Summary of the Impact:

The Greentown project tackles the issue of child exploitation in criminal networks. It provides practical scientific support to police and social services, schools, community and voluntary organisations, and produces evidence to inform policy and legislation in this area.  

A unique partnership between the Department of Justice and University of Limerick, it was established to develop an evidence-informed programme capable of dealing with child grooming for crime by coercive criminalised adults.  It provides intensive family support, pro-social opportunities, works to increase community efficacy, and disrupt the criminal network so that children and their families can find the provided support. 

The Greentown project has impacted multiple groups: targeted children and families, legislation and policy, and programme design and operational practice. To help targeted children, the project supported Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), specialists delivering evidence-based child protection and family intervention, to help vulnerable families take pro-social routes out of criminal behaviour and networks (output 5). 

Operational practice 

As part of the Greentown project, the Twinsight methodology allows researchers to examine the locus of power and authority within networks and, critically, the crime-grooming relationships between adults and children. The research enables a more precise disruption of networks by statutory and voluntary partners in Greentown trial sites. Officers reported a new awareness of the criminal network connections in their area, and they reported the value this evidence has for their policing (source 1).  

Children and Families 

Twinsight also provides a means to identify children for referral to the Greentown Project programme.  

The project yielded positive results for children engaged in network activity in the two trial locations. For example, a 14-year-old boy with serious charges (including attempted murder) was afraid to leave his home due to ongoing intimidation from members of the criminal network. The family members had substantial addiction problems and drug debts. The project team worked intensively with the boy, his mother, and his siblings. They advocated and supported the family’s move to another area. The boy’s self-esteem grew as he engaged in pro-social activities with his project worker, and he disclosed his abusive experiences. The boy has no new criminal charges, and his family is employed and doing well (source 1).  

Legislation and policy 

Greentown has influenced the development of criminal justice legislation and the national strategy for youth justice. The Department of Justice noted that the drafting of the Criminal Justice Bill 2023 had been ‘informed by the Greentown Project ‘and its findings ‘that criminal networks in many areas operate coercive control over young children’ (source 2).  

The National Youth Justice Strategy (2021-2027) also highlights Greentown, identifying one of its key actions to be ‘the implementation of the Greentown pilot programme to support children under coercive control of criminal groups’ (source 3a). The Department of Justice Plan 2023 similarly states that it will ‘implement the Greentown programme which provides support to the children most at risk of recruitment by organised crime groups’ (source 3b). 

Engagement  

The results of Greentown have been disseminated widely, including at the UL-hosted 12th International Illicit Network Conference in 2022 (Source 4a) and through a feature on the RTÉ Changemakers programme (source 4b).  

Scope to adapt project methodologies for different jurisdictions and social contexts 

In December 2020, Greentown was awarded first place in the European Crime Prevention Awards. The international panel concluded that ‘the project is well-documented and as a result should be replicable in other EU countries’ (source 5).  

Greentown's design process has been adapted to develop a Local Leadership Programme that extends beyond youth crime, working with community leaders and representatives of statutory bodies to unravel complex community challenges and identify solutions (source 6a). Learnings from the trial sites will be used in other locations in Ireland to increase community safety (source 6b). 

Evidence of impact  

  • Source 1:  Mulcahy, J., Naughton C., Redmond, S. (2023) The Greentown Report (Confidential): First Progress Report 

Research description 

The project builds on doctoral research by Dr Seán Redmond, Principal Investigator of the Greentown project, working with the Research Evidence into Policy, Programmes and Practice (REPPP). The initial Greentown study focused on an anonymised Garda District (Greentown) where Dr Redmond developed Twinsight, a novel methodological approach to interrogate crime networks constructed (confidentially) from PULSE data. Twinsight enables close examination of a criminal network and individuals within that network’s connections and context by interviewing local police with a working knowledge of the individuals involved (Output 1). 

The REPPP team undertook two replication studies, Redtown and Bluetown (Output 2). These three case studies strengthened the evidence that children were being exploited by coercive adults. A national prevalence study estimated that up to 1,000 children may be under the coercive influence of criminalised adults (Output 3). The REPPP team used this initial research to inform the design of a new intervention programme. The programme was designed collaboratively over two years involving scientific experts and front-line professionals. Government funding of €4.2 million enabled the trialling of the programme in two communities for three years (2020-2023).  

The REPPP team conducted a progress report documenting the programme implementation (Output 5, Output 4 & Output 6). Funding has been extended for a further three years (2024-2027). During this timeframe, the REPPP team will conduct an evaluation. 

Research outputs  

  1. Redmond, S., 2016. ‘Lifting the lid on Greentown’. Accessible from [PDF] assets.gov.ie

  1. Naughton, C.M.; Redmond, S., and O’Meara-Daly, E., 2023. ‘The Greentown Project: Building Evidence to Inform Intervention Design for Juveniles Caught-up in Local Criminal Networks’. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 67(1), pp.17-33.

  1. Naughton, C., & Redmond, S. (2020). National prevalence study: Do the findings from the Greentown study of children’s involvement in criminal networks (2015) extend beyond Greentown?

  2. Naughton, C.M.; Redmond, S.; Mulcahy, J. 2023. ‘The Greentown Programme: An Innovative Response to Reduce the Influence of Criminal Networks on Children’. Australia and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC), Melbourne, 6th December 2023

  3. Mulcahy, J., Naughton C., Redmond, S. 2023. ‘The Greentown Report: First Progress Report’. A confidential report on the Implementation of the Greentown Programme for the Department of Justice and Local Advisory Committee

  4. J. Mulcahy, C. Naughton and S. Redmond. 2024 (forthcoming). ‘Theory of change as a tool for tracking Intensive Family Programme developments in Whitetown’. In Theories of Change in Reality: Strengths, Limitations and Future Directions (M-H. Hadrien, D. Koleros & T. Tyrell eds)

Research grants  

  • Department of Justice: Project Trial (2020-2023)

  • Department of Justice: Project Trial (2024-2027)

Beneficiaries

Marginalised Children and their families, communities vulnerable to criminal activity, youth programme developers and deliverers, social workers, legislators, local and national authorities

Sustainable Development Goals