Crime and Social Policy
Broadening Perspectives in Social Policy Series

Crime and Social Policy provides an invaluable examination of the relationship between social policy and crime. It draws on recent empirical research to offer important insights into the impact of current social policy trends on the lives of offenders.

• Provides an invaluable examination of the critical relationship between social policy and crime management
• Includes illuminating case studies on the impact of social policies on offenders
• Reviews current social policy trends and their influence on crime causation, crime rates, and crime management
• Discusses the role for social policy in promoting more effective reintegration of offenders into the community
• Draws on recent empirical research ranging from youth crime, anti-social behaviour, ?problematic families?, and social security fraud
• The collection offers important insights into the impact of current social policy trends on the lives of offenders

List of Contributors vii

Introduction 1
Hazel Kemshall

1 An International Crime Decline: Lessons for Social Welfare Crime Policy? 5
Paul Knepper

2 Advise, Assist and Befriend: Can Probation Supervision Support Desistance? 23
Deirdre Healy

3 The Relational Context of Desistance: Some Implications and Opportunities for Social Policy 41
Beth Weaver

4 ‘Regulating the Poor’: Observations on the ‘Structural Coupling’ of Welfare, Criminal Justice and the Voluntary Sector in a ‘Big Society’ 59
John J. Rodger

5 What Prospects Youth Justice? Children in Trouble in the Age of Austerity 77
Joe Yates

6 Bleak Times for Children? The Anti-social Behaviour Agenda and the Criminalization of Social Policy 93
Janet Jamieson

7 Social Citizenship and Social Security Fraud in the UK and Australia 111
Gráinne McKeever

Index 129

Hazel Kemshall is Professor of Community and Criminal Justice at De Montfort University. She has completed research for the Economic and Social Research Council, the Home Office, Ministry of Justice, the Scottish Government, and the Risk Management Authority. She has over 50 publications on risk, including Understanding Risk in Criminal Justice (2003), and Understanding the Community Management of High Risk Offenders (2008). She is the author of the Home Office risk training materials for social workers and the Scottish Executive materials for social workers.