ABSTRACT
The pursuit of effectiveness in the treatment and management of offenders has been one of the few observed continuities throughout the history of penal policy and practice. Over the last two decades this pursuit has centred on the question of ‘what works in reducing reoffending?’ — a perhaps inevitable consequence of spiralling prison numbers and costs, politically unacceptable reoffending rates, emerging transatlantic research evidence and, perhaps most notably, an increasingly politicised public policy arena. More recently, it might be argued that the agenda has moved on somewhat, currently turning on the question of ‘what works in offender management?’ While it needs to be acknowledged that the rise of ‘offender management’ as a bold new headline for probation services has resulted, yet again, in a significant shift in emphasis — i.e. towards the creation of ‘new and improved’ structural arrangements and increasingly standardised technologies of control — there is much evidence to suggest that the increasingly elusive goal of reducing reoffending remains central to current concerns (Blunkett 2004; Carter 2004; Home Office 2004, 2005).
