Espais d'actualitat. Cicle 2016 de conferències sobre criminologia i execució penal. De la teoria a la pràctica: idees per millorar la intervenció amb infractors. Peter Raynor Centre d'Estudis Jurídics i Formació Especialitzada, 18 d'octubre de 2016

1. Peter Raynor
Barcelona
October 2016

2.  ‘What works’
 What goes wrong
 What else might also work
 ‘Good lives’, restorative justice, desistance
 Individual supervision and support
 ‘Core correctional practices’
 Social contexts of rehabilitation
 Questions (maybe answers)

3.  When I was a probation officer in the 1970s this is what
criminology told us:
 ‘With few and isolated exceptions, the rehabilitative
efforts that have been reported so far have had no
appreciable effects on recidivism’ (Martinson 1974)
 ‘Penal “treatments”, as we significantly describe them, do
not have any reformative effect . . .The dilemma is that a
considerable investment has been made in various
measures and services . . . Are these services simply to be
abandoned on the basis of the accumulated research
evidence? Will this challenge evoke a response . . . by the
invention of new approaches and new methods?’ (John
Croft 1978)

4.  Target risk
 Focus on criminogenic
need
 Are structured
 Use direction
 Use cognitive-behavioural
methods
 Are (best) located in the
community
 Are delivered with high
integrity
 Have committed
management
 Have appropriately trained
staff
 Have adequate resources
 Have integral evaluation

5. ‘RNR’ =
▪ RISK
▪ NEED
▪ RESPONSIVITY
 Programmes based on RNR can typically reduce
reconviction by 10% or more (Loesel) but often
don’t – why not?

6.  (In England and Wales) too much change
imposed too fast
 Programmes used for the wrong people, leading
to attrition
 Neglect of case management
 Probation culture based on practitioner
autonomy (implementation often better in the
prisons)
 Apparent psychological reductionism
 Apparent negative focus on deficits
 Risk assessment criticised as backward-looking

7. Reductions below predicted levels of re-offending (%):
 All community orders - 6.7
 All programmes - 10.3
 All programme completers - 25.8
 Short prison sentences - 0.2
(Programme completion rates also improved, until
recent reorganisation, but still many do not
complete)

8.  RNR is still the approach with by far the best
evidence of effectiveness – many studies
show this. However more work is needed on:
 Responsivity (particularly for minority
groups)
 Motivation
 Positive goals
 Social support
 Building pro-social identity

9.  GLM developed byTonyWard, originally with sex offenders,
with a focus on positive goals, strengths and motivation –
how to construct a satisfactory life – rather than negative
deficits
 Originally seen as alternative to RNR
 Now widely regarded as compatible or complementary
 Limited development of specific methods and research so far
 RNR is based on learning theory, i.e. how people change;
GLM adds a focus on motivation, why people change

10. Restorative justice within the criminal justice
system:
The best recent controlled study was in
England – see Restorative Justice in Practice
by Shapland, Robinson and Sorsby (Routledge
2011). Key findings were positive and led to
changes in the law:

11. (If there is a ‘conference’ with victim participation:)
 Reduction in the frequency of offending (though
no reduction in the proportion of offenders
reconvicted)
 No criminogenic effects
 Positive learning for offenders, e.g. those who
say it made them think about the harm they had
done were less likely to re-offend
 But it needs to be well organised and carefully
introduced (implementation again)

12.  For persistent offenders, is a process not an event
 Is multicausal
 Involves obstacles, mistakes, relapses – ‘a zig-zag
process’
 Often requires development of social and individual
‘capital’
 Is complete when a non-criminal identity and way of
life are firmly established (‘primary’ becomes
‘secondary’ desistance)
 Is facilitated by social bonds to prosocial others,
partners, parental responsibility
 Often requires access to help and motivation to
make use of it

13.  ‘In the case of criminal behaviour, factors in the
social environment seem influential determinants of
initial delinquency for a substantial proportion of
offenders . . . but habitual offending is better
predicted by looking at an individual’s acquired
ways of reacting to common situations’ (Zamble
and Quinsey 1997)
 Persistent offenders need practical help and
changes in thinking

14. (From a survey of desisting and persisting
offenders): the desisting offender had a ‘strong
sense that he or she is in control of his or her
destiny.Whereas active offenders . . . seemed to
have little vision of what the future might hold,
desisting interviewees had a plan and were
optimistic that they could make it work’.

15.  For some offenders, a positive relationship with
a helpful and optimistic person, who believes
that they can do well, helps to establish and
reinforce a pro-social identity and a sense of
value.
 Such relationships may be with partners, family
members etc. or may be with criminal justice
professionals (e.g. probation staff) or mentors.
 Managing these relationships well requires skills
or (in RNR) ‘core correctional practices’ (CCPs).
 Listen, understand, help, challenge, be reliable
and consistent.

16.  95 videotaped interviews collected and
assessed
 14 participating staff
 Focus on two areas: skills used, and impact on
offending
 (For full results see ‘The impact of skills in
probation work’, Criminology and Criminal
Justice 14 , 2 [2014] 235-249)

17.  Set up S
 Non-verbal communication N
 Verbal communication V
 Use of authority A
 Motivational interviewing M
 Pro-social modelling P
 Problem solving S
 Cognitive restructuring C
 Overall interview structure O
 Total

18.  Substantial
 Consistent across a number of interviews (for most
officers)
 Consistent across different types of interviews (for most
officers)
 More evident in ‘structuring’ skills (maybe reflecting social
work training of the officers: they mostly score well on
‘relationship’ skills)

19. Based on 75 interviewees with scored
interviews and 2-year reconviction follow-up
(When same individual was interviewed more
than once, repeat interviews were not
counted.)

20. Two-year reconviction rates of people interviewed by 7
staff with below-median skill ratings, compared with
interviewees of 7 staff with above-median skill ratings (N
of staff = 14; N of interviewees = 75)
Interviewed by: Not reconvicted Reconvicted % reconvicted
Staff using fewer skills 15 21 58%
Staff using more skills 29 10 26%
p= .004

22. 1 year 2 years
Set up .019 .078
Non-verbal communication .093 .330 **
Verbal communication .160 .263 *
Use of authority .147 .169
Motivational interviewing .125 .201 *
Pro-social modelling .195 * .094
Problem solving .214 * .254 *
Cognitive restructuring .214 * .173
Overall interview structure .145 .131
Total .230 * .272 **

23.  Officers in Jersey asked to be trained to use
the checklist and manual
 Now officers regularly videotape interviews
and meet every few months with a colleague
to use the research checklist to assess and
discuss the interviews
 Also being tried in other countries

24.  Evidence-based practice works best if
practitioners understand it and believe that it
will help them do their work better
 And if criminal justice agencies value, support,
train and listen to their staff (promoting a
‘culture of curiosity’)
 And if wider society promotes social rights,
social welfare and equal opportunity
Peter Raynor
p.raynor@swansea.ac.uk