The author contrasts progressive expansion and diversification in the field of drug treatment with increasingly restrictive approaches to offender rehabilitation that have developed over the past two decades. An examination of the achievements of the drug field offers insights into the relationships between research evidence and development of policy, theory and practice, and the potential impact of uncritical acceptance of claims about effectiveness. These insights are applied to the probation service’s contemporary claims to evidence-led effective practice, with particular attention to this initiative’s potential for infliction of individual and social harm through exclusion of offenders from rehabilitation opportunities.
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