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

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 criminalizes those behaving disorderly as a result of their drinking in the context of ever more coercive frameworks.