They are still very young and yet already on their way to a criminal "career": children and young people who have already made several police appearances. What starts with truancy and expulsions can turn into damage to property or bodily harm and possibly end in robbery or drug dealing.
Prevention
To prevent this from happening in the first place, the police have launched the NRW-wide initiative "Kurve kriegen". It aims to prevent children and young people from slipping into (serious) crime in the long term. The Steinfurt district police authority has also been part of this crime prevention initiative since summer 2021. A team of police officers and educators helps young offenders to find ways out of crime. The local team includes (photo from left) Karlheinz Wessel and Johanna Raue as contact persons at the police, Jens Zipser and Jana Perick as educational specialists (Evangelische Jugendhilfe Münsterland e.V.), Guido Wilke from the police and Wolfgang Schulz, also an educational specialist.
First young people supported
The six team members have already worked with the first young people since the start of "Kurve kriegen" - in close coordination with parents, relatives and schools. Together with those affected, they develop individual solutions to sustainably change the behavior of children and young people, reduce crime and help them get off the wrong track - in other words, to "turn the corner".
Perseverance is the watchword
Nearly 1,700 children and young people aged between 8 and 18 have completed the program nationwide since the initiative was launched ten years ago. Almost 800 have successfully completed it. This means that around 40 percent of young people no longer commit a crime after the prevention program. This is according to the latest figures from the NRW Ministry of the Interior. This change does not happen overnight. On average, the support provided by the "Kurve kriegen" team takes around two years - until those responsible can be sure that the changes are sustainable. But the figures show: It works. The remaining 60 percent from the program also commit significantly fewer crimes after participating. And that ultimately means fewer victims.
Further information on the project can be found here: www.kurvekriegen.nrw.de
