Criminal Justice Archive
Universal Credit, Good Work and Progression
16 October 2024
This project leverages features associated with the geomasking algorithm to estimate the effect of public crime statistics on house prices.
Estimating the effect of crime (maps) on house prices using a natural experiment
28 March 2024
Dr. Monsuru Adepeju (PERU) worked alongside Dr. Meng Le Zhang of University of Sheffield to investigate the impact of public crime information on house prices in England and Wales, leveraging the geomasking in online crime maps as a natural experiment.
A Rapid Evidence Assessment to assess the outcomes of community and custody delivered vocational training and employment programmes on reoffending
6 August 2020
PERU were partially funded by the Ministry of Justice to undertake a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) to assess the outcomes of community and custody delivered vocational training and employment programmes on reoffending.
Chance to change pilots qualitative study
19 February 2020
In partnership with the Ministry of Justice and the Barrow Cadbury Trust, PERU researchers are undertaking a qualitative study on the views and experiences of participants in the Chance to Change pilots.
Youth Endowment Fund Evaluations
6 February 2020
We are evaluating projects funded by the Youth Endowment Fund aimed at preventing young people from being involved in crime and violence.
Catch22 Bristol Dawes Unit Gangs Evaluation
2 February 2017
The Bristol Dawes Unit was set up by Catch 22 in 2015 and works with young people at all stages of gang involvement: on the periphery, involved or entrenched. They receive referrals from the police, youth offending service, social services and schools.
Whole System Approach to Women Offenders in Greater Manchester Evaluation
21 April 2015
The Whole System Approach (WSA) to women offenders across Greater Manchester aims to embed gender-responsive support for women at three points of the criminal justice system - arrest, sentencing and upon release from prison. The governance and funding of the WSA is overseen by the Justice and Rehabilitation Executive (JRE).
Intensive Community Order Evaluation (ICO)
2 October 2014
PERU were commissioned by the Police and Crime Commissioner to evaluate the Greater Manchester Intensive Community Order (ICO) Programme.
Justice Reinvestment
31 January 2013
Reviewing the available literature on Justice Reinvestment, interviewing key figures in the Justice Reinvestment movement in the US and looking at projects in the UK that have implemented elements of Justice Reinvestment.
Supporting Wigan Payment by Results (PbR) Substance Misuse pilot
15 January 2013
PERU worked with Wigan Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) between July 2011 and March 2012 to support the development of a tariff system for the Wigan PbR model.
Evaluation of the London Reducing Re-offending Programmes
1 May 2012
The study was to evaluate three of the London Mayor’s reducing re-offending programmes.
Early testing and formative evaluation of the Enablers of Change assessment and sentence planning tool for adults with convictions
15 September 2010
The Enablers of Change assessment and sentence planning tool has been designed to assess the risks, needs, strengths and protective factors of adults with convictions.
The costs and benefits of engaging volunteers from under-represented groups
1 September 2010
Gaining a greater understanding of the costs and benefits of engaging volunteers from under-represented groups in the work of voluntary sector organisations through a survey and face-to-face interviews.
Evaluation of Peer Courts pilot
1 February 2010
PERU, commissioned by Nacro, undertook a process, impact and economic evaluation of the Preston Peer Court pilot.
An economic review of domestic violence services in Cheshire
1 February 2009
PERU undertook a short review of the evidence on the impact of domestic violence services, collected data on the economic cost of delivering the particular service under review and calculated the break-even point for the service to be cost effective.
Meeting the Challenge of Complex Need – Homelessness Sector
24 October 2024
Researcher Anton Roberts of the Policy Evaluation and Researcher Unit (PERU) is proud to release this report in collaboration with Lifeshare. This detailed piece of work explores the role of complex need in frontline homelessness services - attempting to define the challenges faced, provide examples of best practice, and a host of recommendations for improved ways of working. This detailed service guide has been informed by Anton's co-productive doctoral research, which took place over a two-year period across provisions here in Manchester. The resource also draws heavily on the lived experience of the organisations staff, volunteers and service users. This resource would be of great use to any frontline workers/volunteers in the sector, as well as any frontline provision that works with vulnerable/marginalised groups. It is a reflection of the (at times) stark difficulties faced by third sector organisations, but also provides a series of realistic and practical solutions.
Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) Administrative Data Guidance
16 October 2024
This project leverages features associated with the geomasking algorithm to estimate the effect of public crime statistics on house prices.
Exploring the production and utilisation of the pre-sentence reports in the youth justice system
19 July 2024
This project leverages features associated with the geomasking algorithm to estimate the effect of public crime statistics on house prices.
