Offending behaviour programmes: emerging evidence and implications for practice

In the past five years in England and Wales, we have seen an unprecedented drive by the Prison Service, and now the National Probation Directorate – supported by the Correctional Services Accreditation Panel ¹ – to achieve reductions in reconvictions, with the use of cognitive-behavioural programmes at the spearhead of a What Works policy agenda. The major emphasis in this agenda is the use of research and ongoing evidence-based practice to determine the type of programmes and interventions which should be prescribed and developed, the types of offenders who would be most suitable for different types of programme, and a vigorous adherence to delivery standards and high-quality delivery of these programmes and forms of intervention (Vennard et al. 1997; Underdown 1998).