Robbery and Guns
In response to the unacceptable rise in gun crime over recent years, the Government has developed a Gun Crime Strategy which includes involving people at the local level to tackle gun crime.
In January 2004, the Home Office hosted the Connected Conference to bring together representatives of the community and voluntary sectors, young people, law enforcement and policy-makers, to discuss the nature of gun crime and gun culture. The event looked at how the growth in gun culture can be turned around, and how people can make a difference in their communities. Delegates at the event made clear the need for a central, coordinated knowledge base of information on gun crime; contacts of organisations involved in anti-gun crime measures; a searchable database of current projects and initiatives in different areas; and access to funding.
On 12 May 2004, the then Home Office Minister, Caroline Flint, launched the Connected Fund to provide grants to community projects working to tackle gun crime and gun culture in their areas . On 20 September 2004, the Government announced that it was making £250,000 available for a second round of the Fund.
The aims of the Connected Fund are to:
- support small, locally-managed community groups tackling gun and knife crime and gang culture in their local areas
- kick-start new initiatives and boost ongoing projects, particularly in those areas most affected by gun and knife crime
- help with capacity building for community-based grassroots organisations.
More information on the connected programme and on research and statistics on the use of guns when robberies are committed can be found at:
http://www.connected.gov.uk/index.html
Public Transport
Many people rely on buses and trains for their day-today routine, and public transport is a common location for robbery and other street crime. Offenders will target passengers waiting at quit stations, on trains and on buses when travelling between stops,as those leaving transport hubs. Successful measures to consider include the following:
- Strategically placed and conspicuous CCTV cameras,publicly demonstrating their capability periodically
- Linking local authority CCTV with systems in stations and on concources to provide a real-time response and to share intelligence.
- Providing staff or police presence at key times.
- Shorter trains in the early hours, to avoid isolated passengers.
- Reducing the numbers of exits and entrances at quite times.
- Providing bus stops and taxi ranks close to train station exits.
- Cracking down on minor offending such as fare evasion and other disorder
There is a Public Transport Crime Reduction toolkit that looks into this area in more detail in particular the research carried out and looks at issues such as fear of crime on public transport and the other types of crime that are carried out on public transport.
Robbery of students
Research shows that students are a vulnerable group. This is because they may be unfamiliar with an area, often carry desirable items like mobile phones, laptops and iPods, and are easily identifiable. They are particulararly targeted at the start of term and at pub closing time.
Safer initiatives designjed to reduce student robberies include "safer route schemes". These provide a specified route for students returning home after a night out in the city centre, and feature the following
- High visibility policing in hot spot areas between the city centre and student accommodation.
- Marking preffered routes and making them safer by improving street lighting and cutting back overgrown foliage.
- Providing night buses for students to discourage them from walking through risky areas.
The university, police and local authorities clearly all need to work together to provide these, including police across different regions
Crime prevention advice should also be given to new students on thier arrival at university, to raise their awareness of the risks and of how to avoid them.
The region of Merseyside identified an issue of sudent victimization and they developed a plan for dealing with it. The results of this can be found at our good practice section of the crime reduction website:
School Aged Children
Most robbery of school-age children is committed by other young people. Over one in five robberies are believed to involve victims under the age of 17 targeted by young people in the same age group.
Such problems are often an extension of bullying. Anti-bullying strategies might therefore be expanded to include robbery problems, making it clear that stealing mobile phones is an offence and will not be tollerated. Schools might consider include banning mobile phones and providing " visible guardians" in and around schools and other vulnerable places such as the school bus and transport interchanges. Where schoolchildren are targeted by "outsiders", safer route schemes such as those described above should be considered.
Schools can also help to raise awareness amongst children about how to reduce the risk of robbery. The Home Office and Crimestoppers for the third year running have had a anti-robbery week in schools between the 22nd-27th January 2007. More information on this and access to the educational resource produced by SAFE and can be found at:
http//www.crimestoppers-uk.org/solving/ safe/
Last update: Wednesday, June 17, 2009