ABSTRACT
Home Office research suggests that 10 per cent of offenders (approximately 100,000 people) are committing half of all crime in England and Wales at any point in time (Home Office 2001). It is in this context that we focus in this chapter on intensive projects for prolific/persistent offenders. The Carter Report, published in December 2003, recommended targeted and rigorous sentences, specifying for ‘persistent’ offenders not only greater control and surveillance, but also help to reduce their offending. This duality has been a feature of recent intensive projects and, given the Labour administration's enthusiastic response to the report (Blunkett 2004), intensive projects for prolific/persistent offenders are likely to maintain their current high profile. Yet these projects in their current incarnation are resource-intensive, potentially expensive and largely unproven. At the same time they represent an imaginative and alternative opportunity for the effective management of this specific group of offenders, whom agencies commonly have difficulties in engaging.
