Testing crime reduction effect of deploying non-uniformed youth workers in hot spots of violent crime.
| Status |
Ongoing
|
|---|---|
| Lead institution | |
| Principal researcher(s) |
Leicestershire Constabulary
|
| Police region |
Eastern
|
| Collaboration and partnership |
The diversion and engagement workers are staff employed by Turning Point Leicester. |
| Level of research |
Professional/work based
|
| Project start date |
|
| Date due for completion |
|
Hypothesis
The deployment of non-uniformed street outreach youth workers delivering targeted engagement and referrals will reduce crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB) in the hot spots on the days they are there.
In addition, the deployment of non-uniformed street outreach youth workers delivering targeted engagement and referrals will achieve life course changes to those they engage with. This will be visible, in time, in a case-controlled study design.
Geographical area
Seven hot spots of violent crime in Leicestershire City Centre.
Target sample size
The hot spots are small, not bigger than 200m x 200m. They are manually drawn shape files, not hexagons or Lower layer Super Output Areas) (LSOAs).
The units of analysis will be incidents of crime count, harm count (CCHI) and ASB per hotspot.
The numbers of engagements and number of full referrals made to support services will be measured.
Participants - inclusion criteria
The non-uniformed street outreach youth workers do not ask the age of person(s) they are engaging with. They target young people (under 25).
If a young person is in the hotspot they are included for the purposes of potential engagement if they are perceived to be at risk of exploitation, committing crime, being a victim of crime, or involved in ASB.
Interventions
A team of two non-uniformed street outreach youth workers conduct patrols in the hotspots. They engage with young people, offer crime prevention advice, support and referrals to local authority and other third sector service providers.
Study design
Crossover design RCT. The seven hotspots being randomised will have non-uniformed street outreach youth worker patrols, or not.
The Turning Point staff cover the seven days of the week.
There is a random schedule that tasks six sequential patrols of forty minutes each into the hotspots each day. On any one day a hot spot may have 0, 1, 2, 3 or more patrols.
Outcome measures
Mean crime count, mean harm count and mean ASB count by day with or without a non-uniformed street outreach youth worker patrol.
In addition, a case-controlled study approach will be adopted to measure the impact of the trackable referrals made to support services by the Turning Point staff.