ABSTRACT
A wide-range of voluntary organisations, national and local, have historically campaigned for legal and penal reform, and provided services to offenders; more recently, it is through voluntary organisations that the voice of crime victims has impacted a little on policy-making. Fear of crime is high, even among old people who are statistically less likely to be victims of it; for this the media are largely responsible. Specialist residential provision for young offenders in England and Wales was created in the mid-nineteenth century, a specialist prison for 16-21 year olds in 1907 and a specialist Juvenile Court in 1908. In the interests of creating safer communities, effectiveness and its counterparts in managerial discourse, efficiency and economy, are now the watchwords of crime policy in Britain, and serious efforts are being made to ensure that all policy and practice, in prisons, probation and the crime prevention field are all research-based, and thereafter, evidence-led.
