The Future of Criminal Justice in Scotland: the Research-Policy Interface

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The Future of Criminal Justice in Scotland the
Research-Policy Interface

• Lesley McAra
• University of Edinburgh

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Structure of paper

• What role should academics play in the policy
  process?
• The research-policy interface lessons from the
  past
• The future of research a modest proposal

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What role should academics play in the policy
process?

• Whose side are academics on?
• - Problem raiser
• - Problem solver
• - Critical friend
• Increased dependence on government sponsored
  research the exponential growth of
  administrative criminology
• Research Evaluation Framework - need to show
  impact

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Lessons from the past
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Pre-devolution research-policy interface

• Critical criminological tradition nurtured by and
  within the quasi-state (Scottish Office)
• Democratic intellectualism and links between
  knowledge and politics
• Role of the academy in sustaining Scotlands
  divergent trajectory
• BUT
• Failed to EVIDENCE fully the intellectual case
  for Kilbrandon and core social work values, and
  to engage policy-makers in critical debate about
  the gaps between system ethos and day-to-day
  practice
• Thus left adult and juvenile systems vulnerable
  to political attack

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Early post-devolution years the research-policy
interface

• Demise of government Central Research Unit and
  restyling of in-house researchers as analysts
• Government-sponsored research dominated by
  programme/policy evaluation
• Survey companies/research consultancies began to
  dominate the tendering process
• Increased tension between Scottish academy and
  government as the latter looked south and west
  for evidence-base

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What happens when government stops listening?

• 1. Massive overhaul of extant structures but no
  evidence that change was needed

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Justice Minister
Communities Minister
Risk Management Authority
Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency
Scottish Prison Service
Scottish Parliament
Justice 1 Committee
National Criminal Justice Board
National Youth Justice Strategy Group
National Criminal Justice Plan
National Advisory Board on Offender Management
National Community Safety Coordinator
Justice 2 Committee
Scottish Childrens Reporter Administration
Communities Committee
Local Authorities Community Safety Forum
Convention Scottish Local Authorities
Association Directors of Social Work
ACPO(S)
Finance Committee
Victim Support
Petitions Committee
6 Sheriffdoms
8 Community Justice Authorities
8 Police Force Areas
Education Committee
11 Local Criminal Justice Boards
11 Procurator Fiscal Areas
22 Drug and Alcohol Action Teams
32 Local Authorities
32 Community Safety Partnerships
32 Community Planning Partnerships
32 Youth Justice Teams (Operational)
32 Youth Justice Strategy Groups
Childrens Hearing Reporters
Social Work Departments
49 Sheriff Courts
58 District Courts
Voluntary sector agencies (over 100 and counting!)
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Police recorded crime/offences in Scotland
(1988-2007)Source Scottish Government
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Scottish Crime Survey total crime estimate
(1992-2006)Source Brown and Bolling 2007
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Court convictions (1992-2007)Source Scottish
government 2008
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Scottish crime survey very or fairly worried
that they will be victim Source Brown and
Bolling 2007
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Offence referrals to childrens hearing system
Source SCRA 2008
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What happens when government stops listening?

• 2. Moral panic and heightened anxieties

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A moral panic?

• Statements by Ministers
• - Youth crime and anti-social behaviour is a
  complex and serious problem across Scotland.
  However, one thing is clear our communities
  have had enough of it. (Scottish Executive 2002)
• - Serious crime is down but as todays
  statistics show, communities are clearly still
  plagued by vandalism and other persistent forms
  of antisocial behaviour.
• (Scottish Executive 2004)

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A moral panic?

• Media headlines (focus on ned culture)
• - Crackdown on 'neds' will require extra 12m
  (Scotland on Sunday, June 2004)
• - Friday night out with the superneds (Sunday
  Herald, June 2003)
• Nike the Ned downed 60 bacardis and went on
  wrecking spree (Daily Record, May 2004)
• - Ned alert as Buckie runs out (Scottish Sun 2008)

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Public attitudes towards youth crime(Source
Scottish Social Attitudes Survey Anderson et
al. 2005)
Is level youth crime same/ higher/lower as 10 years ago?
Higher 69
Lower 2
Same 25
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What happens when government stops listening?

