Professional Perspectives of Youth Justice Policy Implementation:Contextual and Coalface Challenges

© 2020 The Authors. The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice published by Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd This article offers a multilayered analysis of the subjective perspectives and experiences of key youth justice stakeholders; exploring the inherent dynamism, contradiction, non-linearity, and contentiousness of youth justice policy implementation. We interrogate how professionals make sense and meaning of policy in the real world and how professional perspectives drive and shape their contributions to policy implementation nationally and locally. Contemporaneously, these analyses enable us to critically examine the caricatures, stereotypes, and assumptions that can (mis)inform common constructions, representations, and understandings of youth justice policy trajectories, including those relating to contextual stability, conceptual clarity, robust evidence bases, and purported foundations in stakeholder consensus

Circles of support and accountability: the characteristics of core members in England and Wales

Background Circles of support and accountability, or Circles, use community volunteers to help reintegrate sex offenders at risk of reoffending in the community. Aims The aims of this study are to describe the first 275 male sex offenders (‘core members’) in England and Wales supported by a Circle and to compare those attending the five largest Circles. Methods As part of their monitoring activity, 10 Circles extracted data from case files, anonymised it and submitted it to Circles UK, the national oversight body. Results Circles have expanded rapidly with 165 (60%) of Circles commencing in the three years 2011–2013 compared with 110 in the nine years 2002–2010. Most core members were referred from the Probation Service (82%). Circles were provided to men with a range of predicted risks of reoffending – from low (26%) to very high (12%). There were some positive changes between the beginning and end of Circles, such as fewer men being unemployed and more living in their own chosen accommodation. Conclusions/implications for practice Circles have been used to support the reintegration of a wide range of sex offenders. Given their rapid growth and flexibility, consistent recording standards are required across. These standards should be reviewed periodically to ensure all important fields of change are captured, including frequency of attendance, length per session and quality of engagement in the work

Getting underneath the skin: A community engagement event for optimal vitamin D status in an 'easily overlooked' group

BACKGROUND: Patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) is recognized as important for improved quality in health service provision and research. Vitamin D is one area where PPIE has potential to benefit public health initiatives, particularly for women and children with increased skin pigmentation (ie at high risk of deficiency) who are easily overlooked. OBJECTIVE: We report findings from a community PPIE event that explored the knowledge, barriers and promoters for optimal vitamin D status amongst an exemplar high-risk and easily overlooked population group. METHODS: Two researchers and one PPIE lead facilitated a single group discussion with twenty members of the Somali community from across west London. All attendees were women of reproductive age, or knew a mother and child that could benefit from a targeted initiative. The discussion was recorded, transcribed verbatim, organized and coded using NVivo 12 Pro to identify emergent themes underpinned by the Health Behaviour Model. RESULTS: Attendees thought community safety and competing demands of technology and education impacted on sun exposure and lifestyle activity. Language barriers impacted on access to health care. Attendees also felt the mother figure was 'the most important' influencer of both child and wider community health. DISCUSSION: Although further discourse is needed, this event emphasizes that it is important that the public voice is heard in informing, designing and evaluating appropriate public health interventions amongst specific ethnic groups. Insights from this Somali population have suggested benefit from using verbal health messages that are specifically targeted at mothers, compared with the general population

From prison to detention: the carceral trajectories of foreign-national prisoners in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has taken an increasingly punitive stance towards ‘foreign criminals’ using law and policy to pave the way for their expulsion from the country. Imprisonment, then, becomes the first stage in a complex process intertwining identity, belonging and punishment. We draw here on research data from two projects to understand the carceral trajectories of foreign-national offenders in the UK. We consider the lived experiences of male foreign-nationals in two sites: prison and immigration detention. The narratives presented show how imprisonment and detention coalesce within the deportation regime as a ‘double punishment’, one that is highly racialised and gendered. We argue that the UK’s increasingly punitive response to foreign-national offenders challenges the traditional purposes of punishment by sidestepping prisoners’ rehabilitative efforts and denying ‘second chances’ while enacting permanent exclusion through bans on re-entry

