Policy and practice tensions in tackling alcohol abuse and violence in probation settings

Abstract

This article explores recent policy development and resulting tensions that emerge in a neo-liberal climate of widespread availability and use of alcohol and a parallel move towards the marketization of offender management. We argue that these trends threaten the quality of treatment and supervision offered to those whose alcohol use is linked to their violent offending and unduly criminalises those behaving disorderly as a result of their drinking in the context of ever more coercive frameworks.

Intoxication and Assault: An Analysis of Crown Court Sentencing Practices in England and Wales

“…H legal status and widespread availability mean alcohol intoxication (as opposed to drug intoxication) and related offending continue to prove particularly problematic for criminal justice agencies F normative cultural positioning can undermine efforts to rehabilitate offenders in Probation settings (Broad and Lightowlers 2015). Moreover, alcohol use remains far more prevalent than illicit drug use and so affects more cases brought before the courts.…”