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No Crime - Get a Life!
Project outline
Workshop descriptions
Latest news
Download the following PDF documents:
What is “No Crime – Get a Life!”?
Norfolk PACT’s latest project “No Crime – Get a Life!” is designed to alert young people to the consequences of getting involved in crime. Aimed at the 11-13 age group, it raises awareness of the criminal justice process, in particular how it relates to young people; and offers youngsters the opportunity to meet and talk to representatives of the various criminal justice agencies.
Through a series of interactive workshops, participants learn how and why to avoid contact with the criminal justice system as an offender, and what to expect if they are caught up in the system as a victim or a witness.
After a highly successful pilot year, Norfolk PACT plans to roll this dynamic multi-agency workshop-based programme out across Norfolk over the coming years.
Why is it needed?
Petty crime can seem quite attractive and glamorous to young people who are unaware that it can be the first step towards a life of crime, and the misery that it can bring to them, their victims and their families. “No Crime – Get a Life!” uses all the agencies involved in the criminal justice process to communicate this message to this impressionable age group in a way that is both effective and memorable.
Which agencies are involved?
The core participating agencies are:
Criminal Justice Board
Magistrates
Police
Prison Service
Youth Offending Team
Victim Support
Other agencies such as the Crown Prosecution Service and the Matthew Project participate in some deliveries.
How is the message delivered?
The workshop takes a minimum of a half day, but the most popular format requires a full day. It is delivered to a whole year group on a single day (maximum 180 pupils – larger year groups over two days).
The pupils start by watching a 30 minute film dramatisation of a young person whose petty vandalism soon leads to something that is more serious.
There then follows a series of 30-minute breakout sessions with the various agencies in groups of 20 or so.
The workshop ends with a final plenary session.
Why is it being offered to schools?
Delivering this workshop in schools permits the promotion of the “No Crime - Get a Life!” message to large numbers of young people in a safe environment conducive to positive engagement and learning.
The message also fits well within the National Curriculum. The Key Stage 3 Citizenship Curriculum requires pupils to be taught about the basic aspects of the criminal justice system and how it relates to young people.
It also requires pupils to be encouraged to use their imagination to consider other people’s experiences; to think about moral and social issues and to justify orally their personal opinion about such issues; and to express and explain views that are not their own. They should also be encouraged to contribute to group and exploratory class discussions and take part in debates.
Issues arising from this workshop, such as the dangers of drinking and substance abuse, and coping with peer pressure, also fit well within the Key Stage 3 PSHE Curriculum.
The content and format of the “No Crime – Get a Life!” workshop meets all of these criteria while also giving pupils the opportunity to meet representatives of the criminal justice system agencies face to face.
What does the school need to provide?
The workshop will be facilitated by Norfolk PACT’s “No Crime - Get a Life!” Project Coordinator and representatives of the participating agencies.
The programme is designed to offer the school flexibility in terms of the length of the workshop and the year group(s) it is delivered to, though for it to be effective the school will need to provide:
at least a half day allocated to the programme;
the necessary space and equipment for the whole group to watch the film on the same day as the breakout sessions;
separate rooms for the breakout sessions to take place in (usually six or seven);
a member of school staff present in each session and to supervise the effective movement of pupils between breakout sessions.
This workshop is currently being offered free to schools.
How do I sign up to the “No Crime - Get a Life!” programme?
For more information or to discuss the delivery of this workshop in your school, contact “No Crime - Get a Life!” Project Coordinator Laurence Wild on
tel: 07707 638 221 or
email : l.wild2@ntlworld.com
WORKSHOP SESSIONS
Criminal Justice Board
Through playing “The Justice Game” on a 3x3m vinyl board laid out on the floor, pupils are introduced to the different agencies involved in the criminal justice system and are given an overview of the role each one plays.
By landing on “Community Spirit” spaces they draw cards which illustrate the positive and negative interactions that young people might have with the system, such as successfully completing a community service order, or failing to pay a fine, and are rewarded accordingly by moving backwards or forwards on the board.
Winners will receive a prize.
Magistrates
During this session, three practising magistrates will facilitate a mock sentencing trial, with participating pupils role-playing the defendant, one of the defendant’s parent and the two “wingers” on the magistrates’ bench.
Through this workshop pupils will learn about court procedure, what sentencing options are available to a magistrate and what factors may be taken into consideration when sentencing, such as the nature of the charge, the plea, the pre-sentence report and any previous convictions.
In addition to the role-play, the whole group will be involved in discussion about the appropriate sentence for the offender.
Police
After a brief introduction to the potential lifelong impact of an early brush with the law, this session focuses on identifying which kinds of behaviours are anti social and which are criminal.
Using examples from the “Kiddo” DVD, pupils are asked to comment on behaviour displayed in the film, placing the acts on the continuum from acceptable through anti social to criminal, and to consider alternative choices that the protagonists in the story could have made at each point.
The session concludes with an explanation of the associated continuum of sanctions available to the police, from the Juvenile Letter Scheme through ASBOs to Final Warnings.
HM Prison Service
This session will be delivered by a Prison Officer and a prisoner, and will introduce pupils to the reality of life “inside” from the point of arrival through the first week of custody.
The session begins with a talk by a Prison Officer on reception procedure, a description of a prison wing and cell, and the basic rights and routines of a prisoner.
This is followed by the personal account of a prisoner, covering the same period of time, but with a focus on the feelings and emotions experienced.
There will be time after these two presentations for questions.
Youth Offending Team
This session calls on pupils first to identify with the offender by asking “If you were Kiddo*, what would you be feeling when you first went to prison?” and “What would be the first thing you would want to do on release?”
After small group discussions and whole group feed back on these questions, pupils are then asked to imagine they are the YOT worker and to consider what needs to be done for Kiddo to reduce the risk of re-offending.
Finally the whole group will discuss whether their plans are realistic and whether they are likely to be successful.
Victim Support
Drawing on examples from the “Kiddo”* DVD and using interactive techniques this session explores the following questions:
• Who is a victim and who is most a risk of being a victim?
• How do victims feel? What emotions might they experience?
• How can we help a victim?
• What can we do to reduce the risk of becoming a victim?
The session will finish by outlining people and agencies that are there to help victims, to give those who need support the knowledge of where to go for help and the confidence to ask for it.
* Kiddo is the central character of the film “Kiddo” that pupils watch at the start of the workshop day.
“Kiddo” © 2005 Curlyman Productions. Also by kind permission of Jeff O-Reilly, Tredegar Comprehensive School, Gwent, South Wales.
With thanks to Gwent Police in South Wales for their inspired development of “No Crime – Get a Life!”’s parent project “The Crime of Your Life” and later “Kiddo’s Choice”.
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