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In this article the authors review the development of ideas about working with women offenders over the past 30 years. They provide an overview of articles appearing in Probation Journal related specifi cally to women offenders, set in the context of criminological thinking about female offending and current government policy.

The emergence of Prolific Offender Projects (POPs) in England and Wales has been facilitated by the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act's emphasis on multi-agency working. The successful establishment of POPs is predicated upon professionals from different, sometimes mutually suspicious, agencies working effectively together in possibly sceptical surroundings. In this paper, drawing principally on our recent experience of evaluating the Stoke-on-Trent POP, we examine some of the organisational implications of establishing POPs. This includes consideration of the development of a ‘polibation’ ethos within the project team, analysis of project location, and the need to establish the value of the project. We conclude that POPs do challenge organisational cultures but that the case for the existence of a ‘polibation’ officer is, as yet, unproven. We also conclude that effective communication and line management, together with establishing credibility through action, are essential to fostering understanding of these projects within their operating environment.

In recent decades the probation service has been encouraged to work closely with a range of public and voluntary sector agencies. This article examines probation"s changing relationships with the police and prison services drawing on sixty interviews with current and former probation workers. Analysing probation-prison and probation-police relationships pre-and post-1998 and drawing on Davidson"s (1976) typology of inter-organisational relationships, the article argues that, despite both structural and cultural transformations, there remain cultural continuities in each organisation that create tensions, the significance (both positive and negative) of which should not be under-estimated.

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