Project
The Greentown Project is a policy-research collaboration between the Department of Justice and the University of Limerick. It involves an evidence-informed and design-led targeted community intervention which aims to reduce the influence of criminal networks on children. The Greentown programme’s objectives are to reduce network capability for recruiting children to commit crime and to provide an exit route for children who are already engaged or embedded. The programme is informed by a significant evidence base which includes multiple primary studies, evaluation findings and deliberation with international academics in the area of organised crime, and national experts in the areas of youth justice, child welfare, policing and community development.
The Greentown Project offers new opportunities for practical law enforcement and academic community collaborations to support crime prevention efforts. The programme includes four interdependent pillars, which are collectively designed to address the complex issues confronting a child and family when a dominant criminal network is operating in their neighbour. These are: 1. network disruption - led by law enforcement and designed to disrupt networks by creatively employing criminal justice and child welfare executive powers. 2. community efficacy - activities focused on improving the capacity and capability of the affected community to withstand and repel network influence. 3. pro-social opportunities - focused efforts to assist the child to leave the network environment and re-connect with school or training. 4. intensive family programme - to protect the child and family from exploitative network relationships.
An Garda Síochána Analysis Service, members of An Garda Síochána working in the local pilot sites, two community partners to deliver an evidence-based family programme, Local Advisory Groups (comprised An Garda Síochána, Tusla, Probation and the community partners). There are two dedicated Research Fellows on the project, one for each pilot site, who will be involved in monitoring all aspects of the programme, problem-solving issues when they occur and evaluating outcomes.
On 04 December 2020, the Greentown Project, was awarded first place at the European Crime Prevention Awards. The theme of family-based crime European Crime Prevention Award (ECPA) and Best Practice Conference (BPC) was on family-based crime. The award committee particularly noted that the Greentown project: “…holds an unparalleled theoretical foundation. It is well designed with a methodological and holistic approach. The project is a good example of a multi-agency approach…. the project is well documented and as a result can be replicated in other countries. Although the project is in its early stages it is considered one to keep a close eye on in the future”.
Research
The Greentown Project is a policy-research collaboration between the Department of Justice and the University of Limerick. The project is an evidence informed approach to designing a holistic programme to a) lessen the effect of criminal networks on children in local communities in Ireland and b) improving opportunities for children engaged or at risk of engagement by a criminal network to disengage and pursue a pro-social trajectory. The programme is founded on an existing high quality evidence base specific to the Irish context.
The Greentown intervention programme will be trialled in two locations in Ireland from October 2020, founded on an existing high quality evidence base specific to the Irish context. Specially commissioned primary studies into children’s involvement in criminal networks have been completed (2014-2019). Three are detailed case studies employing social network analysis with detailed qualitative examination of network structure, processes and culture. The case studies focus on carefully selected anonymised police districts using ‘Twinsight’, a methodology developed in Ireland to closely but non-invasively examine the activities of criminal networks, in particular the involvement of children and their collaborations with adults. The fourth study is a national prevalence research, which surveyed (juvenile specialist) police officers located in every county in Ireland.
There are two dedicated Research Fellows assigned to the Greentown programme, one for each pilot site, who will be involved in programme design, implementation and evaluation.