In the UK there has been growing concern about the relationship between levels of alcohol consumption and offending behaviour. The Alcohol Treatment Requirement (ATR) was introduced to the UK in 2007 and was piloted in a District in the north of England in July 2007. The ATR is a coercive form of treatment delivered jointly by the probation service and the National Health Service (NHS) and was funded by the NHS. The ATR centres on supporting offenders to cease their offending behaviour and reduce or end their alcohol misuse. Two female alcohol treatment workers have been appointed to specifically deliver the ATR. Therefore this study aimed to investigate the delivery of the ATR, and more specifically, aimed to explore what impact the ATR might have in relation to positive behaviour change and rehabilitation for offenders with alcohol problems. In order to meet the expectations of producing 'outcome' data for the NHS funders, and indepth theoretical data worthy of an academic PhD, this research took a pragmatic methodological approach which enabled different social realities of the ATR to be explored. To this end, a mixed methods design was employed involving quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. The data for this research was generated in three phases with Phase One aiming to explore quantitatively the characteristics, impacts and outcomes of those sentenced to the ATR. This phase revealed that the ATR is being delivered to predominantly young, male, alcohol dependent, violent, persistent offenders. This analysis further revealed that the ATR was effective in bringing about positive treatment outcomes and in reducing reoffending. In order to explore further how this positive change was occurring, Phase Two consisted of qualitative participant observations of the treatment interaction involving the female alcohol treatment workers and the male offenders. By drawing on positioning theory, the analysis considered the complexity of the gendered interactions that occurred during these encounters. It was found that the two female alcohol treatment workers resisted positions of 'feminine carer' offered up by these young men in order to occupy positions of control. Indeed this analysis provided great insight into the constant flow of negotiations and manoeuvring of positions that occurred between the alcohol treatment worker and the offender, argued to be vitally important in working towards positive behaviour change. During Phase Three ten offenders were interviewed in order to explore through a dialogical lens (Bakhtin, 1982) how they constructed and experienced treatment on the ATR. In exploring the offenders' stories dialogically, the analysis highlighted how the ATR was enabling, in that it offered a 'space' for these offenders to engage and internalise a dialogue that draws on the authoritative voice of therapy. Therefore it was revealed that through dialogue with the 'other', offenders were able to re-author a more 'moral' and 'worthy' self. Moreover, the ATR has been found to be successful in enabling the offenders' hegemonic masculine identities to be both challenged and protected as a result of the multilayered interactions that occurred during these treatment encounters. This research therefore concludes that coercive treatment, rather than being a concern, should be embraced as a way of enabling change for offenders with alcohol problems. Furthermore, this research has highlighted the value of the relational aspect of treatment in bringing about positive behaviour changes. Finally this research has shown that community sentences offer a more constructive way of engaging with offenders than those who receive a custodial sentence.

In the UK there has been growing concern about the relationship between levels of alcohol consumption and offending behaviour. The Alcohol Treatment Requirement (ATR) was introduced to the UK in 2007 and was piloted in a District in the north of England in July 2007. The ATR is a coercive form of treatment delivered jointly by the probation service and the National Health Service (NHS) and was funded by the NHS. The ATR centres on supporting offenders to cease their offending behaviour and reduce or end their alcohol misuse. Two female alcohol treatment workers have been appointed to specifically deliver the ATR. Therefore this study aimed to investigate the delivery of the ATR, and more specifically, aimed to explore what impact the ATR might have in relation to positive behaviour change and rehabilitation for offenders with alcohol problems. In order to meet the expectations of producing ¿outcome¿ data for the NHS funders, and indepth theoretical data worthy of an academic PhD, this research took a pragmatic methodological approach which enabled different social realities of the ATR to be explored. To this end, a mixed methods design was employed involving quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. The data for this research was generated in three phases with Phase One aiming to explore quantitatively the characteristics, impacts and outcomes of those sentenced to the ATR. This phase revealed that the ATR is being delivered to predominantly young, male, alcohol dependent, violent, persistent offenders. This analysis further revealed that the ATR was effective in bringing about positive treatment outcomes and in reducing reoffending. In order to explore further how this positive change was occurring, Phase Two consisted of qualitative participant observations of the treatment interaction involving the female alcohol treatment workers and the male offenders. By drawing on positioning theory, the analysis considered the complexity of the gendered interactions that occurred during these encounters. It was found that the two female alcohol treatment workers resisted positions of ¿feminine carer¿ offered up by these young men in order to occupy positions of control. Indeed this analysis provided great insight into the constant flow of negotiations and manoeuvring of positions that occurred between the alcohol treatment worker and the offender, argued to be vitally important in working towards positive behaviour change. During Phase Three ten offenders were interviewed in order to explore through a dialogical lens (Bakhtin, 1982) how they constructed and experienced treatment on the ATR. In exploring the offenders¿ stories dialogically, the analysis highlighted how the ATR was enabling, in that it offered a ¿space¿ for these offenders to engage and internalise a dialogue that draws on the authoritative voice of therapy. Therefore it was revealed that through dialogue with the ¿other¿, offenders were able to re-author a more ¿moral¿ and ¿worthy¿ self. Moreover, the ATR has been found to be successful in enabling the offenders¿ hegemonic masculine identities to be both challenged and protected as a result of the multilayered interactions that occurred during these treatment encounters. This research therefore concludes that coercive treatment, rather than being a concern, should be embraced as a way of enabling change for offenders with alcohol problems. Furthermore, this research has highlighted the value of the relational aspect of treatment in bringing about positive behaviour changes. Finally this research has shown that community sentences offer a more constructive way of engaging with offenders than those who receive a custodial sentence.

