hi,

The Univ. of Sheffield is involved in a European-wdie initiative called Researcher’s Night. This year it is on the 28th Sept, and we will be showing The Road from Crime as part of that event. The events (all of them, not just the film) are free to any member of the public – just pitch up on the night.

I’ll post more details (venue and time) nearer the time. I’m hoping that Charlie Smith, Raymond Lunn and Allan Weaver (who all appear in the film) will all be able to make it along for a Q&A session after the film.

Please do pass this on to people who might want to come along.

With best wishes,

Stephen

The road from crime film is now available to view on-line and to download –  see http://www.iriss.org.uk/resources/the-road-from-crime.

The film is available with (or without) English, French, Spanish, German or Finnish subtitles.

We would welcome any feedback about the film, and would be delighted to hear about how you use it and the impact it has.  You can add comments at the bottom of this page if you so wish.

We hope you find the film thought provoking and useful.

Many thanks to all of you who took part in the desistance workshops.

The workshops took place between April and June 2012 in Belfast, Glasgow, London and Sheffield.  We held two workshops at each location.

Details of the workshop process, and the notes and outputs from each workshop are detailed in the reports below.  The reports present the outputs of the workshops without offering any comment or analysis.  We would welcome any feedback and discussion.

• Report on Belfast desistance workshops (held on 14 May and 25 June 2012)
• Report on the Glasgow desistance workshops (held on 10 April and 16 May 2012)
• Report on the London desistance workshops (held 11 May & 11 June 2012)
• Report on Sheffield desistance workshops (held on 10 May & 14 June 2012)

This is a guest post from John Todd, Head of the Reducing Offending Unit in the Ministry of Justice in Northern Ireland. John was a participant in the two workshops we convened in Belfast. His post outlines some interesting developments in the relationships between desistance research and criminal justice policy. 

I thought readers of the blog might be interested in a consultation document on reducing offending we in the Department of Justice Northern Ireland have published recently.  The document sets out a Strategic Framework for Reducing Offending, which seeks to both address the factors leading people into criminal behaviour and the obstacles to them moving away from it.

So, although the framework goes a bit beyond desistance and reducing reoffending to take in prevention and diversion, we would be very interested in your opinions on our plans to reduce offending in Northern Ireland.

The consultation and related documents (including the evidence base that supports the framework) can be found here: http://www.dojni.gov.uk/index/public-consultations/current-consultations/strategic-framework-for-reducing-offending-consultation.htm.

You will see that we have set out eight core principles for reducing offending (including that we should be focused on desistance).  We also propose a number of outputs and outcomes.  The outcomes include reducing the number of young people entering the justice system for the first time, reducing repeat victimisation, reducing rates of reoffending and reducing the average age of desistance from crime in Northern Ireland.  The final of these outcomes will be something new for us and require the establishment of measuring techniques and baselines.

We’d warmly welcome responses to the consultation – a response form can be found at the link above.