This third edition of Social Policy: An Introduction has been revised throughout to take account of policy changes and developments since the second edition, published in 2003. The framework of the book is substantially that of the earlier edition, but some new material has been incorporated, mainly in the form of a chapter on criminal justice policy (Chapter 4). This has the purpose of providing a brief introduction to comparative analysis, supplementing the section on different models of social policy in Chapter 3. It also serves to introduce students to an area of public policy which is the subject of lively interest at the present time, as well as overlapping to some extent with social policy.