Managing offenders and reducing crime: government responses to persistent offenders and the development of the National Offender Management Service

Central government develops policies on crime reduction and in an ideal world those policies should be framed within the context of well-tested

criminological theory. This does not always happen for at least two reasons. First, the field of criminological theory is beset with contradictory approaches and findings and it is often difficult to point to any one approach with confidence. Second, even if one accepts a particular criminological theory with confidence, it does not necessarily follow that policy makers will embrace that theory within either policy or legislation. This has significant implications in determining how to deal with crime more generally and criminals more specifically.