The term criminal career is used to describe the course or progress of criminal activity: its onset, duration, termination, severity, and change in severity. Such a term has important implications, given that significant criminal justice, social, and health policies such as crime control, parole, and correctional treatment and management are predicated on achieving the reduction of criminal careers of serious, repeat offenders. Despite its conceptual simplicity, however, criminal career is often treated as having no depth or scope, for example, merely as the number of crimes or length of prison sentence. These indices often give no or little consideration to criminal career parameters and tend to account for only a small portion of the construct of criminal careers. Ideally, a simple metric to measure the onset, duration, termination, severity, and change in severity of a pattern of criminal activities is needed to facilitate the description and measurement of criminal careers of offenders. <p>The Criminal Career Profile (CCP), which uses commonly available criminological information and requires minimal professional skills to execute, can be considered a simple and precise measure of criminal careers. The CCP is a chronological representation on a Cartesian plane of the time in years an offender has spent in prison (y-axis) plotted against the time in years spent out of prison (x-axis) of all incarcerations and time spent in the community. Given that the CCP is a step function, a regression line can be generated. Serious crimes are generally given longer sentences, and more time in than out of prison would generate a steeper regression line. Shallower regression lines result from less time in than out of prison. As such, the CCP regression line can be considered an indication of the seriousness of offending, and the slope or angle of the regression line can be considered a quantitative index of criminal career severity. Larger slopes or angles (used in this Program of Research) suggest more serious criminal careers. Conversely, smaller slopes or angles suggest less serous criminal careers. Taken altogether, the CCP can provide a quantitative measure of criminal careers: its onset (age at first conviction, which is plotted as the first point on a CCP graph), duration (total time in and out of prison since onset), severity (CCP slope/angle), change in severity (change in CCP slope/angle), and termination (end point or when the CCP slope or angle becomes smaller and closer to 0).<p>This Program of Research was done to assess the CCPs validity and utility in measuring offenders criminal career. More specifically, the investigation focused on the seriousness of criminal careers. A number of criteria were used to validate the CCP angles ability to measure criminal career severity. In Study 1, psychopaths and violent recidivists showed a significantly larger CCP angle than nonpsychopaths and violent nonrecidivists, respectively. Finer groupings based on risk (high, medium, and low), a number of risk measures (Psychopathy Checklist Revised, Violence Risk Scale, and Violence Risk Scale Sexual Offender Version), and different types of offenders (i.e. violent, nonviolent, sexual, Dangerous Offenders) were used in Study 2. Two consistent findings across different groups of offenders in Study 2 were CCP angles significantly varied as a function of risk group and correlated with risk ratings. The pattern of results was that larger CCP angles tended to be associated with worse risk groups. In Study 3, both treated offenders and treatment dropouts showed a reduction in CCP angles from pre- to post-treatment. A nonsignificant interaction of group by treatment, however, suggests that post-treatment changes could not be attributed to treatment. Finally, Study 4 showed that CCP angles change with age. Taken altogether, the results of the four studies provided converging evidence for the validity of the CCP as a measure of criminal careers and the CCP angle as a measure of criminal career severity.

