ABSTRACT

At first sight the subject of this chapter, depending on how it is labelled, might be perceived as either passé or as highly salient to present practice. If the chosen title had referred to ‘counselling’ or ‘casework’ of offenders or had alluded to the slogan ‘advise, assist and befriend’, each of which are fair descriptions of issues in the following discussion, then there was a danger of immediately losing the interest of many readers. Such labels were commonly used in the past to describe probation work and therefore might reasonably be construed as referring to methods that have been consigned to history. If instead the rubric selected for the chapter heading had included either of two current buzzwords, ‘motivational interviewing’ or ‘pro-social modelling’ – and each of these would also accurately label some of the chapter’s content – then it likely would have raised expectations of a discussion that is forward-looking and relevant. Let me hasten to emphasise therefore that what follows is orientated to contemporary issues in offender management services. Yet, in the manner of the French proverb II faut reculer pour mieux sauter, sometimes it is valuable to step back in order to leap forward and, in this spirit, the chapter will reconsider one-to-one practice in the past with a view to present and future advances. I will be referring primarily to probation practice, but the issues are equally relevant to youth justice work and, more broadly, to the newly named National Offender Management Services (NOMS).