Courts are left to sentence intoxicated offenders accordingly. In England and Wales, courts may make use of Alcohol Treatment Requirements and/or Alcohol Abstinence and Monitoring Requirements as part of a community sentence, depending on the nature of the drinking and offending.
This research aimed to address the evidence gap to better understand how alcohol treatment and abstinence requirements are used. This hoped to further understanding of the offenders’ behaviours, based on key characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity), type of offences committed, and their impact on reoffending.
The £114.4k project was awarded £91.5k from Administrative Data Research (ADR) UK and will run from January – December 2023. Dr Carly Lightowlers, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Liverpool, is the Principal Investigator. The project used linked court and probation data made available through the Ministry of Justice Data First programme.
Despite the rapid adoption of abstinence requirements, there has been no evaluation as to whether these reduce reoffending long term. Their continued roll-out is based on research demonstrating high levels of compliance with abstinence requirements – in the form of sobriety. However, there is limited evidence about whether their use reduces longer term reoffending, despite this being their primary objective.
Given the considerable social and economic costs associated with alcohol-related crime, the project’s insights will contribute to understanding of how to effectively respond to this problem.
Find out more
- Read the 'Enforced alcohol abstinence: does it reduce reoffending?' blog on ADR UK
- Listen to the Institute of Alcohol Studies 'Home Drinking is a Major Contributor to Alcohol-related Violence' podcast episode
- Further detail of the study and methodology deployed can be found on OSF Registries
- View Dr Carly Lightowlers' staff profile
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