When you damage something that is not yours it is called criminal damage.

This can be something as simple as throwing a book on the floor and damaging the cover to scratching a car with a key.

It was an accident!

You do not have to deliberately cause damage for you to be guilty. You could be trying to climb over a fence when one of the fencing slats snaps in your hand, you might have kicked a football and it smashed a window, you may have fallen over in to some plants and flattened them.

I did it deliberately!

But also there are many young and older people who cause criminal damage deliberately. They may get angry with someone and scratch their car in revenge, or they may set fire to rubbish in a bin because they thought it was cool. Others just cause damage of the sake of it and might snap off a car aerial for the fun of it.

How would you feel?

If this was your property how would you feel?

Angry?
Upset?
Frustrated?
Worried about how you were going to pay to fix or replace it?

Remember how others may feel if you damage their property and learn to take responsibility for your actions - this means you need to be aware of the damage that you could cause before you do something and trying to stop it.

Damage of other people's property is called Criminal Damage because you could get in trouble with the police as it is a crime. You could be arrested and depending on how bad the criminal damage was you could be in serious trouble. Also your parents and school would be told.

Now, from what you learnt at Crucial Crew and on Crucial Crew online, test yourself and learn how to deal with criminal damage problems.

Little Jonny is a naughty boy who keeps on getting in to trouble because he has been damaging other people's property. He has been caught by the police five times and each time he described what he did and gave an explanation of why it happened. Below this are five pieces of advice that could have stopped Jonny from making the mistakes and damaging property. Link the criminal damage (A-E) to the pieces of advice to stop him from doing it (1-5).

Criminal Damage Puzzle

Link the criminal damage below to a way of stopping it from happening.

A - Sorry Sir, my friend pushed me and I fell in to the plants and ruined them by accident?

B - Sorry Sir, but he made me really angry and I just lashed out and ripped his coat!

C - Sorry Sir, my mate told me to graffiti on the toilet door

D - Sorry Sir, but it looked like an old building that no-one cared about and I thought it would be fun to smash the window.

E - Sorry Sir, but I thought it would be cool to see what it looked like the bin was on fire.

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1 - Be brave and don't do the bad things that your friends tell you to do. You will get more respect if you just walk away.

2 - Just because you think the piece of property is worthless doesn't mean that someone else does. Don't damage things just because it looks like no-one cares about it.

3 - When someone makes you angry, don't think about getting revenge. If you damage their property you will be in trouble and as bad as the person making you angry.

4 - Don't do criminal damage just because you thought it would be cool - this is not an excuse. You will still be in as much trouble and you could hurt yourself. Think about the dangers and consequences first.

5 - Make sure you and your friends think about the consequences before you act.

Place your answers below:-

Find out the answers here.