Evaluation of a residential adolescent sex offender program

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Author

Dr Venezia Kingi and Dr Jeremy Robertson

Speaker

Dr Venezia Kingi and Dr Jeremy Robertson

Organisation

Crime and Justice Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington

Te Poutama Rangatahi Arahi (TPAR) is a national residential program for male adolescent sex offenders aged between 12 and 17 years of age. It is based in Christchurch, has a capacity of 12 beds, and each individual program lasts between 18 months and 2 years. Although the residence is owned by the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services (CYF) it is run by Barnardo's, under contract to CYF. TPAR began operation in 1999 and in 2001 Child, Youth and Family contracted the Crime and Justice Research Centre at Victoria University to undertake a process and impact evaluation of the program.

This presentation will outline the general evaluation methodology and present some preliminary findings from the ongoing evaluation. We will describe the characteristics and background of the youth who have entered the residence so far, and the rate of retention of those youth in the programme. We will then present the youths impressions ofthe programme and the residence, for example their expectations of TPAR, their induction into the programme, and their experience of the programme (including the residential, educational and therapeutic elements).

Presentation

Paper

Biography

Dr Venezia Kingi is a Senior Research Fellow at the Crime and Justice Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington. She has particular expertise in qualitative research and managing and conducting evaluations. She also has extensive experience of interviewing involving sensitive topics. She has worked on projects related to women in prison, family violence, youth justice, youth offending, and restorative justice. She is currently involved in the evaluation of Te Poutama Arahi Rangatahi, with Dr Jeremy Robertson, a Senior Research Fellow at the McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families, at Victoria University. Jeremy has particular expertise in data management and analysis and also has extensive experience in youth justice research and research relating to families/whanau and children.