Description

Criminal justice processes and institutions are used by the government or state to maintain social control, deter and control crime, and sanction those who violate laws. Key institutions involved in the Scottish criminal justice process include the police, the courts, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and correctional institutions (prisons etc).
SCCJR’s work on this topic includes research on formal practices (such as policing, prosecution, sentencing and sanctioning) and less formal alternatives (such as restorative justice). We have a particular expertise in relation to youth justice and community penalties.

Our Wider Community

Offender Supervision (Fergus McNeill)
Fergus McNeill has been involved in a range of academic, policy and practice focused projects concerned with interpreting a developing body of criminological evidence about how and why people stop offending, and assessing what public policy and practice might do to better prompt, support and sustain this process. Recently with colleagues from Edinburgh University and from Justice Analytical Services in the Scottish Government, Fergus Fergus led a literature review on this topic, commissioned by the Scottish Government (Community Justice Division), resulting in a report entitled 'Towards Effective Practice in Offender Supervision' (TEPiOS). Fergus also chairs the international Collaboration of Researchers for the Effective Development of Offender Supervision (CREDOS) which now has about 30 members, mostly from English-speaking jurisdictions in North America, the UK and Australasia. The members of CREDOS are pre-eminent researchers in this field and will be producing an edited book entitled 'Offender Supervision; New Directions in Theory Research and Practice' in late 2010; this will be the definitive contemporary collection on the topic, to be launched at the American Society of Criminology Conference in San Francisco in November. The TEPiOS report has contributed principally to theoretical debates about how best to understand desistance. More particularly, it has engaged with key normative and empirical questions about how and why existing systems and practices might best be reformed so as to better support desistance in the interests of offenders and the wider public.  

Key Findings from the Research
•    Offender supervision practices need to be rooted in clearer understandings of the nature of the process they exist to support.
•    Relationships lie at the heart of the desistance process; supervision must attend to this relational context of change.
•    Programmes to develop offenders’ skills are important but are only a part of supporting desistance; offender supervision also needs to be about developing motivation to change, helping people imagine how they might change, and building hope that change can happen.
•    Just as importantly, offender supervision must address the social context of desistance, which requires the development of social capital as well as human capital.


Impact
The report 'Towards Effective Practice in Offender Supervision' (TEPiOS) has been influential in informing rehabilitation strategies in the Scottish Prisons Service, in Criminal Justice Social Work and in the Risk Management Authority. It also formed the basis for a presentation at the Council of Europe (in partnership with the Conference Permanente Europeenne de la Probation -- the agency of European probation organisations) which served to promote the work across Europe and has led to invitations to engage with policy and practice audiences in Belgium, Finland, Norway and Romania, and has  latterly resulted in a commissioned consultancy from the National Offender Management Service of England and Wales exploring the implications of desistance research for offender management. Fergus also recently spoke about this work at a British Society of Criminology/British Academy/ESRC event on 'Showcasing Criminology'.

To access the report ‘Towards Effective Practice in Offender Supervision’ see http://www.sccjr.ac.uk/pubs/Towards-Effective-Practice-in-Offender-Supervision/79.

SCCJR provides written submission on female offenders in the criminal justice system

SCCJR has provided a written submission to an inquiry into female offenders in the criminal justice system by the Scottish Parliament's Equal Opportunities Committee.  For further information, and at a later date, written submissions, see - http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/equal/Femaleoffenders.htm.

Consortium on Crime and Criminal Justice
SCCJR works closely with the Scottish Consortium on Crime and Criminal Justice and recently SCCJR people have been involved in producing briefing papers for the Consortium on Giving Up Crime and The Cost of Unnecessary Imprisonment.

Scottish Accreditation Panel for Offender Programmes
SCCJR’s Fergus McNeil sits on the Scottish Accreditation Panel for Offender Programmes. The role of the Scottish Accreditation Panel for Offender Programmes SAPOP is to work to reduce re-offending by promoting excellence in programmes that deal with offenders, and by accrediting and encouraging effective approaches.

Scottish Community Safety Network
SCCJR works with the Scottish Community Safety Network to ensure that up to date thinking and evidence on crime and justice issues is shared with network members and that the work of our academics is informed by the concerns and experiences of network members.