The "black sheep" of family clans of Turkish-Arab origin fill entire shelves of investigative and security authorities. Alongside Berlin, Bremen and Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia is one of Germany's "centers of gravity" in the clan crime phenomenon.
Who are they, the "black sheep"?
They are notorious petty criminals, drug dealers or prolific offenders - sometimes organized, criminal and, in the worst cases, kill. They are a burden on our society, a threat to objective and subjective safety and a major challenge for the security authorities. In NRW alone, over 6,000 crimes were recorded by criminal members of such clans in 2019. A figure that speaks for itself. Something that needs to be countered decisively and strategically.
But some members of these clans are also just busybodies who have borrowed the AMG, are "fat pants" and have no money for gasoline. "We are Arabs - and Arabs have to show off!" Such statements come from this circle. But we've also heard this kind of posturing from other strategists. It's something you have to put up with.
The origin and the surname connect
Others - the majority of members of these extended families - simply bear the surname of those described above without ever having come into conflict with the law themselves. They live and work in Germany. Something that needs to be encouraged. So basically, the 'clan' is a multifaceted conglomerate of people who have one thing in common: their origins and, as a rule, their surname. '
The 'clan' as an encompassing bubble, as a criminal, homogeneous overall concept outside our system of rules does not seem to exist, at least according to current knowledge. This differentiation within the group requires an equally differentiated approach on the part of the police!
So how do we deal with these families - with the issue of "clan crime"?
Law and order are important basic requirements for security - no question! Those who consistently fail to abide by our laws and are highly criminal must be stopped with the utmost consistency and the necessary pressure. Our police "zero tolerance" applies to these criminals!
A correct and effective approach. Repression and sustained pressure to control make sense; if addressed correctly, they will make business risky, have a disruptive effect and put offenders behind bars. However, repression also has an inherent disadvantage: it always comes into play and takes effect when it is late or too late, when the crime has been committed. In principle, there is no question that the investigation, conviction and ultimately punishment of offenders also has a general preventative effect.
Repression AND crime prevention important
But there are also people within the family clans known to the police who are not (yet) offenders, but who find a "career" like their uncle's - lots of money, fast cars - desirable, especially because they see no other opportunity for themselves with their name and family affiliation. This is why the North Rhine-Westphalia police are also focusing on early crime prevention and, in this context, particularly on the vulnerable group of children and young people, the next generation.
Under the direction of the Ministry of the Interior, the "360° - Integration, Orientation, Perspectives!" project was therefore conceived in 2020. It was launched in the seven cities in the Ruhr region that are most affected according to the "Clan Crime" situation report from the NRW State Office of Criminal Investigation: Bochum, Dortmund, Duisburg, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Oberhausen and Recklinghausen.
You can't get out of the family
The reduction of the project to a drop-out program, which is often cited in the media, is wrong in two senses. On the one hand, the project involves a range of different measures and, on the other, a drop-out program is not the method of choice in a family context. You can only drop out if you have joined the extremist scene or the rocker scene, for example. However, you don't join a family, you are born into it.
What we are trying to do in this area is to distance ourselves from criminal lifestyles. The aim of these measures is not to get out of a system, but to change the system by changing the behavior of the participants and their families. The aim is to make it clear to families the consequences and prospects of a criminal lifestyle for themselves and their children in particular, and thus to develop an alternative to crime.
The NRW initiative "Kurve kriegen", which has been working effectively and successfully since 2011, is an ideal tool for this and has been updated with educational specialists and certified language and integration mediators specially suited to the clan sector, opening the doors to the target group.
What we are doing in this area is new for the target group. And as is the case everywhere where new things initially trigger fear of contact, there are also "early adopters" here. Whether they were already looking for a way out or only knew what they wanted after it was offered to them remains a mystery at first. Ultimately, however, 26 children and young people (24 boys and two girls) from clan families known to the police, aged between eight and 17, and their families were persuaded to take part. They are gaining confidence, engaging in conversations and then in offers, and also questioning the old ways. An incredibly important step that inspires confidence.
But that's not all we do or plan to do. It's also about involving the target group in other measures. For example, in the area of stereotypical narratives (e.g. "without the clan you are nothing", "a legal life is not possible for us in Germany", "men are made in prison"), which we want to capture and refute with the help of so-called credible ambassadors, including from our own ranks, and at best turn them around ("I made it, so you can too!"). This measure has already been successfully launched. In addition, we are about to implement a women's (mothers') project with explorative scientific support. Because women have a great leverage effect in the community, whether as a friend, mother or self-confident daughter.
"360° - Integration, Orientation, Perspectives" also works closely with the participating local authorities and involves other departments (including the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs, the Ministry for Children, Family, Refugees and Integration and the Ministry of Schools and Education) in order to be able to respond and support in as many ways as possible, e.g. by finding an apprenticeship.
Conclusion
Crime prevention and clan crime initially sound like opposites and incompatible, at least if you think of the common stereotypes. However, our experience has shown the opposite after just a short time. Openness to the concerns that exist in these families and an appreciative attitude, which these families are experiencing for the first time in some cases, are the basic prerequisites for trust, which in turn is the basis and access requirement for our prevention work.
Thanks to our connection to SiKo Ruhr, we have an excellent starting point for synergistically combining repression and prevention. Where necessary, we show firmness and where we encounter willingness (or can encourage it) to accept help, we reach out.
Under the leadership of a prevention coordinator and with the advice of a selected group of renowned scientists, the project's goal of developing effective and sustainable crime prevention measures is being pursued stringently.
However, when you are working with such a difficult and heterogeneous target group, you also have to read "the package insert". We work with children and young people, some of whom are at high risk of committing crime, so relapses and drop-outs are virtually inevitable and frustration tolerance is an indispensable core skill on the part of those involved.
