

Once the exclusive province of tech-savvy adolescents, cyber-bullying has become almost as common among adults. Writing in USA Today, Byron Achohido (2013) cites a study from AVG Technologies which found that more than ten percent of office workers discovered derogatory online discussions about them. Eleven percent said colleagues uploaded embarrassing photos or videos to social networks, and nine percent complained managers used unsubstantiated Internet gossip in performance reviews. Barely more than one-third of American and Canadian corporations currently have formal policies covering cyber-bullying in the workplace.

Signs, symptoms, and signals

When a bully threatens, intimidates, beats, humiliates, or degrades another person, he or she has just one simple motive – the need to demonstrate superiority.

Among children, a bully often can gain dominance over his or her peer group by repeatedly belittling just one victim.

Among adolescents and adults, bullies may recruit allies to assure their continuing dominance in their peer groups. In “Bullying Causes, Symptoms and Treatment” (2010) pediatricians Susan Kim and Frederick Rivara report, “Both boys and girls take part in ‘cyberbullying.” This means using high-tech devices to spread rumors or send hurtful messages or pictures. Smotional bullying doesn’t leave bruises, but the damage is just as real.”

Kim and Rivara (2010) say that, contrary to popular belief that bullies are insecure and act-out to gain respect, in fact they have inflated egos which require constant reinforcement. Most bullies expect to rule their peer groups and demand their proper homage. They seldom, however, recognize how their actions and demands have consequences for others. Kim and Rivara highlight common characteristics of bullies:

• Bullies witness aggressive and combative behavior in their homes, and they naturally learn to associate physical dominance with personal power.
• Although they demand recognition from their age-group peers, bullies typically are not popular. They may, however, attract small groups of devoted followers, who follow the bullies for their own protection.
• Bullies act aggressively in almost all social situations, including in their interactions with adults.
• Bullies typically are larger and stronger than other children their age, and they frequently push, shove, wrestle, and hit smaller children, generally without provocation. Adult bullies may also be larger and stronger than their victims, or they may occupy positions of power over the people they harass.
• Bullies have trouble complying with the rules, and they have even greater difficulty showing respect and concern for others.

In their discussion of “Characteristics of Children Who Bully,” (2010) Kim and Rivara urge,

Bullying behavior is a “red flag” that a child has not learned to control his or her aggression. A child who bullies needs counseling to learn healthy ways to interact with people. Professional counseling can guide a child through discovering why bullying is hurtful. Through this process, a counselor can encourage a child to develop empathy, which is being sensitive to and understanding the feelings of others. In some cases, follow-up counseling may involve the parent. Family counseling has been shown to help reduce anger and improve interpersonal relationships in boys who bully.

Researchers say cyber-bullying has exactly the same devastating effects as real-life intimidation. In his breakthrough study, “Exploring the Consequences of Bullying Victimization in a Sample of Singapore Youth,” Michigan State University criminology professor Thomas Holt found that children harassed by cyber-bullies were at least as likely to skip school and consider suicide as their classmates who endured physical bullying. In fact, victims of bullying via the Internet or their cellphones more often contemplated suicide than their peers who encountered real-life intimidation. Holt told MSU Today “We should not ignore one form of bullying for the sake of the other. The results suggest we should find ways to develop school policies to combat bullying within the school environment and then figure out how to translate that to the home, because the risk goes beyond the schoolyard.”

Report bullying to the Crime Stoppers Hotline.

Many people naturally feel reluctant to report bullies, because their instinct tells them that reporting online or real-world bullying may make them targets for harassment and abuse, but the Crime Stoppers Hotline protects callers’ anonymity. Well-trained representatives never record calls or gather personal information from callers. They do immediately transmit information to police, and Crime Stoppers have built an impressive record of arrests and convictions. In many cases, tipsters earn handsome cash rewards.

References

• Kim, S. and Rivara, F. 2010. “Bullying Causes, Symptoms and Treatment.“
• Kim, S. and Rivara, F. 2010. “Bullying—Characteristics of Children Who Are Bullied.“
• Kim, S. and Rivara, F. 2010. “Bullying—Characteristics of Children Who Bully.“

You can also read more on the link between bullying and suicide.

Nearly three decades ago, the United States House of Representatives decried mistreatment of the elderly as “a national disgrace,” yet crimes against the old and infirm are increasing, and they remain grossly under-reported. Crime Stoppers of Northwest Ontario urges citizens to learn about and be on the look out for tell-tale signs of mistreatment, neglect, abuse, self-abuse, and exploitation.

The National Center on Aging defines seven kinds of elder abuse, which Felix Chima effectively summarizes (1998, 104):

• Physical abuse: non-accidental use of force that results in body injury, pain or impairment.
• Sexual abuse: non-consensual sexual contact of any kind with an older person.
• Emotional or psychological abuse: willful infliction of mental or emotional anguish by threat, humiliation, intimidation or other verbal or non-verbal abusive conduct. Neglect: willful or non-willful failure by the caregiver to fulfill his or her caregiving obligation or duty.
• Financial or material exploitation:  unauthorized use of funds, property, or any resources of an older person.
• Self-abuse or neglect: abusive or neglectful conduct of an older person directed at himself or herself that threaten his or her health or safety.
• All other types: all other types of abuse that do not belong to the first six categories.

Because local definitions of abuse vary widely, though, researchers, clinicians and statisticians typically divide elder abuse into two broad categories–physical neglect or mistreatment and financial fraud or exploitation.

Focusing on physical abuse,the U.S National Center on Elder Abuse reports that, every year, up to two million people over 65 are exploited, mistreated, or injured by someone on whom they rely for care and protection.

Their studies also suggest that for every reported case of physical abuse, neglect, or self-abuse, five more go unreported. Similarly, the Center of Excellence on Elder Abuse and Neglect at the University of California, Irvine cites reliable figures which suggest that 10 percent of elderly Americans – approximately 5 million people – are victims of financial crimes every year. Sadly, however, victims or their families report only one of every 23 cases.

Physical abuse and neglect

Because the states and provinces have very different reporting requirements and data-management systems, researchers have difficulty gathering and sorting information, and much of their best information dates back approximately a decade. Still, the numbers are both staggering and frightening. A study by The National Center on Aging found that approximately 450,000 American senior citizens were abused or neglected “in domestic settings”; when researches added cases of self-abuse, the number swelled to 551,000. Similarly, in 2003, Ombudsman programs investigated and documented nearly 21,000 complaints of gross neglect, exploitation, and abuse in residential care facilities. Among the seven types of abuse Ombudsmen examined, physical abuse was the most common.

Felix Chima (1998, 105) reports that approximately one-third of abuse victims suffer at the hands of their children, and he cites credible studies that indicated at least one in five caregiving children had hit a parent within the previous year. About one-fifth of abuse victims are mistreated by their spouses, and another one-quarter are neglected, abused, or exploited by grandchildren, other relatives, or close friends. Up to 5 percent of abuse cases may include some form of sexual abuse. Chima highlights two conditions which increase the likelihood of abuse: First, families with limited resources have higher rates of abuse than their more affluent neighbors, and second (1998, 106), “The increased burden of caring for relatives with dementia can lead to pathological caring.”

The National Center on Elder Abuse, located at the prestigious UC Irvine School of Medicine, lists the warning signs of neglect, physical or sexual abuse include:

• Poor sanitation: conspicuous lack of basic hygiene, inadequate food, dehydration, and soiled or inappropriate clothing.
• Absent essentials: the absence of medical aids-teeth, glasses, walker, and prescription medications.
• Reckless endangerment: a person with dementia is left unsupervised; a person confined to bed is left without care.
• Derelict living quarters: the home is cluttered and filthy; it lacks proper heating and plumbing, and it may have neither electricity nor gas; the home or living quarters have obvious safety and fire hazards.
• Physical symptoms: weight loss, anemia, pressure ulcers or “bedsores”
• Affective symptoms: a “vacant” look in the eyes, unexplained changes in behavior and withdrawal from normal activities,, insomnia or nightmares, irritability.
• Signs of trauma: inadequately explained bruises, cuts, burns, or fractures, especially unexplained bruising around the hips, thighs, or buttocks; symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases

Financial exploitation and fraud

Kelly Johnson of the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing stresses, “Fraud generally involves deliberately deceiving the victim with the promise of goods, services, or other benefits that are nonexistent or never intended to be provided,” and she advises that offenders gain trust with their charisma and by using a business name similar to that of a well-established organization. They’re very good at sincerely communicating their concern for the elder’s well-being.

The most common scams involve prizes and sweepstakes, allegedly lucrative investments, contributions to charities, home or auto repairs or improvements, loans and mortgages, and all kinds of insurance policies.

Johnson alerts consumers to two tell-tale elements in fraudulent sales pitches: “Con-men create the impression that the elder has been ‘chosen’ or is ‘lucky’ to receive the offer, and that such offers are rare. They encourage their victims to make an immediate commitment, effectively limiting opportunities for consultation with others.”

The UC Irvine Center highlights three significant signs of financial abuse:

• Deprivation: Lack of toiletries, comfort items and amenities the elderly person normally could afford.
• Excessive generosity: The elderly person begins giving extravagantly to obscure charities or paying excessively for comfort and companionship, the elderly person starts giving lavish gifts to caregivers.
• Loss of control: The aged person assigns power of attorney or other control to caregivers or relatives without understanding the meaning of the transaction

Effective elder abuse prevention

Advisors at seniorcare.org say, “The best way to ensure your parent or family member does not become a victim of elder abuse is to remain informed and aware of any and all changes, whether physically, emotionally or behaviorally.” They urge

“Keep an open line of communication” with all the people who provide care and services for your elderly loved one, and they very strongly recommend that you communicate face-to-face with them where they deliver their care. Be alert and respond immediately to changes in attitude, behavior, and appetite; be especially responsive to acting-out.

They also urge caregivers themselves to seek support, assistance, and relief when they feel overwhelmed, burned-out, and at-risk of causing harm.

Published by the California Attorney General, “A Citizen’s Guide to Preventing & Reporting Elder Abuse” cites among its “indisputable” facts of elder abuse, “Elder abuse victims often live in silent desperation, unwilling to seek assistance because they unfortunately believe their cries for help will go unanswered and they fear retaliation from their abusers. Many remain silent to protect abusive family members from the legal consequences of their crimes, or are too embarrassed to admit that they have fallen victim to predators. Others fear that no one will believe them – chalking up their allegations to the effects of old age.” In other words, they feel powerless, and they lose their voices.

Chima (1998, 110) derives his “empowerment model” from exactly this premise, making the case for elderly people’s feelings that they have no power to correct or improve their situations. Chima says they “identify themselves as inadequate, and begin to act as they are expected to act, setting the stage for [ongoing abuse].” He therefore advocates public-private collaboration in “Triads,” partnerships among trustworthy caregivers, law enforcement, and community organizations. Triads promote each elderly person’s self-efficiency, develop his or her group-consciousness, reduce self-blame, and encourage the person to regain control over his or her well-being. Naturally, Triads have slightly different objectives and methods for preventing abuse of elderly people suffering dementia, but the notion of empowerment still prevails. Chima notes that people do not achieve empowerment “but rather it is a continual process of growth and change that can occur throughout the life cycle,” and he stresses (1998, 11), “Empowering the elderly [requires] workers to recognize the older person’s competence, society’s responsibility to the older person, and educating them of their rights. (sic)” He also cites studies that strongly suggest connecting older persons with one another most immediately and permanently fosters seniors’ feelings of empowerment.

Combat fraud and elder abuse.

If you suspect physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, call Crime Stoppers of Northwestern Ontario. Apropos of Chima’s Triads, Crime Stoppers is a joint effort of the media, the police, and concerned citizens; one of over 100 similar programs across Canada, Crime Stoppers provides community policing to help protect the least visible, most vulnerable segments of our society– especially the elderly.

To report elder abuse, contact the Crime Stoppers’ hotline. Well-trained representatives staff the safe, completely anonymous hotline 24 hours a day every day of the year. Crime Stoppers do not track or record calls, and they do not gather personal information about hotline callers. When you give information that leads to criminals’ arrest and conviction or recovery of stolen property, you may receive a reward.

