Rugby as a rehabilitation program in a United Kingdom male young offenders' institution: key findings and implications from mixed methods research

There is a growing body of research on the effectiveness of rehabilitation programmes in a Young Offenders’ Institution (YOI). The aim of the present study is to investigate the effectiveness of Rugby training as a rehabilitation intervention in a YOI in the UK. Young adult males (n = 46) currently serving sentences at the YOI were split into two groups, intervention (n = 25, mean age = 19.64, SD = 0.81) and no intervention (n = 21, mean age = 19.76, SD = 0.89). Participants completed the Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA) instrument (Mills et al., 2002) pre and post intervals at three different time cycles across an 8 week period. Additionally, qualitative interviews (one to one and focus groups) were carried out with the intervention and no intervention groups during the same cycles of the study. The results of questionnaire analysis showed no significant difference in MCAA measures taken before and after Rugby intervention. Interestingly, the intervention group showed more pro-criminal attitudes on their responses compared to the no intervention group. Finally, analysis of the 3 cycles of data collected showed that the time of the year the questionnaire was completed has a significant impact on the responses given. In contrast, the qualitative interviews showed a very positive change of attitude towards rehabilitation from the intervention group after Rugby training. The implications of the results in relation to studies aimed at evaluation of the intervention programmes in YOI are discussed.

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