ABSTRACT
This chapter describes an experimental programme which has attempted to apply cognitive-behavioural methods in supervision of male offenders on probation, and to present some information about its results. The programme, known as STOP, represented the first systematic attempt to provide and evaluate a cognitive-behavioural programme for persistent offenders in the context of British probation service. The STOP programme, which is based on the Reasoning and Rehabilitation programme developed by Robert Ross and his colleagues in Canada, was established in the Mid-Glamorgan Probation Service. Helping probation officers to move from innovative but arbitrarily applied practice to implementing consistently a predetermined programme within an evaluative framework required a change in the culture of the organisation, and this in turn demanded detailed and meticulous preparation and organisation. As in the original Canadian probation experiment, an important aspect of the evaluation of the STOP programme has been a reconviction study of those passing through it compared with broadly similar male offenders receiving other sentences.
