Re-offending by offenders on Community Orders: Preliminary findings from the Offender Management Community Cohort Study

The Offender Management Community Cohort Study (OMCCS) is a longitudinal cohort study of adult offenders who started Community Orders between October 2009 and December 2010.

This report summarises preliminary findings from the Offender Management Community Cohort Study (OMCCS) on levels of re-offending among offenders who received Community Orders. It looks at the factors associated with re-offending including offenders’ needs, attitudes and their relationship with their Offender Manager. The findings presented here are provisional and are based on incomplete re-offending data. The figures may change once the analysis is finalised.

EXTRAIT:

Attitudes of offenders

Emerging findings suggest that offenders with more with pro-criminal attitudes and more negative attitudes towards their sentence were more likely to re-offend.

• More than half (59%) of offenders who had the most pro-criminal attitudes (those that made them susceptible to offending) re-offended compared with 21% of those with the least pro-criminal attitudes.
• 44% of offenders who ‘disagreed’ or ‘strongly disagreed’ that their sentence was mainly a punishment re-offended compared with 27% of those who ‘strongly agreed’.

omccs-summary

Voir également, à partir des résultats de cette recherche, le commentaire très éclairant sur la démarche évaluative à l’anglaise que fait Russell Webster :

Relationships and ongoing assessment are key to reducing reoffending (Russell Webster, 08/2013)

Assessment is a continuous process

The authors found that Offender Managers used the formal assessment process (OASys) to target those more at risk of reoffending and to manage and plan sentences but that they also appeared to exercise their professional judgement to either prioritise among formally identified risks or identify other risks not captured by formal assessment.

This pragmatic approach was judged to be an appropriate response to the complex needs of offenders, although it was also determined by the availability of local services. The two needs most frequently addressed in sentence plans were substance misuse and accommodation.

Interestingly, the authors noted that assessment of some needs (particularly “Attitudes” and education and training) tended to be more accurate later in the community sentence, when the Offender Manager had developed a relationship with the person they were supervising.

Similarly, offenders’ feedback on their Community Order was particularly positive when they perceived that the Offender Manager understood their needs.

There seem to be two key lessons to be drawn from this research for those planning new models of service delivery:

1. There will be dangers if the Community Rehabilitation Companies rely overmuch on the initial assessment of needs conducted by a probation officer in the Public Sector Probation Service. Needs inevitably change over time and a more in-depth assessment can be developed over time with the active involvement of the service user.
2. Positive relationships are key to successful Community Orders.

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