Book Reviews (4.2)

Understanding Problematic Drug Use: A Medical Matter or a Social Issue?

This paper questions the notion that problem drug use is essentially a physiological medical problem that requires coercive treatment, from which success is measured by way of drug testing to determine the abstinence from the drug.

Mentally Disordered Offenders: Challenges in Using the OASYS Risk Assessment Tool

This article examines the centrality of risk both within the Government's new proposals to tackle offending behaviour (Home Office 2004) and within the professional practice of probation officers within a large metropolitan area.

Coercion and Social Exclusion: The Case of Motivating Change in Drug-Using Offenders

Drug-using offenders have come to be a special focus for policy concerns within community justice.

Whither or Wither Probation in the Twenty First Century

This article considers recent changes to the probation service, including ‘what works’, desistance, NOMS and contestability.