Supporting Girls in Care To Desist From Offending Behaviour
7 July 2024
This project leverages features associated with the geomasking algorithm to estimate the effect of public crime statistics on house prices.
The Exploitation of Girls in Care: An Ongoing Struggle for Recognition
7 July 2024
This project leverages features associated with the geomasking algorithm to estimate the effect of public crime statistics on house prices.
The ‘Exposed’ Population, Violent Crime in Public Space and the Night-time Economy in Manchester, UK.
22 June 2024
This project leverages features associated with the geomasking algorithm to estimate the effect of public crime statistics on house prices.
The Influence of Intra-Daily Activities and Settings upon Weekday Violent Crime in Public Spaces in Manchester, UK. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research.
22 June 2024
This project leverages features associated with the geomasking algorithm to estimate the effect of public crime statistics on house prices.
Policing and Mental ill-health: Using Big Data to Assess the Scale and Severity of, and the Frontline Resources Committed to, mental ill-health-related calls-for-service
22 June 2024
This project leverages features associated with the geomasking algorithm to estimate the effect of public crime statistics on house prices.
Understanding policing demand and deployment through the lens of the city and with the application of big data.
22 June 2024
This project leverages features associated with the geomasking algorithm to estimate the effect of public crime statistics on house prices.
Inequality in exposure to crime, social disorganization and collective efficacy: Evidence from Greater Manchester, United Kingdom.
22 June 2024
This project leverages features associated with the geomasking algorithm to estimate the effect of public crime statistics on house prices.
The spatial reordering of poverty and crime: A study of Glasgow and Birmingham (United Kingdom), 2001/2 to 2015/16. Cities, 130, 103874.
22 June 2024
The Health Foundation REAL Centre is working with the University of Liverpool to build a dynamic microsimulation model of non-communicable diseases to allow analysis of future demand for healthcare.
Is the policing prioritisation of and response to crime equitable? An examination of frontline policing deployment to incidents of violence-against-the-person.
22 June 2024
This project leverages features associated with the geomasking algorithm to estimate the effect of public crime statistics on house prices.
Estimating the effect of crime (maps) on house prices using a natural experiment
28 March 2024
This project leverages features associated with the geomasking algorithm to estimate the effect of public crime statistics on house prices.
Chance to Change Pilot Evaluation
18 October 2023
The scheme to defer the prosecution of low-level offenders has highlighted key benefits, including avoiding criminalisation and associated negative social impact, but has demonstrated challenges, such as addressing racial disparities.
Care Experience, Ethnicity and Youth Justice Involvement: Key Trends and Policy Implications
23 September 2023
This briefing is based on descriptive findings from an ADR UK (Administrative Data Research UK) Research Fellowship project
‘We Need to Tackle Their Well Being First’: Understanding and Supporting Care-Experienced Girls in the Youth Justice System
13 August 2023
This article presents novel findings from interviews with 17 girls and young women and eight Youth Offending Team (YOT) staff, highlighting how being in care can affect offending behaviour and how YOTs may provide support to care-experienced girls who have been inadequately supported elsewhere.
Confronting intergenerational harm: Care experience, motherhood and criminal justice involvement
10 July 2023
This paper explores how criminalisation, care experience and motherhood may intersect to produce multi-faceted structural disadvantage within both systems of care and punishment.
A Difficult Balance: Challenges and Possibilities for Local Protocols to Reduce Unnecessary Criminalisation of Children in Care and Care Leavers
20 March 2023
This article explores the challenges and possibilities of using local agreements to divert children in care and care leavers away from formal justice systems contact.
A Rapid Evidence Assessment of the impact of probation caseloads on reducing recidivism and other probation outcomes
26 July 2021
Rapid Evidence Assessment finds a growing body of evidence that lower probation caseloads have a positive impact in terms of reducing reoffending in the USA.
Mentoring: Can you get too much of a ‘good thing’? Proposing enhancements to the ‘effectiveness framework’ of the England and Wales Prison and Probation Service
3 July 2021
Using data from the Social Finance UK Database and focusing on SIBs in the US and UK, Olson et al. evaluate whether the SIB approach aligns with the theoretical predictions of social innovation.
A Rapid Evidence Assessment To Assess The Outcomes Of Community And Custody Delivered Vocational Training And Employment Programmes On Reoffending
10 June 2021
Rapid Evidence Assessment finds that vocational training and employment programmes were associated with 9 percent fewer programme participants reoffending, when compared with nonparticipants. Studies conducted in the UK were associated with 6 percent fewer programme participants reoffending.
The Role of Needs Assessment in the Effective Engagement of People with Convictions
17 November 2020
This paper argues for “the potential for needs assessment and sentence planning to transcend their core justice functions and set the tone for effective engagement between probation supervisee and supervisor.”