True gender ratios and stereotype rating norms

We present a study comparing, in English, perceived distributions of men and women in 422 named occupations with actual real world distributions. The first set of data was obtained from previous a large-scale norming study, whereas the second set was mostly drawn from UK governmental sources. In total, real world ratios for 290 occupations were obtained for our perceive vs. real world comparison, of which 205 were deemed to be unproblematic. The means for the two sources were similar and the correlation between them was high, suggesting that people are generally accurate at judging real gender ratios, though there were some notable exceptions. Beside this correlation, some interesting patterns emerged from the two sources, suggesting some response strategies when people complete norming studies. We discuss these patterns in terms of the way real world data might complement norming studies in determining gender stereotypicality

An audit of ECT in England 2011-2015: Usage, demographics, and adherence to guidelines and legislation

Objectives Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) continues to be used in England, but without comprehensive national auditing. Therefore, information was gathered on usage, demographics, consent, and adherence to the guidelines of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (N.I.C.E.) and to the Mental Health Act. Design and Methods Freedom of Information Act requests were sent to 56 National Health Service Trusts. Results Thirty-two trusts provided some usable data. Only 10 were able to report how many people received psychological therapy prior to ECT in accordance with N.I.C.E. recommendations, with figures ranging from 0% to 100%. The number of people currently receiving ECT in England annually is between 2,100 and 2,700, and falling. There was a 12-fold difference between the Trusts with the highest and lowest usage rates per capita. Most recipients are still women (66%) and over 60 (56%). More than a third (39%) is given without consent, with 30% of Trusts not adhering to mental health legislation concerning second opinions. At least 44% were not using validated measures of efficacy, and at least 33% failed to do so for adverse effects. Only four provided any actual data for positive outcomes or adverse effects. None provided any data on efficacy beyond the end of treatment. Conclusions National audits should be reinstated. Independent, objective monitoring of adverse effects is urgently required. An investigation into why ECT is still administered excessively to older people and women seems long overdue. Practitioner points Mental health staff should seek to ensure that all depressed people in their service are offered evidence-based psychological treatments before being offered E.C.T. Staff should lobby managers to ensure proper auditing of E.C.T. within their service Individuals receiving ECT should be closely monitored for adverse cognitive effects Overuse of ECT with women and older people should be avoide

Attitudes to personality disorder of staff working in high and medium secure hospitals

The discourse surrounding personality disorder is largely negative, and the diagnosis is considered to be associated with a degree of stigma. This study aimed to investigate current staff attitudes to personality disorder in a high and a medium secure forensic-psychiatric hospital in the UK. Staff attitudes were assessed using the Attitude to Personality Disorder Questionnaire (Bowers & Allan, 2006). The questionnaire was completed electronically by 132 staff. Attitudes to personality disorder in the current study were significantly less positive than in comparable studies in similar settings. Having completed staff training surrounding personality disorder, and being from a non-nursing professional background, were the best predictors of positive attitudes to personality disorder. The findings of this study offer support to the pursuit of improving access to training in personality disorder in forensic settings

Adapting the ASSIST model of informal peer-led intervention delivery to the Talk to FRANK drug prevention programme in UK secondary schools (ASSIST + FRANK): intervention development, refinement and a pilot cluster randomised controlled trial

