The Substantial Service Demands of Offenders and Frequent Offenders

Abstract

This study analyses new data on the service demands of gender and age subpopulations of occasional and frequent offenders shared by health, social care and criminal justice agencies in the UK. Using a case-linkage methodology borrowed from health studies, we tracked the population of offenders across multiple agencies within a Health Authority jurisdiction in an English county over a three-year period. We show that offenders and frequent offenders demanded services in larger proportions than non-offenders and occasional offenders, particularly drug and alcohol services. We find that overrepresentations of males and youngsters among offenders were more marked among frequent offenders. Using categorical principal component analyses, we identify three typologies of frequent offenders making heavy demands on public services, and detect key discrepancies between their problems and levels of service provision. Our findings indicate the need to devise inter-agency strategies for the treatment and care of different groups of offenders, while providing useful data on their characteristics so as to make these strategies more effective.