• 3. Unscientific targets

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Unscientific targets?

• 10 reduction in number of persistent offenders
  by 2006 (from baseline of 1,201 offenders in
  2004) with further 10 reduction by 2008
• National strategy for management of offenders 2
  reduction in reconviction rates for all types of
  sentences by March 2008

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Unscientific targets cont.

• Aggregate rates measure institutional practices
  more than individual change
• Even best and most rigorous research suggests
  that only 5 reduction in recidivism possible in
  comparison with control groups (NB requires
  programme excellence combined with careful
  targeting) (see Lösel 1995)
• Not all young persistent offenders access
  specialist programmes and target setting did not
  permit follow-up of those exiting hearings system
  at age 16
• No quick-fix possible, some of most effective
  strategies are slow-burn

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What happens when government stops listening?

• 4. Missed opportunities

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Research into policy silenced voices

• Tougher sentences in the community, have not
  reduced the use of imprisonment but instead have
  contributed to its growth (Tombs and Jagger 2006)
  
• The emphasis on public protection and the
  commodification of offender management
  exacerbates the isolation and exclusion of the
  offender (McCulloch and McNeill 2007)
• There is widespread public support for
  community-based sanctions which offer the
  opportunity for less serious offenders to reduce
  their offending behaviour. These options are seen
  by the public as being more effective and more
  cost-effective than imprisonment (Hutton 2005)

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The Future
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Future perfect? A new relationship

• New strategic investment to encourage theoretical
  and methodological innovation and new ways of
  working with government
• - The Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice
  Research
• - The Scottish Institute for Policing Research
• A listening government??

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A modest proposal (1) Filling in the gaps (what
we dont know)

• More longitudinal research which captures
  offending and criminal justice careers (both
  quantitative and qualitative)
• Need for national level self-report survey (along
  lines of the Offending Crime and Justice Survey
  in England/Wales)
• Further engagement on cross-cutting issues of
  gender, ethnicity, and religious affiliation in
  respect of all aspects of criminal justice
  process and practice

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A modest proposal (2)Critical engagement over
the lexicon of policy

• Effective
• Evidence-based policy
• Partnership (multi-agency) working
• Community
• Risk management
• The entire language of new public management

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A modest proposal (3) Promulgate what Scottish
research tells us

• Persistent serious offending is symptomatic of
  deeper seated need (Kilbrandon was right!) (McAra
  and McVie 2007)
• Critical moments (especially school exclusion) in
  the teenage years are key to pathways into and
  out of offending and diversionary strategies
  (away from justice) facilitate the desistence
  process (McAra and McVie 2010)
• The quality of the one-to-one relationship
  between the social worker and offender is crucial
  to success of supervision (role of social workers
  to assist offenders construct a non-offender
  identity, and to act as advocate for the offender
  in context of broader economic opportunity
  (McNeill 2006, Barry 2007)
• (Aside from protecting the public from a small
  number of dangerous individuals) prison does not
  work! (Carlen and Tombs 2006, etc.etc.)
• - The need for policy-makers to take a long term
  view, with greater recognition that criminal
  justice policy is only one part of a broader
  solution to the problem of crime (health,
  education, housing, economic regeneration) (McAra
  and McVie 2010)

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Conclusions
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Who or what is criminological research for?

• Our role as criminologists is not first and
  foremost to be received as useful problem
  solvers, but as problem raisers. Let us admit -
  and enjoy that our situation has a great
  resemblance to that of artists and men of
  letters. We are working on a culture of deviance
  and social control Changing times create new
  situations and bring us to new crossroads.Equippe
  d with our special training in scientific method
  and theory, it is our obligation as well as
  pleasure to penetrate these problems. Together
  with other cultural workers, we will probably
  have to keep a constant fight going against being
  absorbed and tamed and thereby completely
  socialised into society. (Nils Christie 1971)

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Housing policies
Job security legislation
Neighbourhood
Family policies
Hours of work
School
Father
Dwelling
Child
Parents work situation
Labour market policies
Child care policies
Child health centre - medical care
Mother
Friends
Siblings
Social security
TV/mass media
Leisure time
Cultural policies
Communal support of voluntary agencies and
leisure activities
Bronfenbrenner/Martens (1993)