Over the past two years, CYSTEM has also been used to identify young people at risk of becoming involved in Serious and Organised Crime (SOC). The Home Office has funded two phases of targeted intervention with CYJPS with Dr Norris as programme evaluator:

1. Phase 1: 22 young people (aged 14-17)
2. Phase 2: 30 young people (aged 10-12)

The Office of the Police Crime Commissioner for Dyfed-Powys has also recently awarded funding for the project to continue using the intervention work developed by CJYPS and evaluated by Dr Norris (see “SOC Workbook”), starting in September 2019. Dr Norris will have an on-going role in the design and evaluation of both this continuation of the SOC project though an additional funding stream secured from the Serious Youth Violence fund, delivering targeted interventions based on CYSTEM profiles.

The initial findings from the Ceredigion SOC-2 project were used by UK Minister for National Security and Economic Crime, Ben Wallace, for a briefing at the launch of the SOC strategy (Newport, 9^th May, 2019) and the interventions project and the evaluation work of Dr Norris is cited in a Home Office press release and earlier at a briefing for the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) on the new SOC strategy.

The findings from the SOC-2 project are being reproduced in the form of a “SOC Workbook” to be used by youth offending teams and ancillary organisations as a template for SOC intervention work. The workbook will include material on risk assessment and include CYSTEM and the SOC Checklist developed by Dr Norris and used in the on-going SOC preventions work funded by PCC.

The project was nominated for an award by the Howard League for Penal Reform through the targeting of community-based sanctions with young offenders in October 2018. The work has further been cited in the Home Office SOC Local Partnerships Bulletin and featured on BBC Wales TV/Radio.

SOC Workbook and Checklist:

The expertise of Dr Norris in relation to SOC and young people has been utilised by the Home Office in the development and testing of a “SOC Toolkit” involving a visit to the Home Office Prevent team. This work will result in a national Prevent Intervention Toolkit aimed at practitioners working with people at risk of or involved in SOC.

The SOC checklist was adapted from a radicalisation checklist developed by Greater Manchester Police.