Peer mentoring in the criminal justice system
Why read this evidence review?
This evidence review provides an in-depth look at peer mentoring in the criminal justice system. Peer mentoring involves community members, often with lived experience of criminal justice, working or volunteering in helping relationships and is now integral to the delivery of most services in the criminal justice system.
Dr. Gill Buck, Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Chester, reviews the current evidence base – to which she is an important contributor – and covers a number of key issues:
How peer mentoring can:
- Help people to leave crime behind
- Connect them with services and employment opportunities
- Facilitate consciousness raising and collective system-reform efforts
- The barriers to effective peer mentoring and how to plan for and minimise these.
She also reviews the effectiveness of peer mentoring in promoting desistance to help
voluntary organisations who are required to evidence reductions in reoffending.
An online evidence base for the voluntary sector working in the criminal justice system
This article forms part of a series from Clinks, created to develop a far-reaching and accessible evidence base covering the most common types of activity undertaken within the criminal justice system. There are two main aims of this online series:
- To increase the extent to which the voluntary sector bases its services on the available evidence base
- To encourage commissioners to award contracts to organisations delivering an evidence-based approach.
Each article has been written by a leading academic with particular expertise on the topic in question. The topics are selected by Clinks’ members as areas of priority interest. Clinks intends to build a comprehensive directory of the best evidence available across a wide range of criminal justice topics within the next three years (2020-2023). The online evidence base is co-ordinated by Russell Webster on behalf of Clinks.
Click here to find out more about the Evidence library.
Want to find out more about this topic?
Part of the 'A matter of fact: what the evidence tells us' series, to accompany our Evidence library, Clinks is giving you the chance to hear from the experts themselves. Dr Gillian Buck discusses the latest evidence on how peer mentoring can help people to leave crime behind, connect them with services and employment opportunities, and facilitate consciousness raising and collective system-reform efforts.
Watch the video recording below: