Tag: security

Recap of the ICPC Summer School focusing on the erosion of trust in key institutions Trust and Institutions

On August 26 and 27, 2025, the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC) held its second summer school, focused on a central issue: the crisis of trust between the public and institutions. 

Over two half-days, nearly fifty participants gathered, including researchers, students, professionals from health, education, public safety, justice, and community sectors, as well as institutional and municipal representatives. Together, they analyzed the dynamics of mistrust, shared concrete experiences, and proposed action plans to build lasting relationships of trust. 

From the outset, the ICPC team presented the goals of the summer school: to create a space for dialogue, to bring together scientific, civic, and professional perspectives, and to collectively reflect on solutions rooted in local realities. 

Day 1 – Exploring the Many Faces of Mistrust 

The afternoon of August 26 kicked off with a series of presentations and testimonials. 

Janny Montinat and Alexis St-Maurice, analysts and project managers at ICPC, illustrated how mistrust manifests in various contexts: local communities, educational institutions, social services, and research. They emphasized that trust cannot be imposed—it must be earned and built. 


Michelle Côté, scientific advisor at ICPC, highlighted the often invisible issues behind trust and mistrust in institutions, drawing on data from Quebec, Canadian, and international surveys. She stressed the conditions that foster successful preventive interventions: agility, flexibility, fairness, and openness. 

Marylin Coupienne, legal advisor at FMHF, then questioned the role of law and youth protection institutions in the current crisis of trust. She pointed out the dead ends created by intervention approaches overly focused on evidence and fault, at the expense of building trust with families. 

The day concluded with open discussions among attendees, followed by a networking cocktail that extended the conversations. 

Day 2 – Rethinking Relationships with Institutions 

On the morning of August 27, participants deepened the discussion through lectures and a roundtable. 

Victor Armony, professor at UQAM and researcher at CRIDAQ, opened the day by analyzing the mistrust and suspicion that characterize relations between police and racialized minorities. He described a loop of reciprocal mistrust: the more police target certain groups, the more those groups develop mistrust, which in turn leads to further targeting. 

Carl Lacharité, emeritus professor at UQTR, offered the perspective of families on their interactions with service institutions, showing that trust and mistrust develop over the course of a child’s growth and through the quality of dialogue with professionals. He also reminded attendees that mistrust is not always a sign of social breakdown—it can be a legitimate adaptive strategy in response to institutions perceived as distant or intrusive. 

Finally, a closing panel brought together all the speakers including Pierreson Vaval, founder of organisations such as Équipe RDP and the POZÉ coalition. They collectively emphasized the importance of supporting families and communities in their interactions with institutions, in order to transform situations of mistrust into spaces for dialogue. 

They also emphasized the need to recognize shared responsibilities, to resist discouragement, and to adapt our approaches in response to social and technological transformations—particularly with the emergence of artificial intelligence. 

A Space for Collective Learning and Action 

By organizing this summer school, the ICPC provided participants with a unique space to exchange ideas, confront differing viewpoints, and identify concrete solutions to the trust-related challenges facing our institutions. 

This summer school demonstrated that trust is simultaneously a matter of data, practices, and human relationships. It cannot be imposed from above. It is built through everyday experience, mutual recognition, active participation by citizens and communities, and the commitment of institutions to work with—and not merely for—those they serve. 

The ICPC published a report on current youth recruitment strategies by criminal gangs

Today, despite the massive use of social networks, which can lead young girls and boys to gravitate more and more towards delinquency networks, we can say that poor acquaintances, the need for recognition, poverty and the lack of opportunities for young people to engage in legitimate activities are determining factors in the enrolment of young people in criminal activities.    

This growing scourge has led the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime to conduct an in-depth study with the purpose of fully understanding the phenomenon, the issues involved in recruiting young people, and the stakeholders directly or indirectly involved. The Quebec Ministry of Public Security has therefore mandated the ICPC, through its Montreal Urban Safety Lab in 2022, to collect data aimed at updating our knowledge of the realities on the ground in order to better prevent the recruitment of young people by criminal gangs.  

The final objective of this report is to provide crucial information for a better understanding of this phenomenon and to offer recommendations for improving the safety of living environments in the area most affected, such as the city of Laval, a Quebec city located on the outskirts of Montreal. According to the Laval police’s 2021 activity report, the number of crime-related increased by 14% between 2020 and 2021, including a significant number of firearms-related incidents (42) in 2021.    

 

 

The report is presented in 3 sections:   

1. A framework for analyzing the phenomenon and the specific characteristics of criminal gangs, as well as the risk and protective factors associated with their entry.  

2. The socio-spatial context of the study, highlighting the specific sociodemographic, socioeconomic, and sociocontextual characteristics of the territory concerned, i.e. the Chomedey district of Laval.  

3. A third section divided into five sub-sections:  

  • A few definitions to define the subject of the study;  
  • Risk factors associated with gang affiliation;  
  • The role and recruitment of women and girls in these networks;  
  • The growing importance of social networks in the process of joining criminal gangs;  
  • An assessment of the current intervention system to identify possible solutions put forward by stakeholders to prevent or reduce the risk of youth joining criminal gangs.  

Read the report here (available in French only) 

Read the press release (available in French only) 

The ICPC mandated to carry out a local safety audit in Pakua Shipi

Through the Ministry of Public Safety’s Municipal Support Programme, which provides funding to municipal organizations with populations of less than 100,000 in the province of Quebec, the ICPC has been mandated to carry out a local safety audit for the community of Pakua Shipi. This initiative, supported by the provincial government, aims to strengthen community safety and prevent crime through a range of preventive measures.  

A small Innu community on the Lower North Shore with a population of 350, Pakua Shipi’s geographical isolation makes it difficult to provide access to quality public services. This leads to challenges in hiring and retaining personnel and consequently impacts the socio-economic conditions of the population. What’s more, various historical events linked to colonization have resulted in the transmission of traumas down the generations, from which many social and economic issues arise.

In this context, the ICPC’s expertise in carrying out a local safety audit is an essential first step in assessing safety and violence issues in the community, before putting in place long-term solutions and an action plan for the community. 

This project was carried out in 2022 and completed in 2023.