Operation Turning Point: Lessons for Leadership, Implementation, and Translation into Operational Practice in Policing

• In Event: Evidence-Based Crime Policy I

Abstract

A key part of the Turning Point randomised trial was the challenge of maintaining consistent treatment, tailored to individual offenders, across a three-year field trial. In the 20 police involved pre-court diversion trials since 1950, treatment integrity was a significant problem with eligibility screening, covert reassignment and treatment failures being a frequent and serious compromise to the trials. Likewise, studies of pre-court diversion in operational practice have found weak and consistent implementation. The findings from the approach developed in the Turning Point trial suggest that there are a set of strategies which are capable of delivering both reliable experiments and effective operational implementation.

Author

• Peter Neyroud, University of Cambridge