Diversions from the criminal justice system in London

Why we funded this 

Diversion is an approach aimed at preventing reoffending, by finding alternatives to formal criminal justice proceedings for people that have committed first time or less serious crimes. Diversion programs have shown promising results in reducing reoffending, with evidence suggesting that formal involvement in the criminal justice system, such as court proceedings or incarceration, increase the likelihood, frequency, and severity of future offences. Yet most studies on the impact of diversions come from the USA. Few recent studies in the UK have explored the effects of diversion, and many existing studies lack rigor. This is in part hampered by limited data on who gets diverted. For example, the Youth Justice Board only recently began collecting and publishing aggregate data on diverted young people. This leaves gaps in our understanding about the prevalence and use of diversions, the profile of young people diverted, the support they receive, and the impact diversions has on outcomes such reoffending. 

What are the main research questions 

The aim of this research is to examine which children and young people are diverted from the criminal justice system and what their impact is on reoffending.  

The main questions this project sets out to answer, are: 

• Can police data and youth justice data be linked to improve our understanding and monitoring of who gets diverted from the criminal justice system and what support they receive?  

• How many and which children and young people get diverted, and how do they compare to those who aren’t? Is there any variation across London boroughs? 

• What is the relationship between diversions and reoffending, and which types of diversion are most effective at reducing reoffending? 

What the analysis involves 

This project is using several different datasets provided by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) – including data on children and young people stopped and search and arrested, and the outcomes they receive – and London based Youth Offending Teams (YOTs), including the types of support they receive. These datasets will be combined to provide estimates of the number of children diverted and how this varies by children’s backgrounds and characteristics (e.g. location, ethnicity, gender, pattern and nature of previous offending etc.). The project will also test the feasibility of alternative approaches for estimating the causal impact of alternative diversion pathways on children and young people’s reoffending. This project is additionally exploring the nature and profile of children involved in knife crime. 

Please refer to the analytical protocol for more details. 

Key conclusions 

This project is still ongoing. Please return for future updates.