If you see or suspect financial exploitation, contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. Barry Elliott founded the Center in North Bay, Ontario, originally combating wide-spread telemarketing fraud in the southeastern part of the province. Since 1983, Elliott’s initiative has grown to serve more than 25,000 consumer-fraud victims every year, and it has become Canada’s most reliable source of fraud data, supplying information and evidence to agents in the Center’s Anti-Rackets Branch. The Ontario Provincial Police note, “The Canadian Anti-Fraud Call Centre is a national deceptive telemarketing call centre consisting of OPP, RCMP, Competition Bureau and community volunteers. The call centre plays an important role in combating telemarketing and internet fraud by educating the public and collecting and disseminating victim evidence to the appropriate enforcement agencies. ARB has an ‘in-house’ Forensic Chartered Accountant, to provide expert financial analysis and court testimony for ARB investigations.”

Right now, one of your elderly friends or loved ones may be suffering at the hands of a person entrusted with his or her protection and care. Imagine the victim’s pain, degradation, despair, and desperation. You have the power to stop the abuse, ease the victim’s pain, and bring the abuser to justice. “The power to prevent elder abuse is in your hands.”

Reference

• Chima, F. 1998. “Familial, Institutional, and Societal Sources of Elder Abuse: Perspective on Empowerment.” Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41421635.

From the thick primeval forests north of Bemidji and Hibbing all the way to the shores of Hudson Bay, Crime Stoppers of Northwest Ontario promote citizens’ awareness of criminal activity in their communities and encourage witnesses to report crimes they see. In an area so vast and often forbidding, police depend on citizens’ assistance with keeping the peace, protecting people’s safety, safeguarding their property, and enforcing the laws. Although crime generally has declined throughout the region, police express grave concern about recent spikes in property crimes.

Property crimes include burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In northern Minnesota and northwestern Ontario, property crimes account for over 90 percent of the “crime index offenses.” The news, however, is not all bad: A Crime Stoppers survey of recent news reports strongly indicates that, when victims promptly report burglaries, law enforcement agents quickly apprehend the suspects. A typical burglary case in Duluth, Minnesota:

Duluth police have arrested a 21-year-old Duluth man in connection with a Saturday-evening burglary in the Endion neighborhood. Police were called to the 1600 block of East Fifth Street at 7:47 p.m. on Saturday with a report of a burglary that had just occurred, a Duluth police news release said. The caller said a man had entered his house with a flashlight and had stolen a snowboard and some electronic equipment while the caller was in bed. Police found the suspect on Tuesday in a relative’s home two houses away from where the burglary occurred. The suspect was taken to St. Louis County Jail, where he is awaiting formal charges of first-degree burglary.

The basics of property crimes

The definitions of the different property crimes overlap, but the law draws critical distinctions among felons’ means of committing their crimes. For example, burglary includes any unlawful entry to any structure for the sake of committing a criminal offence or theft. Contrary to popular belief, the definition of “burglary” does not stress theft; instead, it stresses forcible breaking and entering. A person who breaks into your home commits burglary whether or not he takes anything.

Among property crimes, theft is most common because the definition is most inclusive: In its “Uniform Crime Report 2011” The Minnesota Department of Public Safety summarizes,

“Larceny (theft) includes the unlawful taking of the property of another with intent to deprive him of ownership. This involves all larcenies and thefts resulting from pocket picking, purse snatching, shoplifting, larceny (theft) from auto, larceny (theft) of auto parts and accessories, bicycle theft, larceny (theft) from buildings, and larceny (theft) from any coin operated machines. Any theft that is not a robbery or any theft that does not result from a breaking and entering.”

Although burglary and robbery fall under the general definition of theft, they are distinguished by the perpetrators’ use of force, and authorities count robberies among violent crimes. Some kinds of fraud also fall under theft’s umbrella. According to the Department of Public Safety, in 2011, law enforcement agencies reported more cases of theft than any other kind of crime: Of 146,249 total offenses, 100,636 cases involved theft. Burglaries increased by five percent in 2011, totaling 25,253 cases. Minnesota residents experienced 7,927 motor vehicle thefts and 627 arson incidents.

Ontario categorizes property crimes more or less as Minnesota does, but the the provincial data itemizes more specifics. In 2011, provincial law enforcement agencies investigated 366,240 property crimes, of which 50,719 involved breaking and entering. Thefts over $5,000 totaled 4,677; thefts under $5,000 totaled 174,730. Ontario officials also track malicious mischief, including vandalism and defacing property. In 2011, mischief complaints totaled a staggering 70,316. Of all crimes charged in 2011, juvenile offenders committed approximately 12 percent.

