West Midlands Police consulted three criminal psychologists from University of Birmingham to help them construct messages for offenders that will encourage them to move away from a life of crime.
Operation Strikeout is West Midlands Police’s latest campaign to cut crime which ran in September, aimed at tackling violence and robbery.
Prof Kevin Browne, Dr Alasdair Goodwill and Dr Louise Dixon from the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham specialise in violent crime and robbery. Their advice was used to make a series of four postcards given out to criminals to urge them to move away from a life of crime – and offer to put them in touch with support agencies such as drug action teams.
The postcards stressed the emotional ‘cost’ of committing crime and being sent to prison, from missing important moments in your child’s life to losing your social life and your girlfriend.
The reverse of each card offers offenders help in turning their life around including support to find stable accommodation and treatment for drug dependency, whilst stressing that those who do not reform will find themselves back under target by West Midlands Police.
Hundreds of the cards were hand delivered to ‘persistent and priority offenders’ (PPOs) across the West Midlands. National research shows 10 per cent of PPOs commit half of all serious crime.
What they say
Supt Andy Bebbington said: ‘The criminal psychologists told us that emphasis on tough prison sentences and negative ‘we will get you’ style messages don’t work with persistent offenders. This campaign focuses on what will happen to the people you care about and the people you care for if you are sent to prison, things which really play on people’s minds when they are given a custodial sentence. We are also sending out a positive message to offenders who want to turn their lives around that we will offer them every help and support to move away from a life of crime."
Prof Kevin Browne from the University’s School of Psychology said: "We advised the police to concentrate on the emotional cost of custodial sentences, not only to the offender, but to his or her family and dependents. Research shows that offenders are most concerned about their contact with their children and their involvement with their child growing up. We believe that by concentrating on this, it may have a more positive effect than threats of imprisonment."
