Working in the margins : Shadowland agencies, outreach workers and the crime audit process

ENGLISH :
There is no doubt that drug services are now part of a wider criminal-justice-based approach to reducing crime-the Prolific and Persistent Offender Schemes is the latest addition to a suite of interventions where drug workers 'born and raised' in a sociomedico environment are being incorporated into the crime-reduction business. In many respects, there is little wrong with this given that a number of studies, and the experience of drug workers for that matter, demonstrate that some problematic drug users are also prolific and persistent offenders and merging treatment with enforcement makes sense in a world of finite resources : after all we are talking about the same client group. However, just because this is the case it should not preclude us from looking at events in a critical light. For the purposes of this paper the starting point is that although the client may be the same person, the means and ends to get a 'successful' result with that client will vary. In terms of joint working, this will often necessitate compromise in terms of working practices, goals and outcome indicators. It is acknowledged that the concept of power in joint working becomes important with the more powerful agencies setting the agenda and the outcomes and the weaker agencies making compromises. This is clearly the case in the relationship between outreach drug work and the National Treatment Agency. This paper explores those power relations in the context of having to be part of the Crime and Disorder Audit as a voluntary sector, outreach-based agencies. It is part of an on-going piece of work examining the impact of wider changes in drug services. The paper begins by reflecting on the audit process. It then moves to discuss the nature of outreach work before outlining the methods employed in this study. From there on it offers some findings before providing a concluding discussion. (Extract of the publication.)