The Campbell Collaboration is a nonprofit organization that promotes evidence-based policymaking through the production of systematic reviews, summaries and syntheses of policy-relevant evidence. Each post in this series includes excerpts from the Campbell Collaboration’s “Plain Language Summaries” in the subject areas of crime & justice, education, and social welfare.
1 . A comprehensive review of prioritised interventions to improve the health and wellbeing of persons with lived experience of homelessness Authors: Aliza Moledina, Olivia Magwood, Eric Agbata, Jui-Hsia Hung, Ammar Saad, Kednapa Thavorn, Kevin Pottie. Published: June 24, 2021. Subject Area: Social Welfare
This systematic review and meta-analysis presents evidence on a wide range of interventions targeting homelessness: permanent supportive housing; income assistance; standard case management and peer support; mental health interventions such as assertive community treatment, intensive case management, critical time intervention, and injectable antipsychotics; and substance use interventions such as supervised consumption facilities, managed alcohol programmes and pharmacological interventions for opioid use disorders.
[The review covered] 86 studies across 128 publications among individuals with lived experience of homelessness. The vast majority of studies followed a randomised controlled design. Most took place in the USA (73).
Main Findings: Permanent supportive housing interventions appear to improve short- and long-term housing stability for persons with lived experience of homelessness. Income assistance and intensive mental health interventions show moderate benefits in housing outcomes, and evidence on standardised case management suggests potential to improve housing stability. Peer support alone does not impact housing stability. Inconsistent results on mental health, substance use and other social outcomes require additional research.
2. Police-initiated diversion for youth to prevent future delinquent behavior Authors: David B. Wilson, Iain Brennan, Ajima Olaghere. Published: June 1, 2018. Subject Area: Crime and Justice
Police diversion schemes are a collection of strategies police can apply as an alternative to court processing of youth. Diversion as an option is popular among law enforcement officers, as it provides an option between ignoring youth engaged in minor wrongdoing and formally charging such youth with a crime. Police-led diversion has the potential to reduce reoffending by limiting the exposure of low-risk youth to potentially harmful effects of engagement with the criminal justice system.
This review examines the effects police-initiated diversion programs on delinquent behavior, compared to traditional system processing. The review summarizes evidence from nineteen high-quality studies, including 13 randomized controlled trials and 6 quasi-experimental studies. Most studies were conducted in the USA (11) with the remaining conducted in Canada (4), Australia (2), and the UK (2).
Main Findings: The general pattern of evidence is positive. Assuming a 50 percent reoffending rate for the traditional processing condition, the results suggest a reoffending rate of roughly 44 percent for the diverted youth. This overall benefit of diversion holds for the random assignment studies judged to be free from any obvious risks of bias. No meaningful differences were found across types of diversionary programs.
3. The effectiveness of incarceration-based drug treatment on criminal behavior Authors: Ojmarrh Mitchell, Doris MacKenzie, David Wilson Published: November 1, 2012. Subject Area: Crime and Justice
Many, if not most, incarcerated criminals are drug-dependent. In the absence of effective substance abuse treatment, a high proportion of these drug-dependent criminals will return to crime once released. Incarceration-based drug treatment programs allow correctional facilities to use force to encourage abusers to engage in treatment – many of who otherwise would not do so – as well as limit the availability of drugs with sufficient time available to focus on treatment and introspection.
This review examines the effectiveness of incarceration-based drug treatment programs in reducing post-release recidivism and drug use. A total of 74 independent evaluations were included in the review. Sixty-five of the studies were conducted in the USA, four in Canada, three in Australia, one in Taiwan and one the UK.
Main Findings: Incarceration-based drug treatment programs are modestly effective in reducing criminal behaviour and drug use. The overall average effect of these programs is approximately a 15 to 17% reduction in recidivism and drug relapse. Effects vary by program design. Therapeutic communities have relatively consistent but modest reductions in recidivism and drug relapse. Counseling programs reduce recidivism but not drug relapse, narcotic maintenance programs cause sizeable reductions in drug relapse but not recidivism.
Note: Participants/inmates in therapeutic communities are housed separately from the rest of the prison population during participation in the program.
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