According to Home Office research, criminal behaviour costs the UK around £60 billion every year.
The economic and social cost of re-offending in England and Wales is about £18 billion per year.
How do we help?
CASS+ is a low-cost, court-based service that helps to reduce the risk of re-offending by…
- … understanding the underlying reasons behind someone’s behaviour.
- … helping someone to deal with these root causes.
- … helping them access opportunities: therapies; community work; volunteering; recovery; education; training; and employment.
When we reach out with compassion and take the time to listen, we can guide people towards positive futures.
Understanding the root causes of harmful behaviour
We recommend listening to a podcast called Behind the Crime on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. Sally Tilt and Dr Kerensa Hocken are forensic psychologists who work in prisons. Their role is to help people look at the harm they’ve caused, understand why it happened and work out how to help them make changes to prevent further harm after they’ve been released.
Duewaine
The psychologists dig deep into Duewaine’s past to understand the sequence of influences that led him to repeated imprisonment for hundreds, possibly thousands, of robberies. We find out how these patterns of behaviour were formed as he went from a child who was a promising footballer to committing prolific crimes and wasting around 20 years of his life in prison.
There’s an unusual twist when the kindness and compassion of health professionals made Duewaine re-think his life and transform into the reliable, devoted father we meet today.
David
Another episode tells us about David who went from fraud to prison and now lives a moral and honest life. On paper, interviewees for Behind the Crime look like they were motivated by financial gain, but money played a minor part. Below the surface, you could find pride or shame as the reason for a crime:
More often than not, people use the offence to achieve something else. Unless we understand what that motivation is, we don’t know where to start to change that behaviour and the way they look at the world.
How we reduce the risk of re-offending
Inside the Magistrates’ Courts in Newton Abbot, Plymouth, Bodmin and Truro, we listen carefully so that each person gets tailored support and access to answers.
With the right help, anyone can reach their potential. This is why we will never give up working towards safe communities where everyone can thrive.
Huge thanks to Sally Tilt and Dr Kerensa Hocken for their helpful and inspiring insights. We’re looking forward to learning more from the duo later this year.