Fergus McNeill – författare

This book provides a comprehensive and positive reimagining of probation practice in England and Wales across all the key settings in which work with people subject to supervision takes place. Bringing together chapters co-authored by academics and practitioners, it offers an overall conceptualisation of the rehabilitative endeavour within the realities of a probation service recently unified after the acknowledged failure of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms. Reimagining Probation Practice covers the main themes and job functions of probation practice, from court work to individual and group interventions, to resettlement and public protection, to partnerships, to education and training. Each chapter includes a brief critical history of the area of practice, the current policy context, the applicability of different forms of rehabilitation (personal, legal/judicial, social and moral) to this area of practice, an overview of current good practice and areas in need of development. The book argues that the principles of parsimony, proportionality and productiveness should be applied to the criminal justice system in its work to rehabilitate individuals.This book is essential reading for practitioners and all those engaged in probation training, as well as policy makers, leaders, managers and those interested in social and criminal justice..

This book provides a comprehensive and positive reimagining of probation practice in England and Wales across all the key settings in which work with people subject to supervision takes place. Bringing together chapters co-authored by academics and practitioners, it offers an overall conceptualisation of the rehabilitative endeavour within the realities of a probation service recently unified after the acknowledged failure of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms. Reimagining Probation Practice covers the main themes and job functions of probation practice, from court work to individual and group interventions, to resettlement and public protection, to partnerships, to education and training. Each chapter includes a brief critical history of the area of practice, the current policy context, the applicability of different forms of rehabilitation (personal, legal/judicial, social and moral) to this area of practice, an overview of current good practice and areas in need of development. The book argues that the principles of parsimony, proportionality and productiveness should be applied to the criminal justice system in its work to rehabilitate individuals.This book is essential reading for practitioners and all those engaged in probation training, as well as policy makers, leaders, managers and those interested in social and criminal justice..

Criminological and penological scholarship has in recent years explored how and why institutions and systems of punishment change – and how and why these changes differ in different contexts. Important though these analyses are, this book focuses not so much on the changing nature of institutions and systems, but rather the changing nature of penal practice and practitionersBringing together leading researchers from around the world, this collection unites studies that aim to describe and critically analyse penal practice with studies that investigate its effectiveness and prescribe its future development. Reversing penology’s usual preoccupation with the prison, the book focuses mainly on penal practice in the community (i.e. on probation, parole, offender supervision and ‘community corrections’). The first part of the book focuses on understanding practice and practitioners, exploring how changing social, cultural, political, and organisational contexts influence practice, and how training, development, professional socialisation and other factors influence practitioners. The second part is concerned with how practitioners can be best supported to develop the skills and approaches that seem most likely to generate positive impacts. It contains accounts of new practice models and approaches, as well as reports of research projects seeking both to discover and to encourage effective practices. This book explores internationally significant and cutting-edge theoretical and empirical work on the cultures, practices, roles and impacts of frontline practitioners in delivering penal sanctions. As such, it will be of interest to researchers in criminology, social work and social policy as well as correctional policy makers and those involved in community supervision.

The risk assessment process, the interventions and treatment commenced as a result of it and the theory behind it are central to the administration of criminal justice programmes around the world. Most youth and adult corrections departments routinely conduct risk assessments, which are then used to inform the nature and intensity of subsequent criminal justice interventions.In this unique and important text, a team of the world's leading researchers in the field of criminal justice come together to provide a critique of this risk paradigm, and to provide practical guidance for professionals, students and academics on how to move to a more effective way of working with offenders.Divided into three sections, the book provides coverage of topics such as:- The development of risk assessment in criminal justice practice, and its advantages and disadvantages.- The significance of risk factor research in understanding and explaining juvenile delinquency – as well as the problems it creates.- The argument that the risk paradigm fails to accommodate diversity, further disadvantaging women, ethnic minorities and other marginalized groups.- The various ways in which real or imagined risk posed by offenders has been regulated under the risk paradigm, the powerful influence of media reporting, and ways of moving 'beyond risk' to support successful reintegration of offenders.- Ways forward for criminal justice interventions that do not rely on risk, but focus rather on the vitally important aspects of social context, relationships and motivation.With strong links between theory and practice, Beyond the Risk Paradigm in Criminal Justice provides a fresh new direction for criminal justice work.

