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Evaluation On Probation: Developing Gender-Responsive And Jurisdictionally Appropriate Evaluation Systems For Offender Services In The British Isles / Bridget A. Kerr

Swansea University Author: Bridget A. Kerr

DOI (Published version): 10.23889/Suthesis.49211

Abstract

This thesis is an account of the application of a structured, evidence-based Canadian instrument for the evaluation of offender intervention services (the Correctional Program Assessment Inventory-2010), and explores the limits of technology transfer between jurisdictional contexts. As well as analy...

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Published: 2018
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa49211
first_indexed 2019-03-15T20:03:55Z
last_indexed 2025-04-04T04:24:08Z
id cronfa49211
recordtype RisThesis
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spelling 2025-04-03T15:14:26.8291854 v2 49211 2019-03-15 Evaluation On Probation: Developing Gender-Responsive And Jurisdictionally Appropriate Evaluation Systems For Offender Services In The British Isles 47e86ed956135528b781a1508f26314b NULL Bridget A. Kerr Bridget A. Kerr true true 2019-03-15 This thesis is an account of the application of a structured, evidence-based Canadian instrument for the evaluation of offender intervention services (the Correctional Program Assessment Inventory-2010), and explores the limits of technology transfer between jurisdictional contexts. As well as analysis of evaluation results in two services in the British Isles, this has entailed investigation of the response made by criminal justice agencies and practitioners and how the instrument may need to be modified to operate meaningfully in diverse contexts. During this study, inter-jurisdictional application of the CPAI-2010 exposed turbulent political environments, which had far-reaching implications for the potential of evaluation. This study demonstrates that, to sustain evaluation as a resource for change and development, it must respond to and reflect the political context of agencies, integrate all relevant approaches (eg, Risk-Need-Responsivity, desistance-focused contributions, gender-responsive work, etc) and engage all key social actors (service-users, practitioners, managers, etc) in a process of reflection. Its findings indicate that adopting a motivational language, placing a service on a continuum and timing evaluation at an appropriate frequency are all factors that can reflect and ameliorate organisational difficulties. Furthermore, this study highlights that evaluation of organisational context is key to meaningful engagement with the core issues of a service, indicating the inadequacy of evaluation systems focusing solely on practice and/or outcomes. Recidivism rates may be a particularly inadequate outcome measure for women’s projects, which have their emphasis on the provision of holistic and diversionary approaches, aiming to keep women (who, as a service-user group, present a low risk of re-offending in any case) out of the disproportionately punitive prison system. The innovation of this study is the development of an evidence-based evaluation approach that meets the needs of services, specifically women’s projects, in the British Isles: the Swansea Service Evaluation Inventory – Women’s Projects (SSEI-W). E-Thesis Probation; Evaluation ; Responsive; Evidence-based; Effective Practice; R; what works; women; British Isles; CPAI; SSEI-W 31 12 2018 2018-12-31 10.23889/Suthesis.49211 COLLEGE NANME Criminology COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Doctoral Ph.D Not Required 2025-04-03T15:14:26.8291854 2019-03-15T14:49:10.6105894 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy Bridget A. Kerr NULL 1 0049211-15032019151427.pdf Kerr_Bridget_A_PhD_Final_Thesis.pdf 2019-03-15T15:14:27.5500000 Output 4035709 application/pdf E-Thesis – open access true 2019-03-14T00:00:00.0000000 true
title Evaluation On Probation: Developing Gender-Responsive And Jurisdictionally Appropriate Evaluation Systems For Offender Services In The British Isles
spellingShingle Evaluation On Probation: Developing Gender-Responsive And Jurisdictionally Appropriate Evaluation Systems For Offender Services In The British Isles
Bridget A. Kerr
title_short Evaluation On Probation: Developing Gender-Responsive And Jurisdictionally Appropriate Evaluation Systems For Offender Services In The British Isles
title_full Evaluation On Probation: Developing Gender-Responsive And Jurisdictionally Appropriate Evaluation Systems For Offender Services In The British Isles
title_fullStr Evaluation On Probation: Developing Gender-Responsive And Jurisdictionally Appropriate Evaluation Systems For Offender Services In The British Isles
title_full_unstemmed Evaluation On Probation: Developing Gender-Responsive And Jurisdictionally Appropriate Evaluation Systems For Offender Services In The British Isles
title_sort Evaluation On Probation: Developing Gender-Responsive And Jurisdictionally Appropriate Evaluation Systems For Offender Services In The British Isles
author_id_str_mv 47e86ed956135528b781a1508f26314b
author_id_fullname_str_mv 47e86ed956135528b781a1508f26314b_***_Bridget A. Kerr
author Bridget A. Kerr
author2 Bridget A. Kerr
format E-Thesis
publishDate 2018
institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.23889/Suthesis.49211
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Social Sciences - Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Social Sciences - Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy
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description This thesis is an account of the application of a structured, evidence-based Canadian instrument for the evaluation of offender intervention services (the Correctional Program Assessment Inventory-2010), and explores the limits of technology transfer between jurisdictional contexts. As well as analysis of evaluation results in two services in the British Isles, this has entailed investigation of the response made by criminal justice agencies and practitioners and how the instrument may need to be modified to operate meaningfully in diverse contexts. During this study, inter-jurisdictional application of the CPAI-2010 exposed turbulent political environments, which had far-reaching implications for the potential of evaluation. This study demonstrates that, to sustain evaluation as a resource for change and development, it must respond to and reflect the political context of agencies, integrate all relevant approaches (eg, Risk-Need-Responsivity, desistance-focused contributions, gender-responsive work, etc) and engage all key social actors (service-users, practitioners, managers, etc) in a process of reflection. Its findings indicate that adopting a motivational language, placing a service on a continuum and timing evaluation at an appropriate frequency are all factors that can reflect and ameliorate organisational difficulties. Furthermore, this study highlights that evaluation of organisational context is key to meaningful engagement with the core issues of a service, indicating the inadequacy of evaluation systems focusing solely on practice and/or outcomes. Recidivism rates may be a particularly inadequate outcome measure for women’s projects, which have their emphasis on the provision of holistic and diversionary approaches, aiming to keep women (who, as a service-user group, present a low risk of re-offending in any case) out of the disproportionately punitive prison system. The innovation of this study is the development of an evidence-based evaluation approach that meets the needs of services, specifically women’s projects, in the British Isles: the Swansea Service Evaluation Inventory – Women’s Projects (SSEI-W).
published_date 2018-12-31T05:56:29Z
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score 11.090362

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