Disorder Reduction Partnerships Research Articles

This Could Be the Start of Something Big: Linking Early Managerial Choices with Subsequent Organizational Performance

This Could Be the Start of Something Big: Linking Early Managerial Choices with Subsequent Organizational Performance

Are There Managerial Practices Associated with the Outcomes of an Interagency Service Delivery Collaboration? Evidence from British Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships

Are There Managerial Practices Associated with the Outcomes of an Interagency Service Delivery Collaboration? Evidence from British Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships

Maximizing the role of emergency departments in the prevention of violence: Developing an approach in South London

This article presents an overview of a partnership between public health teams in two primary care trusts in South East London, their local acute hospital trusts, and crime and disorder reduction partnerships to support the reduction of harm from violence. It discusses recent developments in violence prevention in emergency departments in the UK, and developments around outreach and case management, more common in the USA. It then outlines the elements of the violence prevention project being conducted in South East London.

Are There Managerial Practices Associated with Service Delivery Collaboration Success?: Evidence from British Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships

Little empirical work exists measuring if interagency collaborations delivering public services produce better outcomes, and none looking inside the black box at collaboration management practices. We examine whether there are collaboration management practices associated with improved performance of Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, a crossagency collaboration in England and Wales. These exist in every local authority in England and Wales, so there are enough of them to permit quantitative analysis. And their aim is crime reduction, and crime data over time are available, allowing actual results (rather than perceptions or self-reports) to be analyzed longitudinally. We find that there are management practices associated with greater success at reducing crime, mostly exhibited through interaction effects such that the practice in question is effective in some circumstances but not others. Our findings support the arguments of those arguing that effective management of collaborations is associated with tools for managing any organization, not ones unique to managing collaborations: if you want to be a good collaboration manager, you should be a good manager, period.

Interpreting Multi-Agency Partnerships: Ideology, Discourse and Domestic Violence

This article examines local multi-agency responses to local domestic violence, in particular considering how the introduction of local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRP) in the UK in the late 1990s affected service provision. Using a longitudinal case study, the article considers how feminist ideologies have been supplanted by a combination of judicial processes and bureaucratic politics. These developments are represented by three dominant discourses: ‘criminal justice’, ‘managerialism’ and ‘equalities’; discourses that have had a number of consequences in the implementation of domestic violence policy. The first is that a one-dimensional criminal justice discourse has displaced a feminist political, power and control, analysis. Second, the ascendancy of managerialism has allowed prescriptive short-term performance measurement to prevail over long-term ‘sufferer-orientated’ responses, and finally an ‘equalities’ discourse prioritized perpetrator initiatives and discouraged dissent. The result has been the dominance of the statutory sector, a marginalization of voluntary agencies and a partial alienation of women’s groups; a process which has proved detrimental both to the interests of female sufferers (who form approximately 90 per cent of victims of domestic violence) as well as voluntary agencies.

Direct elections and the local governance of crime in the United Kingdom: A view from the ground

In the latter half of 2008, proposals emerged from the Home Office for the creation of a completely new elected office in England and Wales, the Crime and Policing Representative. These were to be directly elected and would chair Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) in England and Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) in Wales, as well as automatically become members of the police authority. However, before the proposals were even debated in parliament they were dropped because of concerns extremist parties may win them. This article presents findings from interviews with a range of councillors, police officers and other officials working with or for CDRPs/CSPs in a representative mix of authorities. It shows that although extremist parties winning were a concern there were many more compelling reasons to reject this policy. The article ends with a brief discussion of alternative proposals that could be considered.

Using social media as a means of improving public confidence

The ‘confidence agenda’ poses important new challenges for crime and disorder reduction partnerships in general and the police in particular. To date, the police have made only limited use of new forms of social media and where they have been used, the police have yet to realise their full potential. New approaches are suggested that would increase their effectiveness. The challenge for the police will be to find a way to embrace the spirit of the new social media in such a way that the content that is developed is convincing and feels authentic to users.

Your country needs you! The economic viability of volunteers in the police

During the global economic downturn, those involved in the delivery of community safety and crime and disorder reduction must consider the economics of attempting to achieve their goals. Although there is a capacity for community volunteer schemes to be robustly implemented throughout crime and disorder reduction partnerships, (CDRPs), this paper will focus on the use of volunteers within the police service. This paper examines the use of volunteers within the police service in England and Wales and, in particular, the use of an economic costing model entitled VIVA, to illustrate the economic advantages of the volunteer approach. It is argued that increased use of volunteers would allow for greater public confidence and provide greater resonance in attempts by partnerships to engage with their communities.

