Earlier this year, we had the opportunity to work with an ex offender and victim of knife crime from Leicester to create a tutorial resource on the impact of knife crime.
Student feedback from the previous year’s tutorial suggested that they wanted to hear first-hand about the causes of knife crime, and whilst the police resources and CCTV footage was good, it didn’t feel real somehow. Our college network link with the Youth Offender Services in Leicester introduced us to an incredible young man who was willing to share his story both as an offender who served a prison term for his actions and as a victim whose life, and that of his family’s, was dramatically affected. He agreed to be interviewed by a small group of A-level students studying criminology (one of whom had lost her brother to knife crime) and for this to be filmed by three of our second year L3 BTEC Media students. The resulting 30-minute documentary, whilst not exactly a Shane Meadows production, is something that our students are rightly quite proud of.
Our volunteer spoke candidly about how he became a perpetrator of knife crime and how it impacted on his family’s life as well as his own. He dispelled some of the assumptions held by our students that knife crime is only committed by gang members and opened their eyes to the risks young people face. He went on to explain how he became the victim of a machete attack and how his disfiguring injury and subsequent rehabilitation affected his relationship with his mother and girlfriend as well as his own self-esteem.
We have since used the video in tutorials, enabling students to explore the various themes and issues it raises in a sensitive and thought provoking way. It has proven to be a very powerful learning tool, not just for those involved in its creation, but for our other students who now understand the reality of knife crime and how it impacts on communities. It has also been used by the Youth Offender Services in the work they do with young people, and by the police as a training resource. We have been asked to share this more widely, but in order to protect the anonymity of the volunteer, it was decided that the audio only (as attached) would be made available nationally. knife crime 16+audio only
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