Burglaries increase

In urban areas, burglars break into, loot and plunder homes approximately every thirty seconds. Often disguised as municipal workers or home repairmen, burglars “go to work” while homeowners go their offices.

The majority of break-ins take place between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. when children are in schools, neighborhoods are quiet and homes are empty.

Naturally, thieves target home electronics, expensive power tools and high-end jewelry, but they also seize opportunities to grab checkbooks, credit and debit cards as they rifle drawers in search of valuables. Crime Stoppers urges stay-at-home mothers, people who work from home, and homeowners’ associations to remain extra vigilant while their neighbors are at work.

In rural areas, vacation homes often remain unoccupied for months at a time; and owners, imagining their remote home sites are safe because they are hundreds of miles away from high-crime areas, frequently take few precautions against theft. Because, however, abuse of prescription drugs knows no boundaries and observes no distinctions among social classes, summer homes provide excellent targets-of-opportunity for needy addicts. Moreover, because recreational gear and sporting equipment are easy to sell at handsome prices, thieves look for those items as eagerly as they seek cash and jewelry. Crime Stoppers strongly encourage year-round residents of popular vacation areas to look out for strangers, self-described “off-season tourists.”

Because all metal prices have soared, and especially because copper prices now rival prices for silver and other semi-precious metals, construction and remodeling sites have become thieves’ prime targets. Under cover of darkness, they raid unguarded sites, grabbing unused wire and copper piping that they sometimes can return to home improvement stores for their full retail prices. The most ambitious, skilled worksite thieves strip wire and pipes right out of the walls, taking the materials to recycling centers where they get top dollar for their so-called “scrap.”

Capitalize on Crime Stoppers resources.

The organization provides a 24-hour hotline manned by well-trained personnel who collect, process, and pass-on information to police. All calls are strictly confidential. Crime Stoppers assures tipsters’ anonymity, identifying callers by code numbers instead of collecting any kind of personal information; they do not trace or record calls.

Drug abuse and trafficking contribute to significant increases in breaking-and-entering, burglary, robbery, theft, trespassing and poaching. Addicts using heroin and oxycontin often spend as much as $250 a day to feed their habits, and they frequently beg, borrow, and steal to get the ready-cash they need. Therefore, Crime Stoppers urges citizens to look out for strangers and suspicious activities in their neighborhoods.

Crime Stoppers provides northern Minnesota and northwest Ontario citizens with safe, effective tools for reporting crimes they have witnessed or of which they have knowledge. The Crime Stoppers partnership often offers rewards for information leading to arrest and conviction of dangerous criminals or for recovery of stolen property. When you see illegal or suspicious activity in your neighborhood, call Crime Stoppers right away.

Law enforcement, various community groups and especially Crime Stoppers of Northwest Ontario want impaired drivers behind bars instead of behind the wheel.

Dedicated to “community policing,” Crime Stoppers – a partnership among law enforcement, the media, and concerned citizens – collaborate to keep cities, towns and hamlets crime-free. Collectively, their efforts have contributed to significant reductions in Ontario and Minnesota’s overall crime rates, but drunk-driving incidents have not declined at the same rate as other crimes.

In our Crime Stoppers’ region, homicide and manslaughter have declined approximately 8 percent since 2001.

In our service area, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs remains one of the leading causes of preventable death among young men between 18 and 25 years old.

Across northern Minnesota and northwestern Ontario, more than a dozen different campaigns currently send one single message: “Do not drink and drive!” Crime Stoppers wants to cut the high cost of drunk driving by increasing citizens’ reports of drunk or impaired drivers.

“Drinking and driving hurts everyone.”

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation calls impaired driving “one of Ontario’s most significant road safety issues.”

The Ministry reports, in the last decade, more than 2000 people have died and more than 50,000 have sustained serious injuries in drunk-driving accidents.

Donna Berger, Director of the Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety similarly reports, “Drunk driving accounts for one-third of Minnesota’s traffic deaths each year, which underscores how this issue remains a number-one public safety concern. In the last five years, 651 people have been killed in drunken driving crashes. These fatal crashes involved drivers or pedestrians who were at or above the 0.08 legal limits.” Whereas most authorities agree with Berger that, “Motorists are making safer, smarter decisions, and enhanced, targeted enforcement and education programs are working,” nevertheless they believe that ordinary citizens’ timely intervention with drunk and impaired drivers could reduce accidents and arrests by more than 10 percent.