The future of regulation in public services

This article describes the new Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) and considers how it will impact on crime and disorder reduction partnerships. The new approach will consist of area and organisational assessments focusing on local authorities and their partners and individual bodies, respectively. Implications are considered for the public, partnerships and the Audit Commission and the difficulties that they will face. Potential risks for the criminal justice sector are outlined. The challenge for the Audit Commission will be to make this new approach meaningful, understood and effective.

Tackling violence in the night-time economy on the ground: Putting policy into practice in England and Wales

Violence in the night-time economy is a key priority for the police, crime and disorder reduction partnerships (CDRPs) and local authorities (LAs) across England and Wales, and there have been a plethora of new policies and strategies introduced to help tackle the problem in recent years. This paper discusses the effects of key policy changes, including the introduction of the Licensing Act 2003 and the publication of the National Alcohol Strategy, on the day-to-day delivery of frontline services. This paper highlights how national crime reduction initiatives and strategies, such as the tackling violent crime programme (TVCP) and alcohol misuse enforcement campaigns (AMECs) were implemented at a local level. Other interventions, such as the use of head-mounted cameras for evidence gathering and the introduction of the Best Bar None scheme are also discussed in relation to reducing night-time economy violence.

Offender health and social care: a review of the evidence on inter-agency collaboration

The involvement of health and social care agencies in crime reduction partnerships remains key to government strategy despite a growing awareness of the equivocal outcomes of inter-agency working in other settings. This paper reports findings from a literature review designed to assess the extent to which existing crime reduction partnerships have been able to overcome the barriers to joint working. The review focuses in particular on Drug (and Alcohol) Action Teams (D(A)ATs), Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs), Multi-Agency Public Protection-Arrangements (MAPPAs) and Youth Offending Teams (YOTs). A comprehensive review of published and unpublished literature suggests that these bodies have experienced similar difficulties to those highlighted in the broader partnership literature. The review further suggests that differences in ethical and professional outlook may be the most critical of these barriers as well as being the least explicitly addressed by recent government interventions. More work is required to build a consensus regarding the ethical underpinnings and fundamental objectives of partnerships across the care-control divide.

The government's new 10‐year drug strategy — a strategic tool or yet more spin?

Frank Warburton assesses the government's new 10‐year drug strategy. He takes as a benchmark the guidance given to crime and disorder reduction partnerships in Delivering Safer Communities. Against this benchmark he finds the strategy wanting in several areas. These include a lack of analysis, a limited evidence base and unclear targets. These failings are due, in part, to the strategy's attempts to address several different audiences and do several different jobs simultaneously.

Understanding and Responding to Crime and Disorder: Ensuring a Local Dimension

Despite paying lip service to the local dimension to crime and disorder auditing,government policies in Britain have tended to prioritize national goals and standards. This is regrettable. The early acknowledgement that Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships could be grouped into families with distinct social, economic and criminogenic profiles underlined the importance of assessing crime and disorder issues in context. One example is the impact that tourism has upon crime and anti-social behaviour in areas catering for mass tourism and especially youth tourism. Using data from the 2001 and 2004 Crime and Disorder audits in Cornwall, and other local evaluations, this paper illustrates both how tourism impacts upon local crime patterns and how its impact needs to be recognized and incorporated into local planning processes.

Tilley Award winners ‘MOPPIN’ up Dodge

The Tilley Awards for Problem‐Oriented Policing ‘recognise and reward the most intelligent, courageous and effective approaches to dealing with the problems police encounter on the streets’ (Home Office website). They are open to the police and crime and disorder reduction partnerships. Entrants have to submit a description of their project and its achievements. This issue features an edited version of a winner's submission.

Tilley Award winners The Quinton ESCAPE Project

The Tilley Awards for Problem‐Oriented Policing ‘recognise and reward the most intelligent, courageous and effective approaches to dealing with the problems police encounter on the streets’ (Home Office website). They are open to the police and crime and disorder reduction partnerships. Entrants have to submit a description of their project and its achievements. Following the publication of Safer Hastings Partnership's winning entry in Volume 6, Issue 4, another winning entrant's submission is reproduced here, and the next issue will feature the other winner's submissions.

