Enforced alcohol abstinence: does it reduce reoffending?

Whilst there has been intense focus on illicit drugs and associated violence in crime policy in recent years, alcohol is used to a greater degree and implicated in many more crimes, especially those of violence. Courts are left to sentence intoxicated offenders accordingly. In so doing, they may make use of alcohol treatment requirements and/or abstinence orders as part of a community sentence depending on the nature of the drinking and offending. Compliance with alcohol abstinence requirements can also be monitored using transdermal alcohol monitoring devices - or alcohol monitoring tags - which are backed up with the threat of further court hearings, fines and/or imprisonment. Alcohol monitoring tags have made the headlines again more recently (November 2021 and April 2022) as these have been made available for prison leavers under Probation Service supervision 'known to reoffend after drinking' in Wales. Their use for enforcing sobriety or monitor drinking levels invites further scrutiny and debate, as further roll out is planned in England in summer 2022.

Their roll out in this way is based on research demonstrating high levels of compliance with alcohol abstinence orders - in the form of sobriety. However, there is limited evidence about whether their use reduces longer term re-offending specifically, despite this being their primary objective. The current study will address this evidence gap by harnessing the potential of linked administrative court and probation data via the DataFirst programme. Making use of both cross sectional and longitudinal analysis it will explore how alcohol-related treatment or monitoring requirements are being used and whether these are reducing re-offending. For example, whether those given alcohol treatment/abstinence requirements fare better than those sentenced to prison for similar offences. The study will also assess the profile of offenders issued with such orders and for whom such these are effective to scrutinise whether these requirements are disproportionately targeted at populations along the lines of age, gender, ethnicity, and deprivation.

The proposed research speaks to timely developments in the continued roll out of alcohol-monitoring tags in Wales presently and planned roll out in England in summer 2022. It also aligns squarely with the Ministry of Justice's (MOJ) areas of research interest as it will contribute key insights into how best to "reduce rates of reoffending and improve life chances". It will do so by considering what works and for whom, when it comes to interventions and programmes aimed at reducing alcohol-related (re-)offending. In exploring the efficacy of available "sentencing options, including alternatives to custody" relating to alcohol-related (re-)offending and public and practitioner confidence therein, it also speaks to the MOJ's research interest in protecting the public from harm. It also speaks to the MOJ's research interest in protecting the public from harm and links into wider debates concerning the evidence on electronic tagging/monitoring and can help inform approaches to help reduce alcohol-related crime and support rehabilitation as well as reducing rates of recall back into custody. The study will also have broader appeal to ongoing violence reduction work.