Adding to the on-road risks of other drivers and property are the plentitude of drivers using hand-held and other communication type devices while behind the wheel.

“A Comparison of the Cell Phone Driver and the Drunk Driver,” Human Factors 2006, a study from the University of Utah indicates that the impairment associated with using a cell phone while driving can be as profound as that associated with drunk driving.

Further conclusions and studies such as that by Monarch University suggest Drivers using hand-held devices while driving are 4 times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves.

Other Driving Concerns Causing Accidents

Although Crime Stoppers’ most prominent concern is driving under the influence, alcohol is not the only source of worry about motorists’ safety. On the region’s treacherous roads, other impairments pose equally serious risks:

• Sleep-deprivation and fatigue – Bound by strict schedules and motivated by bonuses for on-time performance, commercial drivers are especially inclined to keep on driving not only beyond the legal time limits but also beyond their brains and bodies’ tolerance. Transportation Safety Investigators cite driver fatigue as the most significant cause in approximately half of all commercial trucking and passenger bus accidents. Research indicates that a person who goes eight extra hours without sleep suffers the same disorientation as a person over the legal limit for alcohol consumption; a person who goes more than twelve extra hours without sleep may suffer serious tachycardia and experience hallucinations. Not surprisingly, many vacationers from Chicago and Minneapolis put themselves and their families at risk by driving without rest or sleep.
• Prescription and over-the-counter medications – Most best selling cold remedies and pain relievers come with standard cautions: “This product may cause drowsiness. Do not drive or operate machinery while taking this product.” Yet most drivers reason, “If I bought it over-the-counter at my local drug store, how dangerous can it really be?” Pharmacists stress that Benadryl was originally developed as a sleep aid, and most anti-histamines make people sleepy. They especially warn that over-the-counter medications frequently interact with or intensify the effects of prescription drugs. Pseudo-ephedrine, for example, exaggerates the effects of anti-depressants; it also intensifies the effects of alcohol. Oxycontin, the most frequently prescribed and most widely abused prescription painkiller, poses especially serious risks for drivers, slowing their reaction times and compromising their judgment. Other mood regulators and amphetamines also cause serious impairment.
• Illegal drugs – Marihuana (marijuana) accounts for almost two-thirds of the region’s drug-related crime, yet surveys indicate that 75 percent of men and women under age 25 consider cannabis “less dangerous than alcohol.” Many who would not consider driving after drinking nevertheless feel safe to drive after smoking marijuana. Because the active agent in cannabis affects perception, especially the user’s ability to calculate time and distance, marihuana smokers face at least the same risk of accident and injury as their friends who have had too much to drink. Of course, the common practice of combining drinking and smoking substantially aggravates the risks.

Distraction Driving Concern Grows

Distracted driving is defined as engaging in any secondary activity, which takes primary attention away from the driver’s task on the open road. These distractions can include adjusting stereos, eating, disciplining children, searching for items but is most frequently defined by drivers using wireless handsets such as cellular phones.

Texting and using Smartphone apps while driving are, in fact, considerably more dangerous than drunk driving.

In 2010, a study by the United States National Highway Transportation Safety Board reported that a person texting while driving was 23 times more likely to cause a serious-injury accident than a person with blood alcohol content above the legal limit.

A person texting while driving typically pays absolutely no attention to road and traffic conditions and frequently swerves across several traffic lanes while inputting numbers to make calls or hitting keys to ask for directions from maps type sites. International research shows that 20% to 30% of all collisions involve driver distraction (Alberta Transportation, 2011).

Report Irresponsible Drivers

Operators take calls at the Crime Stoppers Hotline 24/7/365, and relay information directly to police and law enforcement agencies. They do not, however, record calls or gather personal information from tipsters. Crime Stoppers assures your anonymity. Therefore, if you see a drunk or impaired driver, call right away. You may save a life, and qualify for a handsome financial award by calling Crime Stoppers hotline.

Sources:

• http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2013001/article/11739-eng.htm#a1
• http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/safety/impaired/programs.shtml
• http://distracteddriving.caa.ca/education/index.php
• http://www.verizonwireless.com/aboutus/commitment/safety-security/dont-text-and-drive.html