The following are excerpts from recent research related to justice and law enforcement and reflect the views and opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the organizations for which they work. To access the full reports, please visit the website links at the bottom of each summary.
Compiled by Katherine Aldred
Homelessness and housing stress among police detainees
Jason Payne, Sarah Macgregor and Hayley McDonald
It's generally accepted that a person's living situation, in particular their experience of homelessness and housing stress, can have both long-lasting and wide-ranging consequences.
This paper provides a much-needed examination of homelessness and housing stress among Australia's criminal justice population. Using data from the Australian Institute of Criminology's (AIC) Drug Use Monitoring (DUMA) program, this study examines the prevalence and nature of homelessness among a sample of police detainees.
Homelessness has long been recognized as an important factor influencing participation in crime. However, in Australia, there's comparatively little literature that estimates the prevalence of homelessness among the criminal justice population and importantly, its links to other risk factors. Since 1999, the AIC's DUMA program has consistently reported that around one in 10 detainees were 'sleeping rough,' either on the street or in emergency accommodation for most of the time preceding their arrest.
However, recently DUMA has expanded its survey to capture both secondary and tertiary homelessness, and by doing so yielded a much higher prevalence (22 per cent) of housing stress among the detainee population. Further, the study also estimates that more than one in 10 police detainees remain uncertain about their housing and accommodation situation and are not confident of having somewhere to live when they are released.
Having arrived at a more accurate picture of the prevalence of homelessness, attention was drawn to the somewhat difficult circumstances faced by those involved in the criminal justice system. It found that family/relationship problems were the most frequently cited reason for needing to live on the street or in a temporary location, with financial problems, property eviction and drug problems also frequently cited. Perhaps the most important finding was the diversity of reasons given by detainees, suggesting that efforts to address housing stress require a more individualized response.
Finally, comparative analysis across a range of demographics, prior offending and drug-use indicators confirmed the complexity of homelessness and its links to a range of other challenging life circumstances and risk factors. In particular, homeless detainees reported comparatively high rates of illicit drug and alcohol use, along with a more recent history of contact with the police and the criminal justice system. Taken together, these results suggest that responding to crime and repeat offending requires an adequate and planned response to both substance use and housing stress in tandem.
For corrective services agencies, these data not only confirm a relatively high prevalence of homelessness among the police detainee population, but also the links between homelessness and prior criminal justice system contact. Further, these data highlight the extent to which detainees are uncertain about their future housing prospects, adding support for current approaches that identify safe and secure housing as a significant priority for successful post-release reintegration.
To access the full report, please visit www.aic.gov.au.
The start of a criminal career: Does the type of debut offence predict future offending?
Natalie Owen and Christine Cooper
The primary aim of this study was to examine the relationship between an offender's debut offence and their future offending. A debut offence was defined as the offence for which an offender received their first caution or conviction.
The study specifically looked at whether the type of debut offence committed predicted future chronic or serious offending careers, and whether the type of debut offence and subsequent re-offending had changed over time.
Identifying and targeting offenders who are most likely to become one of the small group of chronic offenders responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime, at an early stage of their criminal career, is a promising approach to crime prevention.
Methodology
The Police National Computer (PNC) contains information on all recordable proven offences that have taken place in England and Wales.
We obtained information on all first-time entrants to the criminal justice system for 2001, 2005 and 2009. Data from 2001 allowed a maximum follow-up period of nine years, to year end 2010, while the 2005 cohort enabled us to examine the profile of chronic offenders and, alongside the 2009 cohort, trends in the proportion and volume of different debut offence types.
There were three primary questions of interest.
Does the type of debut offence predict chronic re-offending over time? Does the type of debut offence predict serious re-offending over time? Has the volume and type of debut offences changed over time?
Results
There were 218,537 individuals on the PNC who had committed their first proven offence in 2001. Around three-quarters of the cohort were male and over one-third were aged 10 to 17 years at the time of their first offence.
