Offending behavior is one of the most talked about issues in contemporary society. This book seeks to review and analyze the different ways in which the many questions facing this issue are addressed in practice, drawing on the expertise of academics and practitioners. In this synthesis of academic and practitioner concerns, themes on working with offenders are meshed. The book is split into four sections. The first section provides a contextual framework for working with offenders. The second section provides key skills and interventions; and the third section looks at the treatment of minority and vulnerable offender populations. In the fourth and final section, the contributors all express some dissatisfaction with the values base of the criminal justice system. This book begins to redress what was seen as a serious deficit in the literature. It is designed to provide an up-to-date discussion of the types of work that are typically undertaken with offenders. The text is substantially different from texts about probation or probation-related issues and is concerned with providing the first account in some time of different ways in which offenders are helped to change their behavior. The idea behind this text was to try and bring together practitioners, academics, and practice-trainers to write about and discuss the context, skills and values involved in working with offenders. The book concludes with four key themes emerging out of the chapters: the criminal justice marketplace, the future of training, managerialism and other values, and partners or competitors among agencies. Tables, figures, references, appendix, and index