Reducing Offending and Reoffending - Call for Views

Overview

Reducing offending and reoffending remains a significant challenge for Northern Ireland, with serious and lasting impacts for victims of crime, as well as for individuals, families, communities and public services. While Northern Ireland remains one of the safest places to live in the UK, offending and repeat offending continue to cause harm, undermine community confidence and affect life chances, creating long-term social and economic costs that extend well beyond the justice system.

The Northern Ireland Executive has committed, through the Programme for Government (2024-2027) – ‘Doing What Matters Most’, to developing a new, evidence-based, cross-Executive strategy to reduce offending and reoffending in Northern Ireland.  This reflects a shared recognition that reducing offending and reoffending is not solely a justice issue, and that meaningful and sustained progress depends on coordinated action across government, alongside partners in the voluntary, community and academic sectors.

This Call for Views marks the beginning of a longer-term strategy development process. It provides an opportunity to step back, reflect on what is currently known, and consider how a future strategy should be shaped to respond more effectively to the complex and inter-connected factors that influence offending and reoffending in Northern Ireland.  Views gathered through this process will help inform the strategic direction, priorities and long-term outcomes of the strategy, ensuring it is grounded in evidence, lived experience and insights from across society.

Why your views matter

We want to capture your views, experience and evidence. We are particularly interested in what people think would make the biggest difference to reducing offending and reoffending in Northern Ireland and how we can ensure that the new strategy is focused, practical, and delivers measurable impact.  We want to understand what matters most, what evidence suggests works well or not, and what should be prioritised for further development.

Reducing offending and reoffending requires a whole of government approach. Only by working together, and by listening to people with direct experience alongside professional and academic expertise, can the Northern Ireland Executive collectively address the root causes of harmful and offending behaviour and break these cycles of harm. Your insights will help shape a strategy that is ambitious, evidence-based and grounded in the realities of life in Northern Ireland today.

To help inform the long-term strategic direction for the new strategy, we are inviting views, evidence and ideas from across society. We welcome views from individuals and organisations, including people with personal experience, or on the cusp, of contact with the criminal justice system, victims and survivors of crime, support organisations, frontline professionals, academics and researchers, and members of the public. We also welcome relevant research, data, learning from best practice, and views on what should be prioritised, what works well and where change is needed.

If you would prefer to complete the Easy Read version of this Call for Views exercise please click here.