The author explores some theoretical perspectives that, together, might aid development of a heuristic understanding of female desistance from crime: opportunity; identity; scripts; self-efficacy; and resilience. For an opportunity for desistance to be seized, it must not only present itself to the offender, but also be both recognised and valued as such.

Improved risk assessment has only a limited role in reducing homicides. More deaths could be prevented by improved mental health care irrespective of the risk of violence. If services become biased towards those assessed as high risk, then ethical concerns arise about the care of both violent and non-violent patients.

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Home Office directions to probation services to forge financial partnerships with voluntary sector organisations are beginning to have their impact on inter-agency relationships. Concurrently, encouragement has been given to the development of treatment programmes for substance misusing offenders through Schedule 1A of the Criminal Justice Act 1991, which provides for such treatment to be required as a condition of a probation order. The authors report on an ongoing study of partnerships between probation services and substance misuse agencies in England and Wales. They compare the expectations of partnership as revealed in policy and management perspectives with the experience of probation officers and drug/alcohol workers involved in projects at practice level. Differences between successful and problematic partnerships are explored and the question is asked as to how far inter-agency relationships are influenced by the additional factor of financial contracts for the services of voluntary agencies. The implications for the developing role of statutory and voluntary agency partnerships in community supervision of offenders are considered with particular reference to issues in compulsion and enforcement.