One-to-one mechanisms or "individual work" includes volunteer befriending; mentoring; advise, assist, and befriend; casework; task-centered casework; probation; supervision; intensive supervision; counseling; psychoanalysis; psychotherapy; and motivational interviewing. The interpersonal skills of the practitioners are the key to the outcomes in these interactions, but the elusive issues of style and personal qualities have rarely been examined as factors in the outcomes for practitioner-offender one-to-one interactions. Generally, evaluations that have examined practitioners' and offenders' perceptions of what influences them in the change process have revealed that standard probation practice can be pivotal in contributing to desistance from crime; however, more research is required to expand a theoretical understanding of interpersonal work and build an empirical evidence base. One of the first steps in such an endeavor would be to conduct a survey of the one-to-one work that is still being conducted in Great Britain's Probation Service, by whom, and for what purpose. Further, research is needed to determine which clients fare better in groups and which in individual sessions, as well as the stages in criminal careers when individual interventions might be effectively used. 53 references