Background: Illicit drug use increases the risk of poor physical and mental health. There are few effective drug prevention interventions. Objective: To assess the acceptability of implementing and trialling two school-based peer-led drug prevention interventions. Design: Stage 1 – adapt ASSIST, an effective peer-led smoking prevention intervention to deliver information from the UK national drug education website [see www.talktofrank.com (accessed 29 August 2017)]. Stage 2 – deliver the two interventions, ASSIST + FRANK (+FRANK) and FRANK friends, examine implementation and refine content. Stage 3 – four-arm pilot cluster randomised control trial (cRCT) of +FRANK, FRANK friends, ASSIST and usual practice, including a process evaluation and an economic assessment. Setting: Fourteen secondary schools (two in stage 2) in South Wales, UK. Participants: UK Year 8 students aged 12–13 years at baseline. Interventions: +FRANK is a UK informal peer-led smoking prevention intervention provided in Year 8 followed by a drug prevention adjunct provided in Year 9. FRANK friends is a standalone informal peer-led drug prevention intervention provided in Year 9. These interventions are designed to prevent illicit drug use through training influential students to disseminate information on the risks associated with drugs and minimising harms using content from www.talktofrank.com. Training is provided off site and follow-up visits are made in school. Outcomes: Stage 1 – +FRANK and FRANK friends intervention manuals and resources. Stage 2 – information on the acceptability and fidelity of delivery of the interventions for refining manuals and resources. Stage 3 – (a) acceptability of the interventions according to prespecified criteria; (b) qualitative data from students, staff, parents and intervention teams on implementation and receipt of the interventions; (c) comparison of the interventions; and (d) recruitment and retention rates, completeness of primary, secondary and intermediate outcome measures and estimation of costs. Results: +FRANK and FRANK friends were developed with stakeholders [young people, teachers (school management team and other roles), parents, ASSIST trainers, drug agency staff and a public health commissioner] over an 18-month period. In the stage 2 delivery of +FRANK, 12 out of the 14 peer supporters attended the in-person follow-ups but only one completed the electronic follow-ups. In the pilot cRCT, 12 schools were recruited, randomised and retained. The student response rate at the 18-month follow-up was 93% (1460/1567 students). Over 80% of peer supporters invited were trained and reported conversations on drug use and contact with trainers. +FRANK was perceived less positively than FRANK friends. The prevalence of lifetime illicit drug use was 4.1% at baseline and 11.6% at follow-up, with low numbers of missing data for all outcomes. The estimated cost per school was £1942 for +FRANK and £3041 for FRANK friends. All progression criteria were met. Conclusions: Both interventions were acceptable to students, teachers and parents, but FRANK friends was preferred to +FRANK. A limitation of the study was that qualitative data were collected on a self-selecting sample. Future work recommendations include progression to a Phase III effectiveness trial of FRANK friends. Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN14415936. Funding: This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme and will be published in full in Public Health Research; Vol. 5, No. 7. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information. The work was undertaken with the support of the Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer). Joint funding (MR/KO232331/1) from the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the Welsh Government and the Wellcome Trust, under the auspices of the UK CRC, is gratefully acknowledged

Sentencing drug offenders under the 2003 Criminal Justice Act: Challenges for the probation service

For the most part the 2003 Criminal Justice Act, which came into effect in England and Wales in April 2005, was accepted by the probation service with relatively little opposition. Given the enormity of its impact acquiescence to this degree of change ought to come as something of a surprise. The 2003 Act changed fundamentally the nature of community supervision, it brought to an end the traditional range of non-custodial penalties and replaced them with a single community order to which sentencers could add any of 12 possible requirements. This paper considers the impact of the 2003 legislation on one particular offender group - drug misusers. Drug misusing offenders have the potential to pose serious difficulties for probation officers; the habitual nature of drug addiction and a tendency toward an irregular lifestyle make drug misusers particularly susceptible to breach. Under the new legislation courts have significantly fewer options available to them when responding to incidents of offender non-compliance. This paper argues that many of the provisions of the 2003 Act together with developments elsewhere in the UK are likely to have impacted disproportionately on those groups whose lifestyles are chaotic and whose routines are incompatible with the terms and conditions of modern day probation practice. It concludes that greater flexibility towards non-compliance, supported by regular and consistent judicial review, would encourage improved rates of compliance and retention in treatment and improved outcomes for offenders

Police interview of suspects in China: developments and analyses

This paper investigates the power dynamics in police interviews with suspects in China by examining a real-life sample. It first overviews some recent developments and legislation in China regarding police interviewing of suspects, followed by outlining the linguistic and psychological research which the analyses are based upon. The interviews are examined using critical discourse analysis that reveals the high-power position of the Chinese police in suspect interviews. However, the large proportion of open questions found in the interviews is encouraging, as this suggests that the regulations outlawing use of evidence obtained by torture or other illegal means is taking effect. This paper is the very first to empirically examine actual Chinese police interviews with suspects, providing valuable insights for theories and practice.N/