STOP: Does It Work?
| Published date | 01 October 1993 |
| Date | 01 October 1993 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059304000310 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
153
STOP:
Does
It
Work?
Peter
Raynor
and
Maurice
Vanstone
of
University
College,
Swansea,
summarise
the
interim
findings
of
Mid-Glamorgan’s
R
&
R
programme.
Can
community
sentences
play a
part
in
reducing
crime?
The
STOP
(Straight
Thinking
On
Probation)
programme
developed
by
the
Mid-Glamorgan
Probation
Service
from
the
Canadian
’Reasoning
and
Rehabilitation’
model
of
cognitive-behavioural
groupwork
with
persistent
offenders
is
an
attempt
to
answer
that
question.
Having
completed
eighteen
months
of
the
planned
evaluation
of
the
programme’s
effectiveness,
we
are
now
able
to
say
something
about
how
it
is
performing.
The
programme
is
intended
for
heavily
convicted
offenders.
The
133
probationers
in
the
experimental
group
have
an
average
of
nine
previous
convictions,
and
three-quarters
of
them
have
served
custodial
sentences
in
the
past.
On
these
measures
they
are
similar
to
local
people
currently
sentenced
to
imprisonment.
In
spite
of
these
serious
records,
attendance
and
completion
rates
on
the
eighteen-week
programme
have
been
reasonably
high:
if
we
discount
those
programme
members
who
had
legitimate
reasons
for
non-completion
such
as
illness
or
finding
work,
three-
quarters
of
those
who
could
have
completed
successfully
did
so.
There
was
also
clear
evidence
from
inspection
of
videotaped
group
sessions
that
the
programme
was
being
delivered
correctly
according
to
the
planned
design.
, ..
At
attitude
measurement
questionnaire
known
as
Crime-PICS
is
being
used
to
assess
the
extent
of
’crime-prone’
attitudes
before
and
after
involvement
in
the
programme
and
other
forms
of
supervision.
Most
of
these
results
will
not
be
available
until
more
people
have
had
time
to
complete
programmes
and
orders,
but
by
the
end
of
the
first
year
we
were
already
finding
positive
changes
more
often
among
STOP
group
members
than
among
those
completing
Community
Service
Orders.
Over
two-thirds
of
those
tested
on
completion
of
a
STOP
programme
showed
a
decrease
in
crime-
prone
attitudes,
compared
to
just
over
half
of
those
completing
a
Community
Service
Order.
-
A
more
important
measure,
of
course,
will
be
whether
patterns
of
offending
actually
change.
A
two-year
follow-up
study
of
offending
by
all
members
of
the
STOP
experimental
group
and
all
comparison
groups
is
in
progress
and
should
in
due
course
tell
us a
good
deal
about
effects
on
offending.
So
far,
our
information
is
restricted
to
a
six-month
j
follow
up
of
those
who
entered
the
STOP
group
in
the
second
half
of
1991
and
a
comparable
group
who
were
made
subject
to
standard
probation
orders
without
additional
requirements.
These
results
have
not
yet
been
checked
against
police
records
and
should
therefore
be
viewed
cautiously,
but
the
evidence
so
far
is
that
rates
of
reconviction
are
slightly
lower
for
the
STOP
group
(36%
in
six
months)
despite
their
rather
worse
previous
records.
îIII..,.r1l1i;:III’IIIiII..;I,lm&dquo;,:aeilIFI@IIFiIiIae’
We
were
also
concerned
to
find
out
whether
participants
themselves
thought
the
programme
was
helpful,
and
what
probation
officers
thought
about
the
impact
of
this
major
innovation
on
themselves
and
their
work.
In
interviews
To continue reading
Request your trial