Process Evaluation of the Greater Manchester Integrated Police Custody Healthcare and Wider Liaison and Diversion Service
1 October 2020
Rapid Evidence Assessment finds a growing body of evidence that lower probation caseloads have a positive impact in terms of reducing reoffending in the USA.
Using Information Science to enhance educational preventing violent extremism programmes
14 September 2020
Educational preventing violent extremism (EPVE) programs have had (to date) little if any theoretical underpinning.
Time to reset the clock on the design of impact evaluations in criminology
23 July 2020
This paper highlights how qualitative research can enhance causal explanation in impact evaluations and provide additional causal leverage to findings from randomised experiments.
What Makes for Effective Youth Mentoring Programmes: A Rapid Evidence Summary
8 July 2020
A rapid evidence summary
The progress of marketisation: the prison and probation experience
3 July 2020
Rapid Evidence Assessment finds a growing body of evidence that lower probation caseloads have a positive impact in terms of reducing reoffending in the USA.
“THE IMPACT INSIDE”
19 June 2020
EVALUATING THE ROLE OF THE KOESTLER AWARDS IN IMPROVING PRISONS AND PRISONERS
Innovation and the Evidence Base
10 January 2020
This report explores the concept of innovation and its application to the delivery of probation services.
Putting the community back into payback
6 November 2019
This chapter explores how to put communities back into community payback through the use of co-operatives.
If reoffending is not the only outcome, what are the alternatives?
6 November 2019
Probation provision is complex, with a range of providers dealing with diverse service users and performing differing functions.
Enabling change: An assessment tool for adult offenders that operationalises risk needs responsivity and desistance principles
5 November 2019
An assessment tool for adult offenders that operationalises risk needs responsivity and desistance principles
Functional Skills in Prison (Randomised Controlled Trial) – A Pilot Study
14 June 2019
This programme of work aims to improve understanding of ‘best’ practice in functional skills education in England and Wales.
Functional Skills in Prison: The Case For a Randomised Controlled Trial
14 June 2019
Technical Report and Executive Summary
A Rapid Evidence Assessment of the impact of probation caseloads on reducing recidivism and other probation outcomes
11 April 2019
Rapid Evidence Assessment finds a growing body of evidence that lower probation caseloads have a positive impact in terms of reducing reoffending in the USA.
A Rapid Evidence Assessment on the effectiveness of remote supervision and new technologies in managing probation service users
13 March 2019
Examining the effectiveness of remote supervision approaches and emerging new technologies to manage probation service users and assist with their desistance from further offending.
Whole System Approach for Women Offenders – Final Evaluation Report
18 September 2018
The evaluation has found that the WSA provides a good example of a gendered approach to supporting women in contact with the criminal justice system or at risk of offending and has been successful in responding to a number of its key aims.
The effectiveness of probation supervision towards reducing reoffending
18 September 2018
A Rapid Evidence Assessment
A Realist Model of Prison Education, Growth, and Desistance: A New Theory
25 June 2018
This paper articulates the first ‘general theory’ of prison education, offering a new insight into the relevance of desistance theory and understanding of prison sociology to the lives of men engaged in education whilst in prison.
Payment by results and social impact bonds
26 April 2018
Outcome-based payment systems in the UK and US
T2A Final Process Evaluation Report
11 April 2018
The T2A Pathway initiative, 6 projects led by charities in partnership with statutory services, delivered services to 16-25 year olds across sites in England between 2014-2017.
Piloting different approaches to personalised offender management in the English CJS
22 January 2018
Various approaches to personalisation are well-established in the UK social care sector and are now starting to ‘travel’ to other sectors.
Socrates & Aristotle: The Role of Ancient Philosophers in the Self-Understanding of Desisting Prisoners
3 August 2017
The Role of Ancient Philosophers in the Self-Understanding of Desisting Prisoners
English and Welsh experience of marketisation
2 May 2017
Payment by results and justice devolution in the probation sector
A Rapid Evidence Assessment of the effectiveness of prison education
23 March 2017
A Rapid Evidence Assessment of the effectiveness of prison education in reducing recidivism and increasing employment
The ethical challenges of evidence-based policy research
14 February 2017
In Research Ethics in Criminology: Dilemmas, Issues and Solutions (Edited by Cowburn, Gelsthorpe and Wahidin)
Operationalising desistance through personalisation
25 January 2017
This article reports on the early stages of a project to develop a model of offender rehabilitation that operationalises the concept of desistance.
‘Personalisation’: Is social innovation possible under Transforming Rehabilitation?
