Sport and physical activity as an intervention for reintegration and resettlement
In our second Academic Insights paper for 2024, Haydn Morgan and Andrew Parker set out six key mechanisms for the effective design and implementation of sport-based criminal justice interventions, potentially leading to longer-term transformational (rather than transactional) impacts for participants.
The mechanisms highlight the benefits to be gained from adopting nuanced person-first, strengths-based approaches, and from supporting and investing in the delivery workforce. There is also a strong focus on the building of positive, supportive and trusting relationships with participants and other providers/key stakeholders, supporting the view that, at their core, probation and youth justice services are relational, collaborative and person-centred services.
"The interpersonal relationships between the recipients of sport-based interventions and those who lead and deliver them has been widely observed as the most critical mechanism to achieve positive developmental outcomes in sport and criminal justice approaches. Indeed, research highlights the vital function that effective interpersonal relationships perform in encouraging sustained engagement with sport-based interventions, whilst providing a platform, built on trust and mutual respect, upon which broader developmental activity is based".
The Academic Insights paper can be accessed here: