Introduction

This book is unusual in at least three ways. The first and simplest of these is that it is a sort of ‘unofficial’ sequel to an earlier collection entitled Offender Supervision: New Directions in Theory, Research and Practice (McNeill et al., 2010b). While it returns to some of the studies reported in that collection and has some of the same contributors, it has been compiled by a different editorial team and has a quite different structure, focus and range of papers. Nonetheless, it shares with that collection a basic desire and commitment to root the improvement of penal practice in a better understanding of penal practice, more of which below.