HIDVA Final Report

The purpose of the evaluation was to assess the impact of hospital-based IDVAs in Surrey with reference to five Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): 1. Trust staff are confident in identifying and safely enquiring with patients about DA and know how to seek support within the Trust with DA-related matters. 2. DA survivors supported by the IDVAs have access to the right information, services, and support, at the right time, in the right place, at the earliest opportunity, through clearly defined referral pathways. 3. IDVAs enhance the Trusts’ Safeguarding response to DA. 4. DA survivors feel enabled to access IDVA and outreach support services. DA survivors are viewed as experts by experience and their feedback on the IDVA service informs the delivery of IDVA services. 5. IDVA data collection in the Trusts provides the Trusts and Commissioners with a better understanding of the level of DA need in Surrey

The Florida Executive Council, An Experiment in Civil War Administration

The conduct of a major war, even under favorable conditions of internal stability, often results in a state of organized confusion in the government. For the South in the Civil War, the administration of the war effort was complicated to an unusual degree by the necessity of simultaneously reorganizing the political union which bound the states together. And even within the individual states themselves, the urgency of the war situation demanded the assumption of governmental functions which were new to the states-functions such as external defense, control of the manufacturing and transportation of essential goods, and the financing of these and related war measures. Under such extraordinary circumstances, it is hardly surprising that extraordinary forms of governmental organization should appear

Evaluation of the Kent Serious Youth Violence Project

This report summarises the findings in relation to the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness over a period of two years and began in September 2020

Using Artificial Intelligence to Identify Perpetrators of Technology Facilitated Coercive Control.

This study investigated the feasibility of using Artificial Intelligence to identify perpetrators of coercive control through digital data held on mobile phones. The research also sought the views of the police and victim/survivors of domestic abuse to using technology in this way

The quality and effectiveness of interventions that target multiple risk factors among young people: a systematic review

Objective: To identify evaluations of interventions that target multiple risk factors in high-risk young people, describe their characteristics, critique their methodological quality and summarise their effectiveness. Methods: A search of the literature published between 2009 and 2014 identified 13 evaluations of interventions that targeted multiple risk factors, compared to 95 evaluations that targeted single risk factors. The methodological adequacy of the 13 evaluation studies was analysed using the Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies and information regarding characteristics and intervention effectiveness was extracted and summarised. Results: There were very few outcome evaluation studies of interventions that targeted multiple risk factors, relative to single risk factors, among high-risk young people. Of the identified studies, half were methodologically weak. Interventions delivered in community settings targeted a greater number of risk factors, while those delivered in a school or health setting reported a higher proportion of statistically significant outcomes. No economic analyses were conducted. Conclusions and Implications for Public Health: More methodologically rigorous evaluations of interventions targeting multiple risk factors among high-risk young people are required, especially for those delivered in community settings. Four key areas for improvement are: i) more precisely defining the risk factors experienced by high-risk young people; ii) achieving greater consistency across interventions; iii) standardising outcome measures; and iv) conducting economic analyses

Reluctant gangsters revisited: the evolution of gangs from postcodes to profits

The aim of the current study was to understand how gangs have changed in the past 10 years since Pitts’ (2008) study in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The study undertook interviews with 21 practitioners working on gang-related issues and 10 young people affected by gangs or formerly embedded in them. Two focus groups involving 37 participants from key agencies then explored the preliminary findings and contributed to a conceptualization of a new operating model of gangs. The study found that local gangs had evolved into more organized and profit-oriented entities than a decade earlier. The new operating model rejected visible signs of gang membership as ‘bad for business’ because they attracted unwanted attention from law enforcement agencies. Faced with a saturated drugs market in London, gangs moved out to capture drugs markets in smaller UK towns in ‘county lines’ activities. This more business-oriented ethos has changed the meaning of both territory and violence. While gang members in the original study described an emotional connection with their postcode, territory is increasingly regarded as a marketplace to be protected. Similarly, violence has moved from an expressive means of reinforcing gang identity to being increasingly used as an instrumental means of protecting business interests. The current study offers a rare opportunity to gain a picture of gangs at two time periods and contributes to work on the contested nature of UK gangs and renewed interest in gang evolution. These findings have important implications for local authorities and criminal justice agencies who need to address the profit motive of gang activity directly