6 July 2016
When the Coalition government’s ‘rehabilitation revolution’ was first articulated, innovation was an important theme, encompassing innovation by frontline staff, by organisations working within a mixed economy and even social entrepreneurs.
Predictable Policing: Measuring the Crime Control Benefits of Hotspots Policing at Bus Stops
30 June 2016
A fairly robust body of evidence suggests that hotspots policing is an effective crime prevention strategy.
The 2010-2015 Coalition and Criminal Justice: Continuities and Contradictions
3 May 2016
The criminal justice system (CJS) in England and Wales went through extensive reform under the Coalition Government of 2010-2015.
Evaluation of the Whole System Approach for Women Offenders Executive Summary Dec 2015
5 January 2016
Although women remain a minority group in the criminal justice system (CJS), there is increasing recognition amongst policy makers of the importance of understanding the needs of female offenders in order to better target resources and provide support that is responsive to these needs.
Personalisation: operationalizing ‘desistance’ and commissioning for justice reinvestment
1 December 2015
Slides from Clinks 'Just and Affordable Rehabilitation' Conference, London, 1st December 2015
Markets, privatisation and law and order – some economic considerations
16 April 2015
Kevin Albertson discusses the difficulty of aligning private incentives with the public good
ICCJ Monograph No 9: Justice, with Reason: Rethinking the Economics of Crime and Justice
1 August 2014
Economic ideas and concepts have always influenced thinking about crime and criminal justice. Increasingly, however, criminologists, policy-makers and practitioners who draw on, or seek to critique, economic ideas take a rather narrow view of economics based on the prevailing orthodoxy: neo-liberalism. Neo-liberalism, vulgarly conceived, assumes society is comprised of self-serving, instrumentally rational actors.
PERU Briefing 14/02: Social Innovation in the Criminal Justice System
10 July 2014
In this briefing we highlight the importance of social innovation in the criminal justice system and ask whether reforms to the criminal justice system taking place as part of the Transforming Rehabilitation policy shift will encourage or deter social innovation in the future.
Personalisation in the criminal justice system: what is the potential?
24 March 2014
The criminal justice sector has never achieved rates of re-offending with which the public and policy makers are satisfied.
Justice Reinvestment in an “Age of Austerity”: Developments in the United Kingdom
30 January 2014
In the UK, national and local governments are struggling to cope with the economic crisis which ensued in 2008.
‘London Reducing Reoffending Programme’ Evaluation: Executive Summary
15 January 2014
The ‘London Reducing Reoffending Programme’ (LRRP) was an innovative Payment by Results (PbR) programme that aimed to reduce youth reoffending in London.
London Reducing Reoffending Programme’ Evaluation
15 January 2014
The ‘London Reducing Reoffending Programme’ (LRRP) was an innovative Payment by Results (PbR) programme that aimed to reduce youth reoffending in London.
Evaluation of the Intensive Alternatives to Custody pilots
1 December 2013
This summary presents the main findings from a range of research, conducted by Sheffield Hallam University and the Greater Manchester Probation Trust, exploring the learning from the Intensive Alternatives to Custody (IAC) pilots.
PERU Briefing 13/01 : Justice Reinvestment Thinking outside the cell
9 September 2013
In Crime and Punishment in America, Currie notes that, short of major wars, mass imprisonment has been the most thoroughly implemented USA government social programme of recent times.
Could Personalisation Reduce Reoffending?
22 August 2013
Rising prison numbers and high rates of re-offending illustrate the need for criminal justice reform.
Analytical Chemistry
18 July 2013
Using Isotopic Fractionation to Link Precursor to Product in the Synthesis of (±)-Mephedrone: A New Tool for Combating "Legal High" Drugs
Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis
15 July 2013
Synthesis, full chemical characterisation and development of validated methods for the quantification of (±)-4'-methylmethcathinone (mephedrone): a new "legal high”
Justice Reinvestment: Can it Deliver More for Less?
15 May 2013
Recent years have seen high levels of public spending on criminal justice but to relatively little effect
Using social media as a means of improving public confidence
27 March 2013
The ‘confidence agenda’ poses important new challenges for Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships in general and the police in particular.
Crime and Economics: An Introduction
12 March 2013
Crime and Economics provides the first comprehensive and accessible text to address the economics of crime within the study of crime and criminology.
Estimating the costs and benefits of an alcohol treatment requirement
12 March 2013
Purpose – This paper seeks to report on a project to estimate the costs and benefits of implementing an Alcohol Treatment Requirement (ATR) in Stockport.
Community Legal Advice Centres and Networks: A Process Evaluation
1 February 2013
This report sets out the findings of the process evaluation of Community Legal Advice Centres and Networks commissioned by the Legal Services Research Centre (LSRC).