Evidence Library
The Evidence Library is hosted by the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance (NCJAA). It holds key and current research on the impact of arts and culture interventions in the criminal justice system.
Independent, academic evaluations in the online library cover various arts programmes delivered across a range of criminal justice settings. The evaluations highlight positive outcomes for participants and collectively, make the case for arts in criminal justice.
In 2011 the NCJAA published a research report to build on an earlier literature review commissioned by Arts Council England, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (now the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) and the Offender Learning and Skills Unit (now Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service). On the report’s recommendations, an online catalogue of the research, the Evidence Library, was launched in 2012.
In 2013, the Evidence Library received a Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) Arts and Health Award. The website was redeveloped in 2020 and the Evidence Library relaunched with new evaluations from outside of England and Wales, to reflect the progress of the international arts and criminal justice sector.
This resource is for anyone measuring the impact of creative work in prisons and community settings, and will be of interest to people wishing to make the case for arts in criminal justice.
Organisations planning to evaluate their own work and interested in reading current research or finding experienced researchers
Criminal justice professionals looking for arts organisations or researching individual institutions
Arts organisations looking for evidence of specific art forms or groups
Funding applicants looking for supporting evidence
Academics and students looking for key texts and references.
The Evidence Library can be browsed in a number of ways.
Explore the Evidence Library by filtering through various tags and finding evaluations that fit the selected criteria. For example, this function could be used to pull out any quantitative analysis of dance projects with young people.
Search the Evidence Library and all evaluations for key words, names or phrases.
All evaluations - scroll through the Evidence Library, starting with most recent evaluations.
Organisations - find out more about the organisations, agencies and institutions listed in the Evidence Library and see their associated evaluations and other resources.
Bookmark searches and evaluations to return to later.
Other resources - browse a bibliography of related journal articles, papers, reports, books and toolkits covering arts in criminal justice.
The Evidence Library only contains evaluations of arts and culture practice in criminal justice settings that have been independently undertaken by academic institutions, research organisations or individual researchers. It does not include evaluations carried out internally, evaluations of an organisation’s aims and objectives, or reports for funders.
Although a majority of research is based in England, the Evidence Library accepts all international research. Evaluations published in the years 2003 to 2012 are comprehensively covered, with ongoing uploads covering the latest submitted research.
Links to related articles, papers, reports, books and toolkits are listed under Other Resources.
The Evidence Library welcomes new research.
If you have an evaluation you would like to submit for inclusion, please contact info@artsincriminaljustice.org.uk to request a criteria form.
The NCJAA is a national network and Arts Council England National Portfolio Sector Support Organisation promoting arts and culture in criminal justice settings as a springboard to positive change.
The NCJAA's vision is to ensure all those with an experience of the criminal justice system can engage with creative opportunities. Its purpose is to promote effective practice, undertake and showcase specialist work and research, provide opportunities for skills, knowledge and network development, raise the profile of the sector, inform related policy and build sector sustainability and resilience. The NCJAA represents a network of over 900 individuals and organisations and supports all art forms across prison, probation and community settings.
Find out more: www.artsincriminaljustice.org.uk
The NCJAA is managed by Clinks, the national infrastructure organisation supporting voluntary sector organisations working in the criminal justice system.
Find out more: www.clinks.org
The NCJAA is supported by:
National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance
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