Key research messages & concepts
Over the last five or so years, the probation inspectorate has massively increased its research output. It has explicitly set out to review, develop and promote the evidence base for high-quality probation and youth justice services and has gone about this via a wide range of initiatives:
- Research & Analysis Bulletins. These were born from the realisation that the inspectorate has huge quantities of data derived from its area inspections and has started analysing that data to inform key probation and youth justice issues, often supplemented by specifically commissioned research studies from external academics. Recent examples include: The interventions landscape for probation services: delivery, challenges and opportunities and Frontline leadership in probation and youth justice .
- Academic Insights. The inspectorate commissions leading academics to present their views on specific topics, assisting with informed debate and aiding understanding of what helps and what hinders the delivery of services. Crucially, evidence-based practice is supported by blending key findings and insights from a range of models, disciplines and types of research, as well as from across jurisdictions. Recent editions include sports-related interventions and the sequential intercept model of trauma-informed diversion.
- Reflections from research. These five minute videos feature leading criminologists reflecting on their work and setting out their top pieces of advice for the delivery of high-quality probation and/or youth justice services. The videos help to provide a rounded view of the evidence base, assisting with informed debate and aiding understanding of what helps and what hinders service delivery. Recent reflections are from Professors Fergus McNeill and Lol Burke.
In order to help probation and youth justice staff (and other stakeholders such as policy makers) get as much value as possible from this range of research outputs, the inspectorate has just published an A-Z of key research messages and concepts, with accompanying links to further reading.
The guide is accompanied by the infographic I have reproduced above which demonstrates the necessary ingenuity in producing any A-Z with the tricky X&Y dealt with together in a cautionary piece which differentiates between correlation and causation which tabloid editors and politicians would benefit from reading.
The guide covers a wide range of issues and very helpfully backs up the short explainers with links to more substantive reading. The guide is likely to be of benefit to a wide range of people, not least those undertaking the PQiP to become probation officers who will have an authoritative definition of such key concepts as desistance and the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model.
