The title of a recent book – The Eternal Recurrence of Crime and Control – has strong resonance for us. Every new government, and every new Home Secretary or Justice Secretary, promises new initiatives to deal with crime, and sometimes a new appointment or a new report brings the promise of a different emphasis and a new approach. All too often, what emerges proves to be more of the same – more legislation, more reorganisation, more punishment. The recurring problem is the assumption that reducing everyday crime and the harm it causes is a matter for more intensive governance or tougher measures against the people who commit it. We began this book thinking that the formation of the coalition government and its promise of a ‘rehabilitation revolution’ and a reduction in the use of imprisonment could augur a genuine turning point. More recent events began to follow the familiar pattern, no doubt spurred on by the riots which took place in August 2011 and the public and political reactions to them, but we hope that such a change may still be possible.

This chapter brings together the main conclusions we have drawn from the previous chapters, and relates them to current issues for policy and practice. It reviews the coalition government's policies and proposals as they were becoming established after the change of government in 2010, and offers a longer-term framework for the future development of policy, legislation and practice.

We set out in the Introduction some of the principles and themes we believe should be followed. Integrity, decency, transparency and trust are essential if the governance and administration of criminal justice are to command the respect and compliance of those who work with them in the criminal justice sector, and of those who work with them and those who are affected by what they do, including victims of crime, offenders and the wider public. That applies to the formation of policy and the preparation of legislation as well as to the operation of the courts and the professional practice of the criminal justice services. We have argued for an approach to criminal justice that is focused first on people and their capacities, situations and relationships, and on treating them with humanity, respect and dignity, and only then on reforming institutions, structures and systems.