Conference Paper/Proceeding/Abstract 255 views
Making safe spaces work harder: Added value for women’s projects through evidence-based evaluation.
Bridget Kerr,
Peter Raynor,
Pamela Ugwudike,
Gemma Morgan
Swansea University Author: Bridget Kerr
Abstract
At a time when payment by results is being heralded by the government as the “rehabilitation revolution” in England and Wales, unprecedented pressure is being placed on services to prove their effectiveness in reducing recidivism. However, reoffending rates may be an inadequate measure for women’s p...
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Eurocrim 2016, 16th annual conference of the European Society of Criminology, Muenster, Germany, 21-24 September 2016
2016
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa31085 |
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| Abstract: |
At a time when payment by results is being heralded by the government as the “rehabilitation revolution” in England and Wales, unprecedented pressure is being placed on services to prove their effectiveness in reducing recidivism. However, reoffending rates may be an inadequate measure for women’s projects, whose service users present a low risk of reoffending in the first place, and which take a gender-responsive approach in offering holistic, women-centred community services to divert women from disproportionate punishment through incarceration. The risk-need-responsivity (RNR) model of offender rehabilitation is unparalleled in the criminal justice field in terms of its empirical validity, proposing and demonstrating principles for effective practice through a vast body of theory and research. Whilst women have too often been ‘correctional afterthoughts’ in the literature (as well as in policy and practice), women-centred work in the field has found the RNR model to be applicable to women offenders and has paved the way for a collaborative response, integrating RNR, desistance-focused and gender-responsive approaches.In practice, however, the principles are often misunderstood and misapplied, resulting in deficits in service delivery for both male and female offenders and, in many cases, a professional resistance to the RNR framework. To address concerns regarding the quality of implementation of the RNR model in real world practice, the Correctional Program Assessment Inventory (CPAI) (Gendreau et al, 2010) has been designed to evaluate the extent to which the principles of effective practice are being incorporated into rehabilitative work. Swansea Service Evaluation Team (SSET) is piloting the most recent version of the CPAI in England and Wales and, following evaluation of a women’s project in Wales, is now developing evidence-based evaluation in a gender-responsive context to enable women’s projects to articulate the work they do in terms of effective practice, identify the strengths and weaknesses of services and develop strategies to improve their service. By introducing evidence-based evaluation to women’s services, SSET aims to enable projects to measure the effectiveness of work done in safe spaces, through holistic practices and for social benefits. |
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| Item Description: |
http://www.eurocrim2016.com/At a time when payment by results is being heralded by the government as the “rehabilitation revolution” in England and Wales, unprecedented pressure is being placed on services to prove their effectiveness in reducing recidivism. However, reoffending rates may be an inadequate measure for women’s projects, whose service users present a low risk of reoffending in the first place, and which take a gender-responsive approach in offering holistic, women-centred community services to divert women from disproportionate punishment through incarceration. The risk-need-responsivity (RNR) model of offender rehabilitation is unparalleled in the criminal justice field in terms of its empirical validity, proposing and demonstrating principles for effective practice through a vast body of theory and research. Whilst women have too often been ‘correctional afterthoughts’ in the literature (as well as in policy and practice), women-centred work in the field has found the RNR model to be applicable to women offenders and has paved the way for a collaborative response, integrating RNR, desistance-focused and gender-responsive approaches. In practice, however, the principles are often misunderstood and misapplied, resulting in deficits in service delivery for both male and female offenders and, in many cases, a professional resistance to the RNR framework. To address concerns regarding the quality of implementation of the RNR model in real world practice, the Correctional Program Assessment Inventory (CPAI) (Gendreau et al, 2010) has been designed to evaluate the extent to which the principles of effective practice are being incorporated into rehabilitative work. Swansea Service Evaluation Team (SSET) is piloting the most recent version of the CPAI in England and Wales and, following evaluation of a women’s project in Wales, is now developing evidence-based evaluation in a gender-responsive context to enable women’s projects to articulate the work they do in terms of effective practice, identify the strengths and weaknesses of services and develop strategies to improve their service. By introducing evidence-based evaluation to women’s services, SSET aims to enable projects to measure the effectiveness of work done in safe spaces, through holistic practices and for social benefits. |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |