I think one of the key areas that has taken on board evidence based
practice is the field of criminal justice. The probation service now
talks the language of 'what works' and 'effective practice'. I would
argue that the psychologists have taken over the shop with cognitive
based therapy. For the sake of programme integrity, identical
programmes are to be delivered throughout England and Wales,
ignoring ethnic and other differences. New Drug Treatment and
Testing Orders are being rolled out nationally without sufficient
research on their effectiveness.
It has led to the rejection of a social work base for work with
offenders, as risk assessment and risk management has taken
precedence. The language of probation work with offenders has also
become that of administering punishment ie the probation service is
now the only criminal justice agency charged with this task. However
the evidence based work with offenders masks other changes,
National Standards 2000, the third version, ensures that individual
probation officers have less discretion on issues of compliance to
orders, the probation service has just become a national organisation
with a national director. Look on the Home Office website
(homeoffice.gov.uk) and check on probation and the probation
inspectorate thematic reports. There are (long) papers on effective
practice and what works, but as mentioned these are not linked to the
changing nature of enforcement.
Tony Goodman
Dr Tony Goodman
Middlesex University
School of Social Science
Queensway
Enfield
EN3 4SF
Middlesex
England
U.K.
Telephone +44 (0)208 362 5568
Fax +44 (0)208 362 5425
EMail [log in to unmask]
|