Community Based Court Disposals
The 2005
Scottish Government publication ‘Supporting Safer, Stronger
Communities: Scotland’s Criminal Justice Plan’ cited reducing
re-offending as a major objective, with community disposals acknowledged as an
important means of achieving this. In
this publication it is explained that community options are more conducive to
rehabilitation as they allow the offender to maintain important contacts within
their community and build upon factors in the offender’s life that may reduce
further offending. In addition, the Criminal
Justice Plan goes on to state that short-term sentences can, in contrast, have
a disruptive effective on the offender to the extent that factors which may
have led to offending in the first place will be exacerbated. It is further acknowledged by the Criminal
Justice Plan that one particular challenge for community disposals is engaging
public confidence in their effectiveness, ensuring that such disposals are both
robust in nature and protect against re-offending.
In Scotland, community
sentences have increased from 8% of all disposals in 1995/6 to 13% in 2004/05. Such
disposals include Supervised Attendance Orders, Community Reparation Orders,
Drug Treatment and Testing Orders and Restriction of Liberty Orders. Research and evaluation of these Orders is
somewhat limited in Scotland
given their relatively recent introduction, but useful literature can
nevertheless be found on the Scottish
Government website.
-
‘Evaluation
of a Pilot to Test the Implementation of Supervised Attendance Orders as
Disposals in the First Instance (S236 SAOS)’: Research Findings and Full Report.
-
‘Reconviction
Following Drug Treatment and Testing Orders’ (2004): Full
Report.
-
‘Establishing Drug Courts in Scotland: Early Experiences of the Pilot Drug
Courts in Glasgow and Fife’ (2003): Research Findings.
- ‘An
evaluation of the Glasgow and Fife
Drug Courts and their aim to reduce drug use and drug related reoffending’
(2006): Research Findings.
In general, literature on community disposals can become outdated
very quickly and so making recommendations as to specific papers is
difficult. Along with the Scottish
Government website, some interesting literature can, however, also be found on
the site for the National
Probation Service for England
and Wales.
The Centre holds a number of books on this subject, details of which can be found here.