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Year 10

Are crime prevention strategies working in the UK?

I can evaluate whether crime prevention strategies in the UK are working.

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New
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Year 10

Are crime prevention strategies working in the UK?

I can evaluate whether crime prevention strategies in the UK are working.

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Share activities with pupils
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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. There are various crime prevention strategies used in the UK with variations in their effectiveness.
  2. Safer Schools Police Officers, intervention 22s and citizenship are all types of education which could reduce crime.
  3. Situational crime prevention strategies are things put in place to make crime more difficult or less successful.
  4. Deterrence is a strategy which aims to reduce crime by putting people off committing it due to the sentence.

Keywords

  • Strategy - a plan or approach designed to achieve a specific goal or solve a problem

  • Intervention - an action or set of actions aimed at changing a situation, often to improve it or prevent harm

  • Situational - relating to or dependent on a specific setting, environment, or set of circumstances

  • Deterrence - something that discourages people from committing crimes by making them fear the punishment or consequences

Common misconception

That only specific crime prevention strategies can work.

Humans are complex and so is crime, therefore a variety of different strategies are often used together to try and reduce crime.


To help you plan your year 10 citizenship lesson on: Are crime prevention strategies working in the UK?, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Pupils may consider more visibly obvious, explicit strategies based on deterrence and may struggle to realise the more implicit strategies, e.g. street lighting. Emphasise that reducing crime is also about making it more difficult to commit in the first place, not just scaring potential offenders.
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Adult supervision recommended

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Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
What is the most severe sentence a judge can impose in the UK?
Life sentence
Death penalty
Correct answer: Whole life order
Q2.
What do Norwegian prisons heavily focus on through their sentencing?
Correct Answer: Rehabilitation
Q3.
Why does the USA have different ages of criminal responsibility in place?
Because the judges cannot make up their mind.
Because some crimes are more common in certain areas.
Correct answer: Because it is dependant on state or federal law.
Because it is dependent on criminal or civil law.
Q4.
What two things do Norway invest heavily in to try and decrease reoffending?
Correct Answer: Prison and prisoners
Q5.
When did the UK abolish the death penalty?
In the 1960s
Correct answer: In the 1990s
In the 2000s
It has never had the death penalty
It has never abolished the death penalty
Q6.
What can be analysed to evaluate the effectiveness of sentencing?
Correct Answer: Reoffending rates, The reoffending rates, The reoffending rate, Reoffending rate

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which is an example of education being used to prevent crime?
Street lighting
Warning stickers on doors
Correct answer: Safer School Police Officers
Longer prison sentences
Q2.
Which is an example of situational crime prevention strategies being used to prevent crime?
Correct answer: Window bars
Intervention 22
Death penalty
Community sentencing
Q3.
Which is an example of deterrence being used to prevent crime?
Citizenship education
Correct answer: Longer sentencing
Narrow roads
Q4.
Match the word to its correct definition.
Correct Answer:strategy,a plan or approach designed to achieve a goal or solve a problem
tick

a plan or approach designed to achieve a goal or solve a problem

Correct Answer:intervention,an action aimed at changing a situation, often to improve it
tick

an action aimed at changing a situation, often to improve it

Correct Answer:situational ,relating to or dependent on a specific setting or environment
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relating to or dependent on a specific setting or environment

Q5.
What school subject has been shown to increase responsibility?
Correct Answer: Citizenship
Q6.
What type of crime prevention focuses on altering the environment to reduce opportunities for crime?
Correct Answer: Situational , Situational crime prevention