Activity 4: Car crime and young people

Aims

To look at effective ways of reducing the involvement of young people in car crime.

National Curriculum links

Pupils should be taught:

1(a) to look at the human rights and responsibilities underpinning society
2(b) to justify a personal opinion about social issues; (c) to contribute to class discussion

Resources

• Activity Sheets 4.1 and 4.2

Activity

• Discuss the ways in which the pupils think young people’s involvement in car crime could be reduced.
• Divide the class into groups or pairs and ask them to read the two case studies on Activity Sheets 4.1 and 4.2. They should then discuss the focused points on Activity Sheet 4.2. Ask pupils to feed back their response to the rest of the class.
• Following the whole-class discussion, ask pupils in their groups to come up with their own scheme to reduce young people’s involvement in car crime.
• Each group should give a presentation to the class on their scheme. As a whole class, evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of each scheme and encourage pupils to think about the patterns of crime they have seen and the range of reasons that may contribute to such crimes when assessing the practicalities of the policy suggestions.
• You may like to point out at the end of the activity that the Home Office has carried out a study (2001) that showed schemes like the one described on Activity Sheet 4.2 have been shown to increase the likelihood of re-offending for some young people.

Discussion

• What are the main factors that cause young people to re-offend?
• Is it more important that the criminal justice system punishes or rehabilitates young offenders?

Differentiation

Pupils can work in pairs or larger groups depending on their ability.

Extension