Policy Analysis: Elite Interviews and Early Policy Documents

Abstract

In the introduction to this book, two key questions were posed for empirical analysis: first, what was the nature and extent of the role played by preceding preventive orders in the formulation of the SCPO? And second, did decision-makers knowingly formulate the SCPO and other preventive orders as part of a broader goal to foster an alternative system of preventive justice? While the previous chapter demonstrated the true extent of similarity between the SCPO and pre-existing variants of the preventive order model, a number of questions remain about the function of transfer: for example, was there a decision made to transfer, and if so, by whom? When did transfer take place? Why did the transfer occur? The nature of policy transfer is explored in this chapter, as well as the extent to which decision-makers held broader preventive intentions to reform the criminal justice system. To address these questions, this chapter presents insights from the interviews conducted with key policy and decision-makers involved in developing the SCPO (responses of those sampled from the population of actors presented in Chapter 5, Section 5.3.2.3, Figure 5.1). Where relevant, this account is also supported by an analysis of policy documents from the Home Office and SOCA about the origins and use of the SCPO. In addition to addressing these two primary research questions, these sources of data provided some further general findings as a result of analyses of interviewees’ accounts about the key stages in policy development, as well as documentation containing a description of the actual use of the SCPO in the UK (such as the current number of orders in place and the types of conditions currently imposed).¹