Re-offending reduced by 16.3%
A comparative study between Coldingley attendees and a control group demonstrating the benefit of intervention
In early 2006 a study was undertaken by Holly Beazer, a criminology student at Roehampton University to examine the difference in re-offending rates between those who had attended the Tuesday crime diversion events at Coldingley, and a homogenous control group that had not. In partnership with Kingston Youth Offending Team data was collected for one hundred and twelve subjects in total, (fifty-six in each group).
Each group consisted of 45 males and 11 females. The
control group consisted of similar subjects in terms of
sex and type of intervention. Data was collected on the
sex, ethnicity, age, type and length of order and whether
the subjects had attended Coldingley. The number of
offences refers to the number of offences committed within
six months of starting an order for the control group or since
attending Coldingley for the experimental group.
The aim was to establish whether attending CCDS Tuesday
events reduces the likelihood of recidivism for young
people already involved in the criminal justice system. A
sample group was chosen to be representative of young
people involved in multiple crimes. The study aimed to
prove that attending Coldingley does reduce the number of
subsequent offences in comparison with the control group.
An independent-sample t-test was conducted to compare
the number of offences for those who had attended Tuesday
events at Coldingley and those who had not. A total of 76.8%
of those who attended did not re-offend within six months.
Notably of the 23.2% that did re-offend, 46.2% only
committed one further offence.
Research on the control group showed that 71.4% did not re-offend. The most interesting figure is that of the 28.6% that did re-offend, 62.5% committed three or more offences, with some committing as many as eight offences within six months. The study therefore concluded that a reduction rate of 16.3% was achieved in the number of offences committed as a direct result of attending a CCDS Tuesday event. It also shows a positive increase of 5.4% for those that did attend, and did not commit any further offences against the same figure from the sample group.
Although the figure may at first seem somewhat low, it should be taken into account that the sample group represents those involved in the highest amount of criminal activity and therefore presents the highest ‘intervention’ challenge for a one day event. A second study is planned to focus on the 12 week Can-Do part of the Crime Diversion Scheme, and given the greater amount of ‘intervention’ levels involved a far greater reduction is envisaged.
Figure 1. A comparison of the average number of offences between those who have attended Coldingley and those who have not for males and females.
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