About one-third of these debut offences were acquisitive, one-fifth were violence and one-tenth were categorized as serious crimes. Just under half of the 2001 cohort committed a further proven offence during the nine-year follow-up period. However, five per cent of the cohort became chronic offenders (committing 15 or more offences) over the follow-up period.
Those offenders who had committed robbery, burglary or vehicle theft as their debut offence were almost three times more likely to be chronic offenders compared with the cohort overall.
The type of debut offence committed was a significant predictor of chronic offending status, taking into consideration gender and age at debut offence. For example, one in five young men aged 10 to 17 years at their first caution/conviction for robbery went on to be a chronic offender; three in five re-offended while only one in five did not commit a further proven offence. The results for burglary and vehicle theft were similar.
Conclusions
This study adds to the evidence base, showing that offenders who committed robbery, burglary or vehicle theft as their debut offence in 2001 were most likely to become chronic offenders. This small group of chronic offenders were responsible for almost half of all the further proven offences committed by this cohort.
This gives support to the proposition that preventing some kinds of offending may be promising as a way of reducing overall levels of crime. However, the analysis does not explain why offenders of these three acquisitive crimes are more likely to become chronic offenders, or whether, with fewer people committing burglary and vehicle crime as a debut offence, other crime types will take their place as predictors of chronic offending.
The findings suggest that providing programs to prevent and reduce robbery offences along with programs to turn around the lives of young male offenders committing key debut offences will be important in reducing crime in the future.
To access the full report, please visit www.gov.uk.
LINKing refugee youth and families to positive social supports
LINKing Refugee Youth and Families to Positive Social Supports (LINK) is an innovative Canadian program designed to prevent the involvement of refugee youth in criminal and gang-related activity.
LINK was implemented by the Newcomers Employment and Education Development Services Inc. and has assisted 229 youth.
Participants
Youth referred to the program underwent an assessment of risk and those who participated in the program were between 12 and 18 years and were deemed at risk of involvement in gang activity due to factors such as:
- Past experiences of trauma and violence
- Interaction with delinquent peers causing "street socialization"
- Poor parental supervision
- Educational frustration and low attachment to school
All the participants had Government Assisted Refugee (GAR) status, 47 per cent had prior exposure to trauma and violence and, according to self-reports, none of them had a prior record of offending. The LINK program engaged with 119 female and 110 male clients in the pilot project. Thirty-five of the participants fell in the highest risk category.
Key elements
The LINK program has six components provided over one year. All participants received the first four components while those assessed at the highest risk received all the components and had their families involved.
Education on Canadian society — each client participated in 60 hours of workshops designed to provide information on Canada and to help reduce isolation and increase success at school, home and with peers.
Mentorship — participants received 72 hours of one-on-one or group-based mentoring designed to introduce them to community resources, provide social and emotional support and supervision, and provide positive adult role models for youth.
Educational support — to increase chances of success in school, activities included LINK staff liaison with teachers and administrative school staff, and in-school visits to provide support.
Recreational activities — designed to decrease isolation and loneliness and increase the development of positive peer relationships.
Family mentorship — designed to provide opportunities to strengthen parent-child bonds and reduce the risk of developing intergenerational cultural conflict. LINK matched families of higher risk participants with Canadian families.
Referrals — Many of the refugee families participating in LINK had experienced severe trauma before arrival in Canada. Referrals to counselling and mental health services, cultural associations, housing, employment and education supports were important aspects of the LINK project.
Findings
The program reached 95 per cent of the total number it hoped to serve, and was successful in reaching those high-risk refugee youth and families it targeted.
The program had a retention rate of 98 per cent, with the majority of youth and families staying active in the project for the full year of their involvement.
A total of 436 school visits were conducted, with an average of 12 visits per month.
26 recreational family gatherings were implemented, while 12 were originally anticipated.
To access the full report, please visit www.publicsafety.gc.ca.