But the interesting part of the story is that even after crime had been falling steadily for over 15 – 20 years, just 1 in 5 American or English people thought this was the case with only 4% Japanese believing that public safety had improved.
Oxfam and the other agencies are working in very challenging circumstances and won’t receive full payment unless they hit their targets on time. This makes realistic pricing very tricky and raises the key ethical issue of how much risk to pass on to local implementing partners; or, if none, how to ensure their motivation.
Excellent new discussion paper from Clinks looks to develop a constructive dialogue about how our soon-to-be-reformed prison system should look.
The third post in my series on the National Audit Office Transforming Rehabilitation report reveals there was limited competition for new probation market.
Gavin Hales of the Police Foundation argues that the drop in crime and of public concern about it make now the time for a sensible discussion.
Our legal system is struggling to keep up with modern online behaviour and many people don’t realise that they could be breaking the law by a simple tweet.
Cogent new analysis from top US Economist Jason Furman says higher wages is a more effective crime reduction tool than imprisoning more criminals
There are two contradictory narratives about crime. In one, the criminal act is a selfish choice, and tough punishment the only solution. In the other, the system is at fault, and perpetrators will change only when society reforms. Both are wrong.
This final post summarises the most important lessons to bear in mind if you are involved in commissioning, investing in or providing a payment by results-funded scheme.
There was a 7% increase in police recorded crime compared with the previous year, with 4.4 million offences recorded in the year ending December 2015. Most of this rise is thought to be owing to improved crime recording by the police leading to a greater proportion of reports of crime being recorded in the last year.
Offenders on probation used terms such as “more stressed”, “miserable”, “deflated” to describe their probation officers after Transforming Rehabilitation was implemented.
Achieving value for money from the new probation system will require resolving these fundamental issues, and ensuring the right incentives for all participants in the system.
