Tom Ellis

Treating offending children: What works?

There is little evidence on the effectiveness of interventions with offending children and juveniles, either in Europe or North America. We present the evaluation findings of an innovative intervention and relate these to the existing evidence-base for young offenders and to the more extensive literature on older offenders. Methods Using an established risk predictor (LSI-R), we measured the criminogenic risks and needs of the intervention group and a non-intervention group of child and juvenile offenders at six-monthly intervals. Local police charges data were also collected for both groups as an indicator of offending behaviour. Results Over the first thirty months of the project, a statistically significant drop was seen in the LSI-R scores of the project participants, with favourable effect sizes. Effect sizes improved markedly with longer-term intervention. There were also strong indications that the level of offending behaviour had decreased during the intervention. The comparison group showed no change in risks, needs or offending rate. Conclusions We suggest this study provides an important contribution to the evidence-base of what works with child and juvenile offenders and we suggest that an increased focus on understanding effective intervention with very young offenders is required.

Does Parole Work? A Post-Release Comparison of Reconviction Rates for Paroled and Non-Paroled Prisoners

The question “Does parole work?” remains unanswered, as evidenced by moves to abolish or limit it in various jurisdictions. For example, England and Wales has legislation on its statute books which to all intents and purposes abolishes parole. Antipodean jurisdictions have also considered this. Although to date none has yet abolished it, discretionary early release regularly comes under critical scrutiny. This paper attempts to add to the relatively limited literature addressing the question. It reports on a sophisticated analysis of data on prisoners released in England and Wales, to determine whether there is any reduction in recidivism which can be ascribed to the process of release on parole. It finds a small, but consistent, effect in favour of parole, on a number of outcome measures.

Pachinko: A Japanese Addiction?

Pachinko is an ‘amusement arcade’ type machine that is popular throughout Japan, with an estimated 17.1 million ‘players’ providing an enormous annual revenue of 2.87 trillion yen (US

A Retrograde Step: The Potential Impact of High Visibility Uniforms within Youth Justice Reparation

250 billion). It is simple and easy to play and has all the hallmarks and structural features of gaming machines worldwide. While academic discourses on the addictive potential of gaming machines are well developed, their application to pachinko is very limited. This is, perhaps, due to a number of factors. First, pachinko is portrayed as a game rather than as gambling in Japan, so that addiction issues are ignored or downplayed. Second, most accounts of ‘playing’ pachinko are journalistic rather than academic. Third, academics tend to focus on police corruption and organized crime rather than addiction. Here, we take the approach that pachinko represents ‘gambling by proxy’ and explore its addictive potential. We conclude that unless pachinko is recognized as a form of gambling, present changes in Japanese legislation will be of limited value in tackling addiction.

Enforcement policy and practice:evidence-based or rhetoric-based?

The Labour government has recently introduced uniforms for adult offenders undertaking community service as part of their community orders. There have also been calls within the youth justice arena to introduce uniforms to young offenders undertaking reparation. Through observations, interviews and questionnaires with young offenders and their supervising staff, we argue that the introduction of uniforms will be counterproductive on a number of levels. In short, it would be a retrograde step. We conclude with a suggestion on how to increase the visibility of unpaid work by offenders within the community, without the negative impact of uniforms.

Calling the police The use of non-emergency 101 in England and Wales

Thomas Ellis argues that probation enforcement policy has concentrated on the application of national standards and breaching offenders while failing to evaluate the effectiveness of these measures.

Addressing Criminality in Childhood: Is Responsivity the Central Issue?

Many calls for assistance received by the police are issues of non-emergency, and with public spending cuts ever-present, there is need to revisit the uses of a single non-emergency number (SNEN) as a way to reduce the non-emergency call volume. This paper is a review of one local service in England. We examine the need and development of SNEN, report the findings of our own research, and conclude that a service such as SNEN is a worthwhile approach that helps reduce the number of inappropriate calls to the police, increases access to services and reduces fear regarding low-level disorder.

The Japanese Probation Service: A third sector template?

The responsivity principle is the third element of the now well-established risk–need–responsivity (RNR) model of offender rehabilitation. Accruing evidence suggests it is often sacrificed in intervention programs. We aim to demonstrate the central importance of this principle when designing offender interventions by describing the results of a successful, highly responsive intervention for very young children (aged 7 upward) who have offended. A small slice of the offending population as a whole, child offenders are nevertheless tomorrow’s serious, violent, and prolific lawbreakers, yet little is understood about what reduces their risk. Recent developments on responsivity are reviewed, before presenting the evaluation indicating significant and sustained drops in risk of recidivism. In-program factors such as the nature and dosage of interventions are examined, alongside outcome data. The article discusses how RNR and other models might apply to this particularly young and underresearched age group.

Public Protection in Youth Justice? The Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme from the inside:

The use of probation in Japan is similar in some respects to probation in England and Wales (E&W) and unrecognizable in others. This article provides an outline of the structure and operation of probation in Japan and draws comparisons and contrasts with probation in England and Wales. It is intended to provide an overview for those who know little about Japanese criminal justice in general and about Japanese probation in particular. The focus in on accessible English language sources that will enable readers to follow up their interest and deepen their knowledge.

Cocaine markets and drug enforcement in Spain and The Netherlands

In 2001, the Youth Justice Board of England & Wales introduced the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme (ISSP). It was quickly hailed as the most robust community-based sanction available for the most serious and persistent young offenders. However, it has been dogged by high reconviction rates. This paper undertakes first a review of the international evidence base for the effectiveness of all types of intensive supervision, before focusing specifically on its effectiveness within youth justice. It then presents our findings from fieldwork (participant observation, interviews and questionnaires) carried out within two Youth Offending Teams, comparing the views of supervisors and the supervised young offenders. The conclusions show that ISSP is not founded on sound evidence. Our own evidence suggests a number of reasons why ISSP does not work, and is not likely to, in its present form. Most importantly, it is clear that ISSP cannot provide the level of public protection claimed with such a severe offending group, and therefore does not aid the realistic promotion of greater use of community sentences. The article makes suggestions for an alternative approach to dealing with serious and persistent offenders in the community, based on the views of the young offenders subject to ISSP and the staff who supervise them.