Joanna Shapland

Social structures and desistance from crime

Desistance studies have routinely focused on issues such as family links, employment prospects and moving away from criminal friends, but they have said less about the meso- and macro-level structural issues that might facilitate or impede the transition of ex-offenders to the status of more mainstream members of civil society.Yet, in view of the necessary interaction between agency and structure in producing processes of desistance, a consideration of social structures (and the implications of changes in structures) is clearly of some importance. This paper addresses these issues, with special reference to recent structural changes in the UK in the fields of employment, families and housing, and criminal policy. The paper concludes with a discussion of conceptual foundations for social policy responses.

Situating restorative justice within criminal justice

Drawing from the evaluation of three major restorative justice schemes in England and Wales, the article considers the theoretical implications for process and outcomes of situating restorative justice for adults within criminal justice, including the allocation of roles, the balance of power, the importance of procedural justice, and the tasks of restorative justice (such as apology, rehabilitation, reparation, healing, restoration, and reintegration and its relation with social capital). Given that restorative justice events are by definition unique, because of their participative nature, the ability to make generalizations across cultures is problematic, stemming from whether participants bring normative assumptions about justice to the event.

Reflections on social values, offending and desistance among young adult recidivists:

Within the human life-span, the decade of the 20s (age 20—29) is known to manifest the fastest deceleration of offending. This article reports findings concerning the social and moral values of a sample of recidivist offenders at the start of this age-range. Most reported surprisingly conformist values, for example with regard to future aspirations (employment, housing, etc.) and to the importance of staying within legal boundaries. Nevertheless, longitudinal data showed that these conformist values often did not prevent some continued offending (though within the sample, taking steps towards desistance was associated with more conformist values). This dissonance between values and behaviour was not explained by neutralizations, but rather (1) by complex processes of maturation, in which intentions to ‘go straight’ co-exist with lapses into learned (habitual) criminal responses; and (2) by the spontaneous character of much offending, with for example invitations to offend by criminal friends being common. Thus, those seriously wishing to desist (to bring their behaviour into line with their social values) face an obstacle-strewn process of lifestyle change, though one often supported by partners and relatives. To assist lifestyle change, many would-be desisters adopt tactics of ‘diachronic self-control’, attempting to avoid future situations of criminal temptation. If the criminal justice system wishes to assist desistance among this age-group, it is vital that these complex processes are understood and supported.

What Do We Know About the Effects of Crime on Victims

In order to create an economic measure of the direct and indirect effects of crime, it is necessary to consider the effects of crime on victims. The article reviews the state of research into the effects of crime on individuals, in respect of personal and household victimisation, and the effects of crime on businesses. General population surveys have concentrated upon the common property offences and minor violence and have tended to ignore the dimension of the course of victimisation over time. Longitudinal studies are rare and have concentrated upon serious violent crime. Because of the element of clinical judgment, much work on PTSD is unsuitable for creating an economic measure of effects over all types of crime. There needs to be a marriage of survey methodology with time measures, possibly using a panel design.

Understanding ‘quality’ in probation practice: Frontline perspectives in England & Wales

In the context of ‘ordinary’ probation practice, quality is a contested concept, as well as an under-researched one. In this article we present the findings of a study which sought to capture, via interviews inspired by Appreciative Inquiry, the views of probation staff about the meaning(s) of ‘quality’ in probation practice. The interviews revealed a ‘frontline’ perspective on quality which has not previously been exposed or articulated as such. Drawing upon theoretical concepts developed by Bourdieu, it is argued that despite significant recent changes in the penal and probation fields in England & Wales, and some signs of adaptation in normative conceptions of probation work, there exists a culture or ‘probation habitus’ among frontline staff that is relatively cohesive and resilient.

Staging restorative justice encounters against a criminal justice backdrop A dramaturgical analysis

Drawing from an ongoing evaluation of three major restorative justice schemes in England and Wales, the article employs a dramaturgical perspective to examine a number of process issues that arise when restorative justice processes are deployed within a criminal justice context. They include the rôle and identity of restorative justice facilitators, the locations for restorative justice encounters and associated matters relating to the values of privacy, openness and accountability.

Does the informal economy link to organised crime

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to introduce the topic of the informal economy, exploring its definition from both economic and criminological standpoints. It seeks to consider possible linkages with organised crime and the conditions under which these may be facilitated, with reference to the papers in this double special issue. Design/methodology/approach - The papers in this issue are deliberately from different methodological perspectives, in order to illustrate the need for multidisciplinarity to show both the extent of the informal and criminal economies and their links to geographical and social context. Findings - As well as revealing the endemic nature of corruption in Ukrainian workplaces and the high levels of informal activity undertaken by workers the research found that many people wish for their workplace to become more regulated. Research limitations/implications - The issue can only, for reasons of space, explore a number of facets of the informal economy. The nature of the informal economy depends upon place, time, social and ethnic context, and historical links and trade routes. The issue concentrates upon criminogenic potential, rather than the survival value of informal solutions or their place in cementing household and community economies and interactions. Originality/value - The issue contains papers which reveal new theoretical insights on this rather unresearched and complex topic, as well as new empirical findings. It highlights the impact of internationalisation and globalisation.

Doing ‘strengths-based’ research: Appreciative Inquiry in a probation setting

This article considers the application of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as a research methodology in the field of probation research. Although AI has previously been used in prisons research it has not to date been applied to research on probation. In this article we describe why and how AI was applied in an exploratory study of ‘quality’ in probation practice. The article includes some reflections from us as researchers and from the participants in our study (staff in three English Probation Trusts). It is argued not only that AI served our project well (in terms of furnishing us with a wealth of relevant, good quality data) but also that our choice of methodology rendered visible aspects of contemporary probation culture which, we believe, would have remained hidden had we not chosen to explore quality through an ‘appreciative’ lens. It is further argued that in organizations experiencing challenging times, an appreciative stance has ethical as well as instrumental advantages. There are, thus, both instrumental and normative rationales for recommending AI as a suitable approach in probation research.

Implications of growth Challenges for restorative justice

Restorative justice has been growing around the world in terms of its implementation, often allied to criminal justice. Its growth and increasing mainstreaming, however, reignite theoretical and practical debates current some 20 years ago but none the less valid now. They include the effects of increasing closeness to the state and to justice definitions of crime, as well as tensions for mediators and facilitators. Particularly, there is a need to draw together the common values and aims in the use of restorative justice for an increasing diversity of offences, including more serious offences and its use with adult offenders. We cannot turn back the clock, and it would be curmudgeonly to try to hold back the availability of restorative justice for victims and offenders who appreciate it and find it helpful. However, we can, and should, continue to reflect upon how the core values of restorative justice can be used to develop what are the most helpful theoretical perspectives for restorative justice for scenarios where it is not only to be used for the minority, or for diverted cases, but also leads to criminal justice decisions, such as sentences, which will be confirmed or altered by criminal justice actors.

Using compliance with probation supervision as an interim outcome measure in evaluating a probation initiative

This article addresses the issues involved in using compliance with probation supervision as an interim outcome measure in evaluation research. We address the complex nature of compliance and what it implies. Like much research on probation and criminal justice more generally, it was not possible to use random assignment to treatment and comparison groups in the case study we address, which evaluated the SEED training programme. We therefore compare two different data analysis methods to adjust for prior underlying differences between groups, namely regression adjustment of treatment covariates that are related to the outcome measure in the sample data and regression adjustment using propensity scores derived from a wide range of baseline variables. The propensity score method allows for control of a wider range of baseline variables, including those which do not differ significantly between the two groups.