2.3.3 Structures in homes hamper pedagogical work Commission 5 carried out two unannounced visits in 2013 to a regional youth home in Lower Austria with five fully residential shared accommodations and one partially residential shared accommodation. The staff was observed to be committed and making an effort, but also completely overwhelmed. A review of the documentation both in the home and at the local police station showed that an above average number of violent acts against minors and staff was occurring here. Police intervention was frequently necessary. While “New Authority”, the pedagogical concept on the prevention of violence by Haim Omer had been installed, the deescalation strategy that is part of this concept had not yet been implemented. Due to current crises, there had been neither time nor resources to undertake targeted pedagogical interventions and to respond to the children and adolescents in a supportive and stabilising way. Commission 5 put this down to the size of the facility on one hand and on the other, to inadequate staff presence and training deficits. Furthermore, the commission criticised that a “house parliament” had not been established. Serious deficits During the investigative proceeding, the regional government of Lower Austria confirmed that the regional youth home had been in a crisis at the time of the commission’s visits and that this had been a known fact. Previous reports by persons carrying out technical supervision and the criticism of the NPM were taken as an opportunity by the AOB to carry out an investigation and to include all competent persons and participants. The technical supervision report of August 2014 shows that improvements have been made, but that structural difficulties also exist. It will result in structural measures that will extend beyond 2015. The Lower Austrian regional government recognised that the structures in homes per se hamper work in accordance with the insights that social pedagogy provides. When children and adolescents whose social behaviour is abnormal are supposed to acquire social and conflict competence in an environment with many other minors with asocial personality disorders, strong group pressure is created to participate in rule-breaking, self-dramatisation and demonstrations of power. Children and adolescents who – depending on their age and the intensity of aggressive acts against them – see themselves as subjected to either a kind of more or less uninhibited tyranny or a lack of personal space, react with aggression or become victims of marginalisation. The effect of negative group dynamics can be much stronger than that of pedagogical and therapeutic social and conflict training or additional mechanisms that are supposed to support development of the personality, behavioural changes, as well 64 Risk factors for structural violence dynamics