What Else Works? Creative Work with Offenders

This book has developed out of a growing awareness amongst practitioners that centralized notions of what works and one size fits all approaches to work with offenders and other groups is inevitably limited in its scope and effectiveness. This realisation reopens the door on what works, with whom and in what circumstances, i.e. the idea that successful intervention can come from a number of different approaches, linked to individual difference. The book as a whole argues that it may be unhelpful to continually think of probation service users as 'offenders' and socially excluded people as 'problems' to be managed and treated and seeks to consider more creative alternatives to reduce both re-offending and social exclusion, for example in working separately with women, black and minority ethnic groups, local community-focussed projects, in education and nature and conservation programmes. The reader is encouraged to think about past and current policy, practice and the relationship b

What Else Works? has developed out of a growing awareness amongst practitioners that centralized notions of what works and ‘one size fits all’ approaches to work with offenders and other groups is inevitably limited in its scope and effectiveness. The book seeks to dispel the view of probation service users as 'offenders', and socially excluded people as 'problems' to be managed and treated, and instead considers more creative alternatives to reduce both re-offending and social exclusion. These include working separately with women, black and minority ethnic groups, local community-focussed projects, in education and nature and conservation programmes. The reader is encouraged to think about past and current policy, practice, and the relationship between practitioners and offenders or other socially excluded people. Questions are raised as to whether, and how, practice could be different and contributors explore the theme of creative and change-focussed practice or focus on a particular approach to a practice. This book will appeal to students on criminal justice, criminology and social work courses, professionals operating in these fields as well as the wider audience of professionals and academics who may engage with these ‘service users’ from a range of policy and practice perspectives.

Part I 1. Introduction byFrancis Cowe, Jo Brayford and John Deering 2. Creative Work: An Historical Perspective byMaurice Vanstone 3. Travelling Hopefully: Desistance Theory and Probation Practice byBeth Weaver and Fergus McNeill 4. Bringing Sense and Sensitivity to Corrections: from Programmes to 'Fix' Offenders to Services to Support Desistance byFrank J. Porporino Part II 5. Women Offenders: More Troubled than Troublesome? byJenny Roberts 6. Residential Work with Adult Offenders: Greenhouses or Warehouses? byFrancis Cowe and Sally Cherry 7. Creative Working with Minority Ethnic Offenders byPauline Durrance, Liz Dixon and Hindpal Singh Bhui 8. Asset-based Welfare and Youth Justice: Making it Local byMark Drakeford and Lee Gregory 9. Dancing through Gaps: a Welsh Approach to Personal Support in Custody for Young People byJo Brayford and Duncan Holtom 10. Contemporary Sex Offender Treatment: Incorporating the Circles of Support and Good Lives Model byMark S. Carich, Chris Wilson, Peter A. Carich and Martin C. Calder 11. Getting Out: Offenders in Forestry and Conservation Work Settings byClaudia Carter and Aaron Pycroft 12. Putting the OM into NOMS: Problems and Possibilities for Offender Management byMike Maguire and Peter Raynor 13. What Else Works - Back to the Future? byJo Brayford, Francis Cowe and John Deering

Jo Brayford is the Criminal and Community Justice Subject Leader at the University of Wales, Newport. She has recently completed a project with Working Links (unemployment, drug misuse) and am currently evaluating a project funded by the Home Office but operational through Newport City Council that aims to reduce alcohol related violence in Newport city centre. John Deering is Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Wales, Newport. His research interests focus on the criminal justice system, in particular theprobation service, and heis alsoa founder of the Welsh Centre for Crime and Social Justice.