ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces what might be seen as the main work of probation, the supervision of offenders in the community. It considers the emergence of cognitive-behavioural approaches to practice. This way of understanding and influencing behaviour provided an evidence-based, theoretical coherence for probation practice and underpinned the claims that what works with offenders was now beginning to be understood: the characteristics of effective interventions could be identified and used to guide future policy and practice.
