1. Introduction
2. Reoffending and the response from probation
3. Persistence, desistance and the transitional phase
4. Agency, narratives and social context
5. Obtaining accounts of probation
6. First steps : the transition to desistance
7. Strategies for desistance
8. Probation : enabling or constraining desistance?
9. Active agents and social contexts
10. Concluding thoughts.