Listening to young adult offenders: Views on the Effect of a Police-Probation Initiative on Reducing Crime

This article reports the subjective views of young adult offenders, regarding their experience of a police-probation initiative in the south-west region of England. Project ARC (Addressing Repeat Criminality) was a pilot scheme that targeted persistent offenders, mainly drug offenders, by offering them an intensive form of probation supervision. The procedure of allowing these offenders to speak and listening to their voices has been seen as an excellent and powerful method to depict vividly their perception of probation experience and views on the usefulness of the crime reduction project. Several central themes emerged from the in-depth interview data, regarding the success or otherwise of the initiative in addressing their criminal behaviour. These include offenders’ attitudes to offending, self-explanations for their criminality, views of peer associations and the usefulness of the Project ARC intervention. Finally, the offenders’ first hand accounts also offer invaluable insight to the police and probation services on how the project can and should be further improved in order to reform their offending behaviours.