Punishment, resettlement
and rehabilitation
Support Services: Education,
employment, healthcare and treatment
As governments around the world consider the balance between imprisonment and community punishment, and between punishment and rehabilitation, there is a need for criminal justice agencies to have an integrated approach and to understand its effects.
The University of Nottingham conducts nationally recognised and innovative research into offender management and treatment.
Key areas of expertise include:
- Assessment and treatment of sex, violent, and personality disordered offenders
- Alcohol and drugs related offending
- Forensic mental health
- Juvenile custody and secure settings
- Community sanctions, restrictions and treatment orders (non-custodial punishments)
In 2011 the University’s Institute of Mental Health launched its Centre for Heath and Justice, which explores the best ways to deliver services in the community and secure justice health settings.
The Centre carries out practically designed research and evaluation to provide the evidence base to build a new generation of services.
Case studies
Alcohol related crime
Professor Mary McMurran has undertaken a range of work relating to the role of alcohol in offending and ways in which offenders can be assessed and treated...
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She was part of the team evaluating alcohol arrest-referral pilot schemes for the Home Office. The pilots offered a brief intervention in criminal justice settings to individuals arrested and deemed by a police officer to be under the influence of alcohol. There was no observed reduction in reoffending compared with those who did not receive the intervention.
Professor McMurran has developed COVAID (Control of Violence for Angry Impulsive Drinkers), an accredited, evidence-based intervention aimed at reducing alcohol-related violence. An evaluation conducted with the National Offender Management Service in Wales showed a reduction in violent reconvictions by 13% and any reconvictions by 20% for prisoners who received COVAID compared with those who did not at 17 months after release.
In addition, Professor McMurran is currently a member of a team evaluating the London Offender Personality Disorder Pathway for Oxleas NHS Trust and the National Offender Management Service. Her input is to evaluate change over time among high risk of high harm prisoners in HMP Belmarsh.
Offender employment
Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is a form of supported employment for patients in forensic mental health settings with offending histories, including those currently supervised by probation services...
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Funding has recently been awarded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) for a project which will investigate Individual Placement and Support IPS.