Trauma, Harm and Health with Justice Involved Women: Validation Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Trauma, Social Harm and Health in Criminal Justice Involved Women: The Women's Risk Needs Assessment Validation Research Study
IRAS ID
272052
Contact name
Simon Pemberton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Birmingham
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Whilst we know a lot about the reasons why women offend, we still know relatively little about the effectiveness of interventions designed to prevent female offending. It remains the case that studies evaluating criminal justice interventions tend not to disaggregate their results by gender; few studies report meaningful results in relation to women. Added to this, Women’s Centres in the UK who currently support criminal justice involved women use different assessments tools; none of which are validated or demonstrate statistically significant scales. This research seeks to remedy this issue and to contribute to the establishment of a robust evidence base for gender specific interventions into female offending.
In 2017, we independently reviewed 136 peer-reviewed tools for assessing the needs and outcomes of justice involved women, and concluded that the Women’s Risk Needs Assessment (WRNA) was the most validated, gender responsive and trauma-informed risk/need/responsivity tool for this population internationally. The WRNA measures women’s risks, needs and strengths. This study will be the first to validate the WRNA Probation module in England. In doing so it will test the accuracy and reliability of the tool within this jurisdiction and social context across different offender and population groups and will also allow comparison between regions.
The WRNA will be validated throughout a 6 month period of data collection, with a further 6 month follow up to assess re-offending. The research will take place across 6 Women’s Centres/Alliances in England and will include a sample of ca 700 criminal justice involved women.
REC name
North East - York Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/NE/0093
Date of REC Opinion
12 Jun 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion