Are crime prevention strategies working in the UK?
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can evaluate whether crime prevention strategies in the UK are working.
Key learning points
- There are various crime prevention strategies used in the UK with variations in their effectiveness.
- Safer Schools Police Officers, intervention 22s and citizenship are all types of education which could reduce crime.
- Situational crime prevention strategies are things put in place to make crime more difficult or less successful.
- 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.
Teacher tip
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.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is the most severe sentence a judge can impose in the UK?
Q2.What do Norwegian prisons heavily focus on through their sentencing?
Q3.Why does the USA have different ages of criminal responsibility in place?
Q4.What two things do Norway invest heavily in to try and decrease reoffending?
Q5.When did the UK abolish the death penalty?
Q6.What can be analysed to evaluate the effectiveness of sentencing?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which is an example of education being used to prevent crime?
Q2.Which is an example of situational crime prevention strategies being used to prevent crime?
Q3.Which is an example of deterrence being used to prevent crime?
Q4.Match the word to its correct definition.
Q5.What school subject has been shown to increase responsibility?
Q6.What type of crime prevention focuses on altering the environment to reduce opportunities for crime?
To help you plan your 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...
To help you plan your 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.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 citizenship lessons from the What can we do to reduce crime? unit, dive into the full secondary citizenship curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.