Criminology and Sociology students help to counter criminal exploitation

BA (Hons) Criminology and Sociology students have had the chance to work in partnership with local charities Safe and Sound and Rebuild East Midlands, as part of their second-year module ‘Community Solutions to Crime’.

Safe and Sound work to protect young people from criminal exploitation while Rebuild East Midlands support adult victims of modern slavery. Students worked in groups on projects to support these charities using a range of skills including social media content creation, research and strategy development.

Using social media for social good

Online sexual exploitation of children is a growing issue in the UK, with grooming offences rising by 80% between 2017 and 2022 according to NSPCC figures.

One group of students in the Community Solutions to Crime module decided to tackle this problem by creating informative TikTok videos that can reach a wide audience of young people. Under the guidance of Senior Lecturer, Dr Rachel Rafferty, five students worked as a team to create TikToks about staying safe online and recognising the features of a healthy relationship.

Thanks to the students’ work Safe and Sound can now spread awareness of the signs of exploitation among the young age group who are the most active users on TikTok. When Safe and Sound CEO Tracy Harrison viewed the TikToks as part of a student presentation she said she was ‘blown away’ by the ‘superb’ quality of the students’ work. 

Real-world learning

The Community Solutions to Crime module allows students to learn about the important work community organisations do to prevent crime and offers an opportunity for them to develop many practical skills they can use in their future careers.

Other projects the students have carried out include researching support provision for victims of modern slavery, generating creative ideas for fundraising, and developing recommendations for a youth engagement strategy.

“I really enjoyed doing this project. It really made me realise what I was interested in with regards to my future.” Amber Dalton, BA (Hons) Criminology and Sociology

Students have found the experiences on this module invaluable as they provide an opportunity to put the topics they learn into context, help to gain experience in different fields and open up their awareness of different career paths for the future.

Giving back and gaining confidence

The community partnerships in this module allow students to give back to the local community while gaining new skills.

“It has been fantastic to work with students to raise awareness of exploitation through social media platforms.” Tracy Harrison, CEO Safe and Sound 2024

As part of their assessment in the module students present the results of their project to staff from the local charities, explaining how they used academic research and theories to shape their activities. The presentation experience has allowed students to hear first hand the positive impact their projects can have for these local organisations.

The research findings developed in two student projects were much appreciated by Rebuild East Midlands Service Delivery Manager Diane Rogers who said that as a small organisation they don’t have the capacity to carry out research projects like these, and that the students’ work had ‘sparked new ideas’.

“Having Rebuild actually come in and watch our presentation felt good. Hearing their feedback on the extensive work we did was gratifying” Keira Bushell, BA (Hons) Criminology and Sociology

At the same time, students have reported gaining a new level of confidence as a result of working on real world projects and seeing the positive impact they can have in the local community.

“It feels as if although it was small, I have impacted the world in some way and that makes me feel important.” Ava Brookes, BA (Hons) Criminology and Sociology.