Exploring the desistance process of females and their engagement with Offender Management approaches, specifically the Integrated Offender Management (IOM) framework

Abstract

The primary models of desistance (Propensity: Gottfredson and Hirschi 1990; Criminal Careers: Barnett, Blumstein and Farrington 1992) have been formulated based upon previous research into the needs of male service users of the criminal justice system. In contrast, understanding the desistance process as applied to females has been scant, or has been based on specific facets, i.e., effect of relationships (Barr and Christian 2019) and gang membership (Berger et al., 2017). Within England and Wales, the Home Office and Ministry of Justice introduced the Integrated Offender Management (IOM) scheme in 2009 (see Home Office 2010). The overarching aim of the scheme was to reduce reoffending through the IOM approach across agencies within the criminal justice system. The effectiveness of this scheme has been investigated empirically with varying results (Williams and Ariel 2012), and were based upon the core cohorts of IOM. It is therefore not understood how this scheme can also be applied to specific cohorts of service users (e.g., females), and further, how thedesistance process has been applied to such cohorts within the IOM framework. Within this research, an investigation into whether the IOM scheme is effective overall, as well as when applied to females is conducted via thematic analysis and statistical analysis. In addition, the desistance process as applied to females is identified through acquiring an understanding of their specific experiences of offender management within a thematic analysis. The first study into the perspectives of professionals working within an IOM scheme found that organisational factors, such as partnership working and workforce roles would need to be delivered effectively to ensure the engagement, relationships and needs of their service users were being supported. The second study was a statistical analysis of the number of needs females had during their engagement with female interventions, and found there to be a relationship between engagement length and the agency with which they engaged. The third study into the experiences of female service users of their engagement with community-based rehabilitation services found there to be a lack of support via agencies in the community. This was in relation to supporting females with their specific needs prior to offending. The findings from the three studies conducted as part of a mixed methods approach are integrated into a critical evaluation and conclusive comments in the final chapters of the thesis. The limitations of the research are identified, before the implications of this research within practice and academia are presented alongside rationale for future research.

Date of Award	Mar 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Coventry University
Supervisor	Geraldine Brown (Supervisor), Emma Sleath (Supervisor), Sarah Brown (Supervisor) & Emma Holdsworth (Supervisor)