This volume poses a series of key questions about the practice of probation as an integral part of the European criminal justice system.

This volume poses a series of key questions about the practice of probation as an integral part of the European criminal justice system.

All the world’s criminal justice systems need to undertake direct work with people who have come into their care or are under their supervision as a result of criminal offences. Typically, this is organized in penal and correctional services – in custody in prisons, or in the community, supervised by services such as probation. Bringing together international experts, this book is the go-to source for students, researchers, and practitioners in criminal justice, looking for a comprehensive and authoritative summary of available knowledge in the field.Covering a variety of contexts, settings, needs, and approaches, and drawing on theory and practice, this Companion brings together over 90 entries, offering readers concise and definitive overviews of a range of key contemporary issues on working with offenders. The book is split into thematic sections and includes coverage of: Theories and models for working with offenders Policy contexts of offender supervision and rehabilitation Direct work with offenders Control, surveillance, and practice Resettlement Application to specific groups, including female offenders, young offenders, families, and ethnic minorities Application to specific needs and contexts, such as substance misuse, mental health, violence, and risk assessment Practitioner and offender perspectives The development of an evidence baseThis book is an essential and flexible resource for researchers and practitioners alike and is an authoritative guide for students taking courses on working with offenders, criminal justice policy, probation, prisons, penology, and community corrections.

All the world’s criminal justice systems need to undertake direct work with people who have come into their care or are under their supervision as a result of criminal offences. Typically, this is organized in penal and correctional services – in custody in prisons, or in the community, supervised by services such as probation. Bringing together international experts, this book is the go-to source for students, researchers, and practitioners in criminal justice, looking for a comprehensive and authoritative summary of available knowledge in the field.Covering a variety of contexts, settings, needs, and approaches, and drawing on theory and practice, this Companion brings together over 90 entries, offering readers concise and definitive overviews of a range of key contemporary issues on working with offenders. The book is split into thematic sections and includes coverage of: Theories and models for working with offenders Policy contexts of offender supervision and rehabilitation Direct work with offenders Control, surveillance, and practice Resettlement Application to specific groups, including female offenders, young offenders, families, and ethnic minorities Application to specific needs and contexts, such as substance misuse, mental health, violence, and risk assessment Practitioner and offender perspectives The development of an evidence baseThis book is an essential and flexible resource for researchers and practitioners alike and is an authoritative guide for students taking courses on working with offenders, criminal justice policy, probation, prisons, penology, and community corrections.

This book aims to make the case for and provide some of the resources necessary to reimagine rehabilitation for twenty-first-century criminal justice. Outlining an approach to rehabilitation which takes into account wider democratic processes, political structures and mechanisms of resource allocation, the authors develop a new model of rehabilitation comprising four forms – personal, legal, social and moral. Personal rehabilitation concerns how individuals make their journeys away from offending and towards reintegration and how they can be supported to do so, whilst legal rehabilitation concerns the role of the criminal courts in the process of restricting and then restoring the rights and status of citizens. Moral rehabilitation is concerned with the ethical basis of the interactions between the individual who has offended and the people and organisations charged with providing rehabilitative services. Social rehabilitation explores the crucial contribution civil society can make to rehabilitation, exploring this through the lens of citizenship, community and social capital.Drawing on the conceptual insights offered in the late Stan Cohen’s seminal work – Visions of Social Control – and specifically his insistence that modern social institutions can aspire to doing good and doing justice, the authors argue that these values can underpin a moral pragmatism in designing social interventions that must go beyond achieving simply instrumental ends. Reimaging rehabilitation within the context of social action and social justice, this book is essential reading for students and scholars alike, particularly those engaged with criminal justice policy, probation and offender rehabilitation.

