Evaluation of Community Payback Orders, Criminal Justice Social Work Reports and the Presumption Against Short Sentences

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, we would like to thank all those who took part in interviews and provided data for this evaluation - including Criminal Justice Social Work managers and staff, Sheriffs, professionals from other practitioner groups (including Addictions workers, Mental Health professionals, professionals from third sector Drug and Alcohol Services, Sheriff Clerks and representatives of voluntary sector organisations) and offenders subject to a CPO.

Thanks also to our 'contact people' in each of the case study areas for their role in coordinating the interviews.

Our thanks are also due to our specialist fieldwork manager Irene Miller for her interviewing skills, Lesley Birse who helped set up the interviews and Shanna Dowling and Anna Marcinkiewicz for their assistance in coding and analysing the data.

We would also like to thank Sacha Rawlence, Carole Edwards, Neil Robertson, Karen Nelson, Ian Clark and Alan Fleming from the Scottish Government as well the members of the Research Advisory Group for their advice and feedback during the course of the evaluation.

We are also grateful to all the participants who attended and contributed to the Validation Event towards the end of the evaluation.

These reports - and all opinions expressed herein - are the sole responsibility of the authors.