Investigating the impact of family drug and alcohol courts (FDACs) on parental offending: a data linkage study

近年来，在儿童面临风险或受到实际伤害时启动的“环境关怀”程序大幅增加。这些诉讼通常涉及父母滥用药物、家庭虐待和精神健康问题，并经常导致儿童被安置在替代性永久家庭。家庭毒品和酒精法庭是一种创新的全面解决问题的办法，以照顾程序和研究发现，通过处理父母的问题，导致照顾程序在法庭上的案件，家庭团聚率高于普通的照顾程序。国际证据证实了同样的结果。在过去的十年里，教育部已经投资在英格兰各地扩大FDAC，家庭司法负责人希望在每个地区都看到FDAC。司法部也对解决问题的法庭感兴趣，并为女性罪犯、家庭暴力肇事者和药物滥用者设立了试点。证据中的一个重要差距是FDAC（或其国际等效的“家庭药物治疗法庭”）对犯罪行为的影响，尽管众所周知，参与护理程序的父母也经常有犯罪记录。拟议的研究为纠正这一知识缺陷提供了一个重要机会。目的和objectivesThe首要的研究问题是是否收到FDAC与母亲和父亲的犯罪和再犯的变化。为此，这项为期24个月的研究将调查，与通过普通护理程序和服务提供的父母相比，收到FDAC是否会降低犯罪的可能性，其频率，类型，严重性以及由此产生的制裁。调解的影响，如性别，以前的历史护理程序，并收到FDAC后的家庭团聚的稳定性进行了探讨。为了实现这些目标，我们将在分析现有数据来源的二手数据的基础上进行一项为期24个月的数据连接研究。它将汇集来自三个行政数据来源的个人父母记录，FDAC，Cafcass（儿童和家庭法院咨询和支持服务）和PNC（警察国家计算机记录），以创建一个纵向队列研究，包括大约1700名父母。展示的潜力和可行性进行研究，链接和分析大规模的敏感数据，特别是那些从法院对弱势群体使用个别父母的数据，以创建一个新的纵向队列研究dataset的研究是另一个主要aims.Potential applications和benefitsThe拟议的研究解决了一个重大的社会和经济问题。参与FDAC，普通护理程序和刑事司法系统的父母是这项研究的最终受益者，因为它将更好地了解他们的需求和满足他们的方法。政策制定者、地方当局和警察局长将获得新的证据，为未来对FDAC的投资决策提供信息。该研究将提供FDAC对犯罪影响的第一个基准，为在FDAC工作的从业人员提供新的见解，普通护理程序和英格兰，威尔士和运营家庭药物治疗法院的国家的刑事法院。这项研究将很好地借鉴新的纵向数据集的潜力，特别是关于家庭司法和刑事司法系统的数据可用性，覆盖范围和协调。新的纵向数据集将提供许多重复使用的机会-例如，承担FDAC干预的成本/收益。

ContextCare proceedings, which are triggered when there is risk or actual harm to the child, have increased significantly in recent years. These proceedings typically involve parental substance misuse, domestic abuse, and mental health difficulties and frequently result in children being placed with alternative permanent families. Family drug and alcohol courts (FDACs) are an innovative holistic problem-solving approach to care proceedings and research has found that by treating the parental problems that led to the care proceedings during the court case, family reunification rates are higher than in ordinary care proceedings. International evidence confirms the same results. The Department for Education has invested over the last decade in the expansion of FDACs across England and the Head of Family Justice wishes to see an FDAC in every area. The Ministry of Justice is also interested in problem-solving courts and has set up pilots for women offenders, domestic abuse perpetrators and substance misusers. An important gap in evidence is the impact of FDACs (or their international equivalent 'family drug treatment courts') on offending behaviour, although, it is known that parents who are involved in care proceedings frequently have offending records too. The proposed study offers a major opportunity to redress this knowledge deficit. Aims and objectivesThe overarching research question is whether receipt of FDAC is associated with changes in maternal and paternal offending and reoffending. To this end, the 24-month study will investigate whether, compared to parents who go through ordinary care proceedings and service delivery, receipt of FDAC decreases the likelihood of offending, its frequency, type, seriousness, and resultant sanctions. Mediating influences such as gender, previous history of care proceedings, and stability of family reunification after receipt of FDAC will be explored. To address these aims, we will undertake a 24-month data linkage study based on an analysis of secondary data from existing data sources. It will bring together individual parental records from three administrative data sources, FDAC, Cafcass (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) and the PNC (Police National Computer records) to create a longitudinal cohort study, comprising approximately 1700 parents. Demonstrating the potential and feasibility of carrying out research that links and analyses large scale sensitive data, particularly those from courts on vulnerable populations using individual parental data, to create a new longitudinal cohort study dataset is another main aim of the study.Potential applications and benefitsThe proposed study addresses a significant social and economic problem. Parents with involvement in FDAC, ordinary care proceedings, and in the criminal justice system, are the end beneficiaries of this study, since it will generate greater understanding of their needs and ways to meet them. Policy-makers, local authority and police commissioners will gain new evidence to inform decisions about future investment in FDACs. The study will provide the first benchmark of the impact of FDAC on offending, with new insights for practitioners working in FDACs, ordinary care proceedings and criminal courts in England, Wales and in countries which operate family drug treatment courts. The research will be well placed to draw lessons on the potential of the new longitudinal dataset, particularly regarding data availability, coverage, and harmonisation across the family justice and criminal justice systems. The new longitudinal dataset will provide a number of opportunities for reuse- e.g. to undertake a cost/benefit of the FDAC intervention.