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Supporting voluntary organisations that work with offenders and their families

Desistance: translating theory into practice

March 2014

Nicola Drinkwater, Policy Officer

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Supporting voluntary organisations that work with offenders and their families

What is desistance?

• Process not an event• Primary desistance- absence of offending

behaviour.• Secondary desistance- refers to a much more

deep seated change in a person, reflected in them developing an identity as a ‘non-offender.’

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Supporting voluntary organisations that work with offenders and their families

Measurement

• Intermediate outcomes• Payment by Results– Binary measure- the number of

offenders in the cohort who commit any further offences

– Frequency measure- the number of reoffences committed per offender in the cohort

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Supporting voluntary organisations that work with offenders and their families

Translating theory into practice

‘There is no single theory of why people stop offending, nor is there an obvious or agreed set of policy proposals which can be ‘read off’ from the research.’

Fergus McNeill, Stephen Farrall, Claire Lighthowler and Shadd Maruna (2014) Discovering desistance: reconfiguring criminal justice, Special issue on desistance, Scottish Justice Matters.

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Supporting voluntary organisations that work with offenders and their families

Supporting the desistance process

• Service user engagement• Service user involvement• A transparent service• Empowering service users• Flexible and holistic services• A strengths-based approach

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Supporting voluntary organisations that work with offenders and their families

Supporting the desistance process• Working with and through families and

groups• Creating a sense of belonging• Peer support• Fostering creativity• Long-term support• Partnership working

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Supporting voluntary organisations that work with offenders and their families

Workshop

• How do you support desistance in your work?

• Can you give examples, using the factors we have explored?

• Are there any ways you can improve your service or work to support the desistance process further?

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Supporting voluntary organisations that work with offenders and their families

Next steps• Evaluating a service or project– the Good Vibrations Javanese Gamelan project.– 2nd Chance’s football and rugby academy, a

two year sports initiative at HMP YOI Portland.

• Measure your impact• Develop a theory of change• Create a service user involvement group• Advocate for desistance

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Supporting voluntary organisations that work with offenders and their families

• Clinks website- www.clinks.org – Improving your evidence resources -

http://www.clinks.org/support/evaluation-and-effectiveness – Guide to service user involvement: (

http://www.clinks.org/sites/default/files/VOLUNTEERING%20GUIDE%20-%20Service%20User%20Involvement.pdf)

– Clinks Volunteering and Mentoring Guide: (http://www.clinks.org/sites/default/files/Volunteer_Peer_Support.pdf)

– Theory of change: http://www.clinks.org/sites/default/files/TheoryofChangeGuide.pdf)

Useful resources

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Supporting voluntary organisations that work with offenders and their families

Useful resources• Desistance-based evaluations:

– The Write to be Heard Project (http://www.artsalliance.org.uk/sites/default/files/Writetobeheard_FinalReport.pdf )

– Evaluation report for 2nd Chance’s football and rugby academy, a two year sports initiative at HMP YOI Portland (http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/210815/1/Meek_2nd_Chance_Portland_Evaluation_Final_Report.pdf

• Discovering desistance- http://blogs.iriss.org.uk/discoveringdesistance/.