About
Earlier Research
The Evidence Library is intended to build on a previous literature review, commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Offenders’ Learning and Skills Unit at the Department for Education and Skills and Arts Council England.
2002
An informal think tank, Research into Arts and Criminal Justice (REACTT), was established in 2002, as a partnership between the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Offenders’ Learning and Skills Unit at the Department for Education and Skills and Arts Council England, which brought together representatives from the key government departments and agencies, with the major players in the arts and criminal justice sector. its aims were:
• establish partnership research in the arts in criminal justice sector
• develop a research programme to distil high quality evidence of outcomes from arts interventions in criminal justice settings
• feed the results of research back into the development of a coherent evaluation framework for arts activities in criminal justice settings.
As part of that informal partnership, a three-part research plan was designed to strengthen the evidence base for the arts as an effective medium in offender rehabilitation and a series of studies and reviews were commissioned.
2005
In 2005 'Doing the Arts Justice' was published as a significant literature review with a clear account of the current evidence and theory base for the arts in the criminal justice sector to inform both practitioners and policy makers.
2006
The second stage involved a Research Feasibility Study published in 2006, based on a number of case study reviews of effective arts-focused research, including:
Contextual and Practical Issues
Design and Implementation of Research Methods
Project Outcomes and Impacts.
2008
The Arts Alliance was created with support from the Ministry of Justice, Arts Council England, and The Monument Trust, to strengthen the work of the Arts in Criminal Justice sector by:
Influencing policy and increasing political awareness of the arts as a means to engage and assist rehabilitation
Representing the views and needs of the sector
Building partnerships and brokering relationships between public bodies and voluntary organisations
Providing guidance, training and professional development that supports artists, organisations, and those with whom they work.
2010
The Arts Alliance commissioned The Evidence Library as part of its plan for 'Making the Case for the Arts'. It built on the previous literature review in 2005 and updated information on the key evaluations and research since 2003. The report was published in 2011 and one of its recommendations was for a searchable, online library.
2012
The Arts Alliance developed the searchable, online Evidence Library, which currently houses over 70 independent evaluations from 30 arts organisations and lists the findings from over 25 academic insitutions who have undertaken or been commissioned evalautions of arts-based approaches to working in the Criminal Justice System in the UK.
