Developing and promoting evidence-based skills in criminal justice

In our introductory chapter, we highlighted the vibrant forum for research and collaborative engagement provided by the Collaboration of Researchers for the Effective Development of Offender Supervision (CREDOS) network over the past 10 years. Of note has been the interaction between academics, policymakers and practitioners. There have also been opportunities for dialogue and debate from different theoretical and practice perspectives, and the dissemination of research findings on an international scale.

Thus, working collaboratively or in their relative international and subject domains, CREDOS members have, over the years, developed and disseminated theoretical and empirical knowledge of effective supervision skills for supporting rehabilitation and desistance. The current volume is a tangible realisation of this collaborative exercise: it has adopted a broad international focus, and its three sections comprise rigorous and insightful contributions, and demonstrate the broad significance of effective practice skills in the field of criminal justice and associated settings.

Implementing evidence-based skills: policy developments and organisational issues

The chapters in the first section of the book acknowledge the impact of wider policy and organisational contexts on the implementation of effective practice skills. In this respect, Chapters Two and Three by Maurice Vanstone and Peter Raynor respectively, indicate that the application of evidence-based skills in England and Wales has not been a straightforward incremental process, not least because of the often unrealistic expectations of politicians and short time scales that are imposed (see Colebatch, 2009).

The subsequent chapters in Part 1 also draw attention to the external and internal turbulence that can affect criminal justice agencies or organisations. Thus, in Chapter Four, Lol Burke, Matthew Millings and Gwen Robinson explore the rapid changes that have occurred in England and Wales, and the threats the changes pose to the realisation of evidence-based practice in criminal justice settings.

Burke and colleagues note that the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) agenda (Ministry of Justice, 2013) which is predicated on a ‘Payment by Results’ approach whereby services will be funded on the basis of the quantifiable outcomes they produce, could extend the commercialisation agenda of criminal justice policy.