The efficacy of offence-specific interventions in reducing risk and recidivism in women: a systematic review

Almost a quarter of women released from prisons in England and Wales reoffend; this figure is three times higher for women serving less than 12-month sentences. Offender programmes used within prison, probation, and forensic inpatient services aim to reduce an individual's risk of reoffending....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of forensic psychiatry & psychology 2022-05, Vol.33 (3), p.291-322
Main Authors: Galway, Róisín, Swales, Michaela A, Wane, Julia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Efficacy
forensic
gender-responsive
Inpatient care
Intervention
offender behaviour
Offending
prison
Prisons
Probation service
Recidivism
Risk reduction
Self report
Systematic review
violence
Women
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Almost a quarter of women released from prisons in England and Wales reoffend; this figure is three times higher for women serving less than 12-month sentences. Offender programmes used within prison, probation, and forensic inpatient services aim to reduce an individual's risk of reoffending. Whilst offence-specific interventions are widely offered to men who offend, comparatively few are offered to women. The current systematic review aimed to evaluate the efficacy of offence-specific interventions in reducing women's recidivism. Overall, recidivism in programme completers was low (m = 14.05%). However, the quality of studies included (n = 7) was low, limiting the conclusions drawn. Several studies yielded met the inclusion criteria, with the exception of reporting recidivism outcomes. A second review was conducted incorporating these studies, broadening the outcomes of interest to include incidents of violence in hospital or prison and self-report outcomes related to offending (n = 10). Incidents reduced following programme completion; however, self-reported outcomes were mixed. The review highlighted a lack of evidence for the efficacy of offence-specific interventions facilitated with women and limited use of recidivism as an outcome measure within the literature, despite often being a key aim of the interventions.
ISSN:1478-9949
1478-9957
DOI:10.1080/14789949.2022.2053185