NCJ Number
219867
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 47 Issue: 4 Dated: July 2007 Pages: 635-654
Date Published
July 2007
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study assessed the involvement of the police in England and Wales in the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme (ISSP), a community intervention for young offenders.
Abstract
Although most youth offending team (YOT) officers and ISSP police officers held positive views of ISSP, some noted skepticism among police officers about yet another community provision for "young troublemakers." In contrast to Burnett and Appleton's (2004) analysis of ISSP, the current analysis found that police officers viewed themselves as highly distinctive contributors in the multidisciplinary YOTs, and some felt that police input was insufficient in amount and influence. ISSP workers and police officers identified some of the most important skills or factors that police officers brought to ISSP and YOTs, including "street" knowledge of offenders and offending, a counterbalance to the "softer" service-oriented values of other YOT or ISSP team members, and a measure of seriousness and authority in the eyes of young offenders. Of critical importance in ISSP work was access to and use of police intelligence on offenders. In the first two phases of ISSP, 41 projects were launched across England and Wales, and all of these were included in the national evaluation, which was conducted between 2001 and 2004. Typically, a young offender would spend 6 months on his/her program, with the first 3 months designated as the intensive period of supervision. Intelligence-led policing was considered one of the key strands of offender surveillance. The evaluation involved a questionnaire-based survey of YOT police officers and ISSP practitioners. Of key interest was whether there needed to be more or less police involvement in ISSP or whether police input was "about right." This was asked of the various aspects of ISSP programming. 73 references