The term criminal career is used to describe the course or progress of criminal activity: its onset, duration, termination, severity, and change in severity. Such a term has important implications, given that significant criminal justice, social, and health policies such as crime control, parole, and correctional treatment and management are predicated on achieving the reduction of criminal careers of serious, repeat offenders. Despite its conceptual simplicity, however, criminal career is often treated as having no depth or scope, for example, merely as the number of crimes or length of prison sentence. These indices often give no or little consideration to criminal career parameters and tend to account for only a small portion of the construct of criminal careers. Ideally, a simple metric to measure the onset, duration, termination, severity, and change in severity of a pattern of criminal activities is needed to facilitate the description and measurement of criminal careers of offenders. <p>The Criminal Career Profile (CCP), which uses commonly available criminological information and requires minimal professional skills to execute, can be considered a simple and precise measure of criminal careers. The CCP is a chronological representation on a Cartesian plane of the time in years an offender has spent in prison (y-axis) plotted against the time in years spent out of prison (x-axis) of all incarcerations and time spent in the community. Given that the CCP is a step function, a regression line can be generated. Serious crimes are generally given longer sentences, and more time in than out of prison would generate a steeper regression line. Shallower regression lines result from less time in than out of prison. As such, the CCP regression line can be considered an indication of the seriousness of offending, and the slope or angle of the regression line can be considered a quantitative index of criminal career severity. Larger slopes or angles (used in this Program of Research) suggest more serious criminal careers. Conversely, smaller slopes or angles suggest less serous criminal careers. Taken altogether, the CCP can provide a quantitative measure of criminal careers: its onset (age at first conviction, which is plotted as the first point on a CCP graph), duration (total time in and out of prison since onset), severity (CCP slope/angle), change in severity (change in CCP slope/angle), and termination (end point or when the CCP slope or angle becomes smaller and closer to 0).<p>This Program of Research was done to assess the CCPs validity and utility in measuring offenders criminal career. More specifically, the investigation focused on the seriousness of criminal careers. A number of criteria were used to validate the CCP angles ability to measure criminal career severity. In Study 1, psychopaths and violent recidivists showed a significantly larger CCP angle than nonpsychopaths and violent nonrecidivists, respectively. Finer groupings based on risk (high, medium, and low), a number of risk measures (Psychopathy Checklist Revised, Violence Risk Scale, and Violence Risk Scale Sexual Offender Version), and different types of offenders (i.e. violent, nonviolent, sexual, Dangerous Offenders) were used in Study 2. Two consistent findings across different groups of offenders in Study 2 were CCP angles significantly varied as a function of risk group and correlated with risk ratings. The pattern of results was that larger CCP angles tended to be associated with worse risk groups. In Study 3, both treated offenders and treatment dropouts showed a reduction in CCP angles from pre- to post-treatment. A nonsignificant interaction of group by treatment, however, suggests that post-treatment changes could not be attributed to treatment. Finally, Study 4 showed that CCP angles change with age. Taken altogether, the results of the four studies provided converging evidence for the validity of the CCP as a measure of criminal careers and the CCP angle as a measure of criminal career severity.

This thesis examines the interaction of criminal justice policy and social policy within the Prolific and Priority Offenders Scheme (PPOS), a government initiative which aims to reduce offending by persistent offenders. The research on which this thesis is based takes an interpretative approach to social inquiry and employs a qualitative methodology. It examines the operation of four PPO Schemes in the Thames Valley through semi-structured interviews with 22 practitioners and 16 offenders, and participant observation of over 45 multi-agency meetings. The interaction between crime and social policy is explored through examination of three aspects of the PPOS: the coercion of offenders within the Schemes; the working practices and roles of the police and probation officers seconded to the Schemes; and the way in which information and intelligence is used and generated within the Schemes. The central argument of this thesis is that the widely-accepted idea that social policy is being ‘criminalised’ provides an inadequate account of the relationship between criminal justice and social policy in the PPOS. Rather, this Scheme evidences a merger of criminal justice and social welfare agendas, which includes elements of the ‘socialisation’ of crime policy in addition to elements of ‘criminalisation’ of social policy. Whilst the ultimate aim of the PPOS is to reduce crime, and whilst social welfare services such as health, housing and benefits are provided in pursuance of this aim, the ways in which these services are provided accords with the ethos and values of social policy. The idea of a merger of criminal justice and social policy has relevance beyond the PPOS, providing a framework for analysis of other contemporary criminal justice policies, and contributing to broader debates in criminology which have for so long been dominated by the ‘criminalisation’ thesis.