Ongoing Projects

 

Experiences of the Crown Court- ESRC study

This is a 20-month Economic and Social Research Council funded study of 'The public's experiences of court: how victims, defendants and witnesses perceive and make sense of the criminal justice process'. The empirical work for this project is being carried out in two Crown Courts, and entails observations, interviews with court users, and interviews with court-based professionals.
 

Probation quality and engagement with offenders

This study forms part of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) Offender Engagement Programme (OEP). The OEP seeks to investigate the hypothesis that one-to-one work with those under probation supervision can be a powerful vehicle for facilitating behavioural change. By establishing what supports effective engagement and better understanding how to overcome the barriers which hinder these processes, the aim of the OEP is to better enable practitioners to reduce reoffending and change probationers' lives through their one-to-one engagement with them.
 

Young people, interventions and the secure estate

This is a 5 year study funded by the YJB that ICPR is completing in partnership with IPSOS Mori. The study aims to identify the range of interventions young offenders receive within the Secure Estate and describe the extent to which interventions are matched to the identified needs of young people in custody, with a view to describing the association between interventions received, reconviction and other positive outcomes. ICPR and IPSOS Mori began conducting fieldwork in secure establishments in early 2010, collecting the young people's personal experiences of custody in terms of restraints, education and general interventions received. The second part of the study will involve qualitative interviews with staff at the secure establishments and is due to begin shortly.
 

Drug markets in the European Union

Funded by the European Commission and in partnership with the Trimbos Institute and RAND Europe, ICPR is involved in an ambitious study which seeks to better understand: (i) the specific characteristics, mechanisms and factors that govern key EU illicit drug markets (e.g. for cannabis, heroin, cocaine); (ii) the size and share of the market(s); (iii) potential policy impacts; and (iv) possible future trends in the market(s) and appropriate policy responses.
 

One-stop-shops for women offenders

This is an evaluation of six ‘one-stop-shop’ services or integrated women offender services to divert women away from crime funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The aim of the study is to document the range of one-stop-shops that have been established following recommendations in the Corston Report and examine six of these in detail. Assessment will be made of the impact of services for their clients and their success at enabling women to stop offending and to receive help in the community rather than serving custodial sentences.
 

Impact of drug law enforcement operations

ICPR is currently working with two English police forces examining how they define, measure and assess the impact of both discrete and sustained drug law enforcement efforts against street and ‘middle-level’ drug dealers.
 

Integrated drug treatment system - prison drug markets assessment

Commissioned by the Department of Health, ICPR is working in collaboration with the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) on an independent evaluation of the Integrated Drug Treatment System (IDTS). The aim of the study is to review how IDTS is being implemented and delivered in prisons across the UK. As part of the larger study ICPR will be conducting research on prison management and inmate drug buying and selling behaviour in five selected prisons. In order to do this, we will be reviewing a range of routinely collected prison data and conducting individual interviews with prisoners, discipline and specialist security staff.
 

FIDUCIA: New European Crimes and Trust-based Policy

This project, funded under the European Commission's Framework Programme 7, will develop policy responses to emerging forms of crime across Europe. The project's starting point is that public trust in justice is critically important for social regulation, in that it leads to public acceptance of the legitimacy of institutions of justice and thus compliance with the law. This project will assess to what extent this insight has relevance for the policing of crimes such as trafficking of people, trafficking of goods and cybercrime, and for the policing of marginalised minority groups. The project is coordinated by the University of Parma, and has 13 partners across Europe.
 

Evaluating training in restorative justice

This project is evaluating the impact of training in restorative justice delivered to probation and prison staff. The training is being delivered by Restorative Solutions. The programme (and the evaluation) has been funded by NOMS and the Monument Trust.
 

Community Justice and the 'Big Society'

This study, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, is exploring the scope for, and potential benefits of, community involvement in the delivery of criminal justice in England and Wales. It will focus, in particular, on deprived neighbourhoods where the need for effective community engagement is greatest. What we hope to achieve is to find some practical ways of transforming the rhetoric of community engagement into reality in poor communities.
 
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