EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network

The crime game WAYS

Introduction

By making young people see and experience the consequences of crime it can prevent them from living a life of crime.

Problem

The background for the project is the fact that many differenct crime prevention efforts has been inefficient at changing the criminal actions of young people -especially those with immigrant background. However, experience has shown that initiatives that visualize the consequences of criminal actions before they are committed are efficient towards this target group.

Description

The aim of this project is to contribute to a decrease in youth crime through the development of an efficient tool that make the young people realize the consequences of criminal activity. The tool is role-playing that visualizes the consequences of crime for the participants.

Approach

The activities of the project is based on 3 phases:

Recruitment of young participants: the participating associations, youth clubs and institutions of the local area are expected to gather the relevant young participants to join the crime game. This phase includes the final elaboration of material for the crime game. It will be made to suit the specific group of young participants;
Carrying out the crime game: the game has four parts, starting with the initial meeting where participants are introduced to the details and rules of the game. The second part is an entire weekend in which the participants do physical as well as web-based role-plays together with conversations with a former criminal about the real life consequences of having a criminal career. The third part is for reflection and evaluation of the first weekend through a virtual diary. The fourth and last part of the game is a continuation of the game during a second weekend. The participants are pushed further and they will have a dialogue with representatives of the police and a court of justice on the consequences of differenct choices. The weekend is ending with a common event for the participants and their families, who will get informed on the course of events of the role-play;
The last phase is an overall evaluation of the project.

Results

The expected effects of the project is that mininum 25 young persons have participated and learnt from the game, that it has brought with it at least 1 new cooperation project and that some documentation have been produced of this game-based method for further crime preventive work.

Beneficiaries

The project benefits the young participants of the crime game, but also the entire housing estate since it will be more safe to live and move about in the area in the long run.

Resources used

The project has had several partners that have been a ressource to the project: The school crime prevention cooperation in Aarhus (SSP), The Somali Community in DK, Development Country Culture and Information Centre, African Arts in Education, Intercultural Culture Centre, ZONNING and Know-IT. The economic ressources of the project was around 180.000 Danish kroner.

EU involvement

The project is part of the Urban programme supported by the EU - URBACT.

Financing

The Municipality of Aarhus and the EU fund for regional development financed the project.

Contact info

Danish Somali Media Association
Hussein Aden Osman

Project start date

15/10/2003

Cities

Aarhus, Denmark

Evaluation of the project WAYS (in Danish only, PDF, 214KB) Dansk

Document type

case

Themes

Urban Policy

Keywords

Security & crime prevention

Institutional characteristics
Non-Governmental Organisation