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The Challenges of Researching Multiple Needs in the Criminal Justice System Julian Corner. The litmus test. “Using the experiences of the ‘bottom 10%’ as a litmus-test of reform across Government” Sustainable Communities: ODPM, 2004. Multiple needs/ criminal justice. Drug use.
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The Challenges of Researching Multiple Needs in the Criminal Justice SystemJulian Corner
The litmus test • “Using the experiences of the • ‘bottom 10%’ as a litmus-test of • reform across Government” • Sustainable Communities: ODPM, 2004
Multiple needs/criminal justice Drug use Poor skill base Homelessness Long term physical conditions Debt/poverty OFFENDING Hazardous drinking Learning Disability Social isolation/ family breakdown Anxiety/Depression/ Personality Disorder
Social Exclusion Task Force • “Individual agencies … often miss those who have multiple needs but need less help from any one service… Their contact with services is instead frequently driven by problematic behaviour resulting from their chaotic lives, such as anti-social behaviour, criminality and poor parenting - and management revolves around sanctions such as prison, loss of tenancy and possible removal of children”. • Reaching Out: • An Action Plan for Social Exclusion, 2006
To a man with a hammer … Patient Street drinker Personality disordered Rough sleeper Chaotic adult Substance user Ex-offender Arrestee Mentally disordered offender Prolific and Priority Offender Dual diagnosed Anti-Social Neighbour Defendant Prisoner Single homeless person Socially excluded adult Sex Worker
Complexity • Interrelation of problems • Multi-dimensional problems vs. 2D snapshots • Needs as product of system • Who defines the problem/need?
Limitations of perspective • Where you start determines where you end up • Fragmentation • Institutionalised evidence • Reaching beyond the system
Chaos and complexity • Difficulty dealing with paperwork • Difficulty managing money • No qualifications • Feels close to neither a co-habiting adult nor any other adult • Fewer than two close friends and not spoken to one in past week • Unemployed • Moved 3+ times in past year • Lowest personal income group • Justine Schneider, Better Outcomes for the Most Excluded, 2007
Abuses of evidence • What worked • The policy trap • The end of judgement • Evidence as a structure of exclusion • The paths of least resistance
Limitations of the outcome-based approach • Legitimising negligible steps • The silver bullet illusion • All that glitters … • Capturing experience and soft outcomes
Institutional Divides • VCO experience • Professionalised evidence • People as functions of the system
Commissioning - a new research dawn? • Bridging divides • Prompting problem-solving and imagination • Capturing lived experience • Providing a sense of scale and perspective • Seeing the whole person
National Development Programme Identification of need Demonstration of solutions Shaping/Influencing policy
National Development Programme • Research Development • Evidence that is multi-agency and locally-owned • Action research • Creating new platforms for ‘voice’ • Warrington example