This book aims to make the case for and provide some of the resources necessary to reimagine rehabilitation for twenty-first-century criminal justice. Outlining an approach to rehabilitation which takes into account wider democratic processes, political structures and mechanisms of resource allocation, the authors develop a new model of rehabilitation comprising four forms – personal, legal, social and moral. Personal rehabilitation concerns how individuals make their journeys away from offending and towards reintegration and how they can be supported to do so, whilst legal rehabilitation concerns the role of the criminal courts in the process of restricting and then restoring the rights and status of citizens. Moral rehabilitation is concerned with the ethical basis of the interactions between the individual who has offended and the people and organisations charged with providing rehabilitative services. Social rehabilitation explores the crucial contribution civil society can make to rehabilitation, exploring this through the lens of citizenship, community and social capital.Drawing on the conceptual insights offered in the late Stan Cohen’s seminal work – Visions of Social Control – and specifically his insistence that modern social institutions can aspire to doing good and doing justice, the authors argue that these values can underpin a moral pragmatism in designing social interventions that must go beyond achieving simply instrumental ends. Reimaging rehabilitation within the context of social action and social justice, this book is essential reading for students and scholars alike, particularly those engaged with criminal justice policy, probation and offender rehabilitation.

Reducing Reoffending provides a critical overview of social work and community justice in Scotland, taking full account of recent developments. The book is divided into three comprehensive sections. Part one of the book provides a critical analysis of the challenge of reducing reoffending in Scotland and locates this challenge within its historical context. Part one also reviews the available evidence about when, how and why people stop offending; about desistance from crime. This analysis exposes not only the complexities of desistance processes, but also the many difficulties that offenders face in making the related transition. Part two of the book provides an account of the legal contexts of criminal justice social work services in Scotland analysing both the role that social work plays in the sentencing process and its role in supervising offenders in the community. The final part the book addresses questions of how the practice of supervision might be best developed so as to support desistance and reduce reoffending, though the books final conclusion is that reducing reoffending requires a much broader commitment to promoting and realising justice in the community.

In Community Punishment: European perspectives, the authors place punishment in the community under the spotlight by exploring the origins, evolution and adaptations of supervision in 11 European jurisdictions. For most people, punishment in the criminal justice system is synonymous with imprisonment. Yet, both in Europe and in the USA, the numbers of people under some form of penal supervision in the community far exceeds the numbers in prison, and many prisoners are released under supervision. Written and edited by leading scholars in the field, this collection advances the sociology of punishment by illuminating the neglected but crucial phenomenon of ‘mass supervision’.As well as putting criminological and penological theories to the test in an examination of their ability to explain the evolution of punishment beyond the prison, and across diverse states, the contributors to this volume also assess the appropriateness of the term ‘community punishment’ in different parts of Europe. Engaging in a serious exploration of common themes and differences in the jurisdictions included in the collection, the authors go on to examine how ‘community punishment’ came into being in their jurisdiction and how its institutional forms and practices have been legitimated and re-legitimated in response to shifting social, cultural and political contexts.This book is essential reading for academics and students involved in the study of both community punishment and comparative penology, but will also be of great interest to criminal justice policymakers, managers and practitioners.

In Community Punishment: European perspectives, the authors place punishment in the community under the spotlight by exploring the origins, evolution and adaptations of supervision in 11 European jurisdictions. For most people, punishment in the criminal justice system is synonymous with imprisonment. Yet, both in Europe and in the USA, the numbers of people under some form of penal supervision in the community far exceeds the numbers in prison, and many prisoners are released under supervision. Written and edited by leading scholars in the field, this collection advances the sociology of punishment by illuminating the neglected but crucial phenomenon of ‘mass supervision’.As well as putting criminological and penological theories to the test in an examination of their ability to explain the evolution of punishment beyond the prison, and across diverse states, the contributors to this volume also assess the appropriateness of the term ‘community punishment’ in different parts of Europe. Engaging in a serious exploration of common themes and differences in the jurisdictions included in the collection, the authors go on to examine how ‘community punishment’ came into being in their jurisdiction and how its institutional forms and practices have been legitimated and re-legitimated in response to shifting social, cultural and political contexts.This book is essential reading for academics and students involved in the study of both community punishment and comparative penology, but will also be of great interest to criminal justice policymakers, managers and practitioners.

Criminological and penological scholarship has in recent years explored how and why institutions and systems of punishment change – and how and why these changes differ in different contexts. Important though these analyses are, this book focuses not so much on the changing nature of institutions and systems, but rather the changing nature of penal practice and practitionersBringing together leading researchers from around the world, this collection unites studies that aim to describe and critically analyse penal practice with studies that investigate its effectiveness and prescribe its future development. Reversing penology’s usual preoccupation with the prison, the book focuses mainly on penal practice in the community (i.e. on probation, parole, offender supervision and ‘community corrections’). The first part of the book focuses on understanding practice and practitioners, exploring how changing social, cultural, political, and organisational contexts influence practice, and how training, development, professional socialisation and other factors influence practitioners. The second part is concerned with how practitioners can be best supported to develop the skills and approaches that seem most likely to generate positive impacts. It contains accounts of new practice models and approaches, as well as reports of research projects seeking both to discover and to encourage effective practices. This book explores internationally significant and cutting-edge theoretical and empirical work on the cultures, practices, roles and impacts of frontline practitioners in delivering penal sanctions. As such, it will be of interest to researchers in criminology, social work and social policy as well as correctional policy makers and those involved in community supervision.

A crime novel that's perfect for fans of Peter James or Peter Robinson.If you look him in the eye, you're dead.From the outside, Robert Naysmith is a successful businessman, handsome and charming. But for years he's been playing a deadly game. He doesn't choose his victims. Each is selected at random - the first person to make eye contact after he begins 'the game' will not have long to live. Their fate is sealed.When the body of a young woman is found on Severn Beach, Detective Inspector Harland is assigned the case. It's only when he links it to an unsolved murder in Oxford that the police begin to guess at the awful scale of the crimes. But how do you find a killer who strikes without motive?

The perfect book for fans of serial killer thrillers and crime writers such as Peter James, Mark Billingham and Peter RobinsonHe didn't intend to let her get so closeBut Robert Naysmith's girlfriend Kim has become important to him. So he decides to tell her his deadly secret. He wants her to recognise the power he holds.He hopes he won't have to kill herDetective Inspector Harland hasn't forgotten the serial killer who got away from him. But with nothing to go on, he fears he will never bring him to justice.Until he is seconded to investigate the brutal murder of a woman in her Bristol home. A random attack, a murderer who has carefully covered his tracks . . . alarm bells start ringing.Then Harland meets Kim. One last game of life and death is about to begin.Praise for Fergus McNeil'A chilling game of cat and mouse that should keep you awake long after bedtime. DI Harland is a welcome addition to the growing ranks of British detectives' Peter Robinson, bestselling author of the DCI Banks series 'Let's welcome Fergus McNeill to the ranks of British Crime fiction innovators; he has found a darker shade of noir' Quintin Jardine, bestselling author of the Constable Bob Skinner series'Creepy, compelling and completely convincing' Erin Kelly, bestselling author of He Said/ She Said'A gripping first novel' Irish Independent

This edited collection explores the concept of Generative Justice and how it might help us reimagine conventional responses to crime and state punishment. With case studies from the Global North and South, it offers insights into how, within different cultural contexts, justice-involved people find solidarity, belonging and purpose.The book showcases exciting and innovative projects and communities in which unlikely solidarities have been forged among diverse people, through creative practices, education, food, horticulture, and through shared experiences of reentry, recovery and desistance. By exploring the common features and qualities of these generative places, the book sets out an agenda for future research and activism.

This edited collection explores the concept of Generative Justice and how it might help us reimagine conventional responses to crime and state punishment. With case studies from the Global North and South, it offers insights into how, within different cultural contexts, justice-involved people find solidarity, belonging and purpose.The book showcases exciting and innovative projects and communities in which unlikely solidarities have been forged among diverse people, through creative practices, education, food, horticulture, and through shared experiences of reentry, recovery and desistance. By exploring the common features and qualities of these generative places, the book sets out an agenda for future research and activism.

Winner of the 2021 ESC Book Award.Despite its dramatic proliferation and diversification in recent decades, supervisory forms of punishment in the community (like probation, parole and unpaid work) have been largely invisible in scholarly and public discussion of criminal justice and its development in late-modern societies. The long-standing pre-occupation with the prison, and more recent concerns about 'mass incarceration' have allowed the emergence of 'mass supervision' to remain in the shadows.Pervasive Punishment insists that we remedy this neglect and exemplifies how we can do so. Drawing on thirty years of personal, practice and research experiences, it offers a compelling and rich account of the scale and social distribution of mass supervision, of the processes by which it has been legitimated, and of how it is experienced by those subject to it. Its innovative approach invites readers to look at, listen to and imagine punishment beyond the prison, through the use of innovative and creative methods including photography, song-writing and story-telling to explore and to represent 'mass supervision'. By so doing, this book offers new insights into how and why combining social science and creative practice can help develop a different kind of democratic dialogue about contentious social issues like crime and punishment.Though focused on the UK and the USA, the methods used in and analysis developed in this book will be of interest to scholars, students and practitioners elsewhere.

In many countries, community-based penalties such as probation, electronic monitoring and parole are the most common sanctions used in the punishment of criminalized individuals. Despite the widespread use of community-based penalties, these forms of penalization or punishment remain a less studied feature of punishment research today.Punishment, Probation and Parole maps this lacuna in knowledge and scholarship while charting a path to fill it. Bringing together a series of key conceptual papers by leading scholars, the chapters explore the various dimensions and forms of community-based penalties as they are constructed and experienced in different times and places, producing different socio-penal effects. Addressing pressing debates and emerging concepts, this much-needed collection serves to chart directions for future researchers to explore in the field of community-based penalties.

How is the modern world shaping young people and youth crime? What impact is this having on the latest policies and practice? Are current youth justice services working? With contributions from leading researchers in the field, this book offers an insightful, scholarly and critical analysis of such key issues.Youth Offending and Youth Justice engages constructively with current policy and practice debates, tackling issues such as the criminalisation and penalisation of youth, sentencer decision-making, the incarceration of young people and the role of public opinion. It also features an applied focus on professional practice.Drawing on a wide range of high-quality research, this book will enrich the work of practitioners, managers, policy-makers, students and academics in social work, youth work, criminal justice and youth justice in the UK and beyond.

Reducing Reoffending provides a critical overview of social work and community justice in Scotland, taking full account of recent developments. The book is divided into three comprehensive sections. Part one of the book provides a critical analysis of the challenge of reducing reoffending in Scotland and locates this challenge within its historical context. Part one also reviews the available evidence about when, how and why people stop offending; about desistance from crime. This analysis exposes not only the complexities of desistance processes, but also the many difficulties that offenders face in making the related transition. Part two of the book provides an account of the legal contexts of criminal justice social work services in Scotland analysing both the role that social work plays in the sentencing process and its role in supervising offenders in the community. The final part the book addresses questions of how the practice of supervision might be best developed so as to support desistance and reduce reoffending, though the books final conclusion is that reducing reoffending requires a much broader commitment to promoting and realising justice in the community.

This major new book brings together leading researchers in the field in order to describe and analyse internationally significant theoretical and empirical work on offender supervision, and to address the policy and practice implications of this work within and across jurisdictions. Arising out of the work of the international Collaboration of Researchers for the Effective Development of Offender Supervision (CREDOS), this book examines questions and issues that have arisen both within effectiveness research, and from research on desistance from offending. The book draws out the lessons that can be learned not just about ‘what works?’, but about how and why particular practices support desistance in specific jurisdictional, cultural and local contexts.Key themes addressed in this book include: New directions in theory and paradigms for practice Staff skills and effective offender supervision Different issues and challenges in improving offender supervision The role of families, ‘significant others’ and social networks Understanding and supporting compliance within supervision Exploring the social, political, organisational and historical contexts of offender supervisionOffender Supervision will be essential reading for academics, undergraduate and postgraduate students, policy makers, managers and practitioners interested in offender supervision.