Tilley Award winners: Tackling the fear of crime

The Tilley Awards for Problem‐Oriented Policing ‘recognise and reward the most intelligent, courageous and effective approaches to dealing with the problems police encounter on the streets’ (Home Office website). They are open to the police and crime and disorder reduction partnerships. Entrants have to submit a description of their project and its achievements. One winning entrant's submission is reproduced here, and the next two issues will feature the other winners' submissions.

Neighbourhood policing and community safety

`Community' continues to be at the heart of political and policy discourses surrounding policing, security and community safety. While recognizing that there are powerful retrogressive and repressive elements to such contemporary debates, it is argued here that this is an unstable and contestable policy terrain and that there are opportunities to develop notions of community that offer more progressive possibilities. This article examines policy developments relating to Neighbourhood Policing and Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships in Britain to explore these issues. The latter developments emphasize that community engagement and co-production are centrally important. However, it is clear that there are dangers that already identified tensions will persist. The need to meet performance targets will continue to detract from community-oriented work, unless the two coincide. Additionally cultural and institutional factors are likely to prove inimical to efforts to respond effectively to community needs. None of this ought to be taken as an argument in favour of jettisoning the idea of community, but it does mean that the participation of publics needs to be couched in broad, inclusive and often conflictual terms and understood that such efforts offer only limited guarantees in terms of establishing progressive agendas for community safety and neighbourhood policing.

No Escape from the Iron Cage? Governmental Discourse in New Labour's Community Safety Policy

This article seeks to provide an explanation for why it is that local crime and disorder reduction partnerships (CDRPs), established by the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act, have thus far failed to display the kind of self-governing networked governance that is generally expected of partnership approaches. Rather than searching for explanations that focus upon the “competence” of the CDRPs, the politically inspired “control freakery” of the centre, or the structural influences on late-modern crime control, the concept of grid-group theory is employed to show how CDRPs exist as structures that are vulnerable to the influence of a range of conflicting, competing and contradictory modes of social organization that pull in very different directions. This meso-level focus affords a better understanding of the difficulties faced by CDRPs, and of how they might be overcome in the pursuit of networked governance.

Crime and Disorder Act Review 2006: implementing the findings

This article concerns the implementation of the proposals from the Crime and Disorder Act Review. The Review focused on developments in policy and practice in crime and disorder reduction partnerships (CDRPs) and community safety partnerships (CSPs) since the introduction of the Crime and Disorder Act (1998). These developments, the recommendations promulgated by the Review and their implementation are all discussed.

Evaluation of a National Burglary Reduction Initiative Targeting Older People

Although older people only rarely experience crime, their status as “ideal victims” means that a disproportionate number of crime reduction initiatives have targeted them. This article describes a national evaluation of one such initiative in England and Wales, Locks for Pensioners, whereby poorer older people in high risk areas of the country were provided with enhanced security. The article begins by describing the scheme and the population “target hardened”, and then focuses on evaluating it on two levels: process and outcomes. Evaluation involved two principal approaches: a national postal survey of those “target hardened” and more detailed analysis of policy implementation in five areas of the country. Although not initially a central element of the evaluation, we decided to address issues surrounding the processes through which Locks for Pensioners was implemented, primarily because it was almost unique in the criminal justice field in England and Wales. Whereas in recent years there has been a shift towards implementing crime reduction policies through local partnership networks, specifically Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs), which bring together practitioners and policy-makers from a range of agencies tackling local crime and disorder issues, Locks for Pensioners differed in being centrally co-ordinated and bolted onto a noncrime related initiative. Assessing how far this aided or hindered the initiative was therefore considered fundamental to the evaluation. Second, the extent to which the initiative produced positive outcomes – both in reducing fear and improving quality of life and in reducing risk – was assessed. The evaluation concluded that Locks for Pensioners was indeed successful in improving quality of life among older people, but that it had little affect on burglary risk. This can be explained in terms of the nature of deterrence and its failure to apply in the case of the Locks for Pensioners initiative. This relates to the inherent problems of focusing on a virtual community; the difficulties involved in “target hardening” older people; and the nature of the implementation process.