'Practice' journal: Policing and Corrections

The Department of Corrections journal 'Practice', launched in 2013, is designed for people working professionally with offenders. The latest volume of Practice (April 2014) includes the following articles relevant to family violence:

Developing a world class family violence programme for New Zealand by Mark Hutton (Manager) and Danielle Kallil (Senior Advisor), Department of Corrections Rehabilitation Interventions Design and Support

This article discusses the development, design and implementation of the new Corrections programme for male family violence offenders. The programme was developed using a risk, needs and responsivity model. It comprises 26 sessions over 60 hours for community offenders who are considered at a low to low-moderate risk of reoffending. The article discusses the upcoming programme pilot during 2014/15 which will focus on improving completion rates, building provider capability (through a training model) and ensuring offender accessibility to the programme. A real-time evaluation is to be conducted alongside the pilot.

Read the previous Clearinghouse news story on the new programme and the latest Better Public Services results from Ministry of Justice.

Prevention first and victims at the centre – NZ Police’s journey to reduce victimisation by Inspector Fiona Prestidge, New Zealand Police Victim Focus

This article discusses New Zealand Police's implementation of the Victim Focus Framework, launched in 2011. It states,

"The traditional police response to victims is liable to be one size fits all. A victim reports a crime, police investigate and resolve. The offender moves to ‘centre stage’ and remains there throughout the offender centric criminal justice system. Putting the victim at the centre turns the police response into a problem-solving one, addressing risks of repeat victimisation, regardless of the course of investigation and case resolution."

The framework has a target of reducing repeat victimisation by 18% in three years by enhancing the quality of service to victims. The article discusses the framework, the three levels of response NZ Police provide to victims and identifies ongoing challenges.

The journal is free to access on the Department of Corrections website.