The evidence base.

Abstract

The practice of working with offenders has evolved over many years, from an approach of rescuing the fallen, to what has most recently become known as ‘what works’ and ‘effective practice’. This chapter will briefly consider the impact of these changes and the evaluations of practice that have been made over time. This evaluation will focus on probation practice, as throughout its long history the probation service, latterly as the National Probation Service and now as part of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), has been the key organisation in terms of offering sustained intervention to reduce offending. It will be argued that the evidence base for much of what has gone on is complex and contentious. In the long-term the service will need to rediscover some of the good practice initiatives that have been lost. This is particularly true with respect to anti-discriminatory practice issues. The need for training for probation professionals is not in doubt. Working with common sense or nous is no substitute for having an underpinning set of theories or rationale for good practice and this is considered in relation to effective practice.