Enforced alcohol abstinence: does it reduce reoffending?

虽然近年来在犯罪政策中高度关注非法药物和相关暴力，但酒精在更大程度上被使用，并牵涉到更多的犯罪，特别是暴力犯罪。法院将相应地判决醉酒的罪犯。在这样做时，他们可以根据饮酒和违法行为的性质，将酒精治疗要求和/或禁酒令作为社区判刑的一部分。对戒酒要求的遵守情况也可以使用经皮酒精监测设备--或酒精监测标签--进行监测，并威胁要进行进一步的法庭听证、罚款和/或监禁。最近(2021年11月和2022年4月)，酒精监测标签再次成为头条新闻，因为在威尔士，接受缓刑服务监督的离狱者可以使用这些标签，这些人在饮酒后再次犯罪。随着英国计划于2022年夏天进一步推出，它们用于强制戒酒或监测饮酒水平的做法引发了进一步的审查和辩论。他们以这种方式推出的研究表明，他们高度遵守戒酒命令--以戒酒的形式。然而，尽管这是它们的主要目标，但关于它们的使用是否具体地减少长期再犯罪的证据有限。目前的研究将通过DataFirst方案利用相关联的行政法院和缓刑数据的潜力来解决这一证据差距。利用横断面和纵向分析，它将探索与酒精相关的治疗或监测要求是如何使用的，以及这些要求是否正在减少再犯罪。例如，那些接受酒精治疗/戒酒要求的人是否比那些因类似罪行而被判入狱的人情况更好。这项研究还将评估获得此类命令的罪犯的概况，以及这些命令对哪些人有效，以仔细审查这些要求是否针对年龄、性别、种族和贫困的人群不成比例。拟议的研究表明，目前威尔士继续推出酒精监测标签的及时发展，并计划于2022年夏天在英格兰推出。它还与司法部(MoJ)的研究兴趣领域完全一致，因为它将为如何最好地“降低再犯罪率并改善生活机会”提供关键见解。它将通过考虑什么对谁有效，当涉及到旨在减少与酒精相关的(再次)犯罪的干预和方案时，来做到这一点。在探索与酒精有关的(再次)违法行为以及公众和从业人员对其信任的现有“量刑选择，包括拘留以外的选择”的有效性时，它也表明了司法部在保护公众免受伤害方面的研究兴趣。它还表明了司法部在保护公众免受伤害方面的研究兴趣，并与更广泛的关于电子标签/监测证据的辩论相联系，有助于提供有助于减少与酒精有关的犯罪和支持康复以及降低重新被拘留的召回率的方法。这项研究还将对正在进行的减少暴力工作具有更广泛的吸引力。

Whilst there has been intense focus on illicit drugs and associated violence in crime policy in recent years, alcohol is used to a greater degree and implicated in many more crimes, especially those of violence. Courts are left to sentence intoxicated offenders accordingly. In so doing, they may make use of alcohol treatment requirements and/or abstinence orders as part of a community sentence depending on the nature of the drinking and offending. Compliance with alcohol abstinence requirements can also be monitored using transdermal alcohol monitoring devices - or alcohol monitoring tags - which are backed up with the threat of further court hearings, fines and/or imprisonment. Alcohol monitoring tags have made the headlines again more recently (November 2021 and April 2022) as these have been made available for prison leavers under Probation Service supervision 'known to reoffend after drinking' in Wales. Their use for enforcing sobriety or monitor drinking levels invites further scrutiny and debate, as further roll out is planned in England in summer 2022. Their roll out in this way is based on research demonstrating high levels of compliance with alcohol abstinence orders - in the form of sobriety. However, there is limited evidence about whether their use reduces longer term re-offending specifically, despite this being their primary objective. The current study will address this evidence gap by harnessing the potential of linked administrative court and probation data via the DataFirst programme. Making use of both cross sectional and longitudinal analysis it will explore how alcohol-related treatment or monitoring requirements are being used and whether these are reducing re-offending. For example, whether those given alcohol treatment/abstinence requirements fare better than those sentenced to prison for similar offences. The study will also assess the profile of offenders issued with such orders and for whom such these are effective to scrutinise whether these requirements are disproportionately targeted at populations along the lines of age, gender, ethnicity, and deprivation.The proposed research speaks to timely developments in the continued roll out of alcohol-monitoring tags in Wales presently and planned roll out in England in summer 2022. It also aligns squarely with the Ministry of Justice's (MOJ) areas of research interest as it will contribute key insights into how best to "reduce rates of reoffending and improve life chances". It will do so by considering what works and for whom, when it comes to interventions and programmes aimed at reducing alcohol-related (re-)offending. In exploring the efficacy of available "sentencing options, including alternatives to custody" relating to alcohol-related (re-)offending and public and practitioner confidence therein, it also speaks to the MOJ's research interest in protecting the public from harm. It also speaks to the MOJ's research interest in protecting the public from harm and links into wider debates concerning the evidence on electronic tagging/monitoring and can help inform approaches to help reduce alcohol-related crime and support rehabilitation as well as reducing rates of recall back into custody. The study will also have broader appeal to ongoing violence reduction work.