The chapters are concerned with offenders who are or have been substance abusers, violence-prone, mentally disordered, unskilled and unemployed, and sex offenders. The title of the conference, "This Works! Community Sanctions and Services for Special Offenders," reflects the major goal of the conference: to bridge the gap between evaluation research findings and improved service delivery in community corrections. For each of five special offenders groups -- violent offenders, sex offenders, chemically dependent offenders, mentally impaired offenders, and unskilled/unemployed offenders -- researchers were asked to summarize findings on various issues. One issue, characteristics and trends, focuses on what offender and policy trends and characteristics currently are occurring, as well as the contributing factors that are influencing those trends. A second issue, what works best, focuses on the critical factors in determining success and which interventions show the most promise based on the best research concerning each offender group. The third issue, incorporation into practice, addresses how the previous research findings are to be incorporated into programs. Recommended tasks for researchers are to examine more closely specialized interventions with particular offender subgroups and to conduct more research on community-based sanctions. Practitioner needs identified are therapeutic integrity in program conditions and training for treatment providers that matches offender type to treatment intervention and counselor style. Chapter notes and references and a subject index