Resources

A collective voice

In the eye of the storm: The implications of the Munro Child Protection Review for the future of probation

On their election the new coalition government appeared to be keen to review and revise child protection policy following the fallout from the Baby Peter case and the consequent crisis in confidence in social work. This article re-examines the underlying motives for this review and then investigates what the implications of the Munro review are for the future of public protection and the probation service generally.

Identifying personality disturbance in a London probation sample

Personality difficulties provide challenges to offender management, particularly in regard to risk and diagnosis. No provisions exist for identifying personality disturbance in probation services, despite a political emphasis on the need for specialist knowledge of this group in the criminal justice system. This article reports on a pilot project where mental health professionals collaborated with probation services to develop methods of identifying personality disturbance in a London sample. There was a disproportionately large ratio of Black/Black British individuals identified in this study. There was a high prevalence of personality problems in probation caseloads. Different sampling methods identified separate groups of high risk personality disturbed offenders. All individuals identified carried a high risk of re-offending, based on static risk assessments. Emphasis was given to the importance of using developmental variables to help identify adult personality disturbance. The study discovered a potential gap in the method by which data is collected by the national offender management service, omitting lifer custody cases in their assessment of dangerous and severe personality disorder individuals. Ideas for future research were provided.

An investigation into competency for working with personality disorder and team climate in the probation service

Personality disorder (PD) is highly prevalent in offender samples and is an aggravating factor for risk assessment. Working with PD may be particularly challenging and requires specific staff competencies. However little is currently known about probation staff's competency for working with this group. Self report methodologies were used to investigate probation staff's competency for working with PD, their team climate and the relationship between the two factors. Probation staff’s competency was not found to be significantly different to a sample of voluntary sector housing workers. No significant difference was found between probation public protection unit (PPU) and non-PPU staff or between qualified and unqualified staff. Two facets of team climate were associated with improved competency for working with PD, but probation staff obtained low scores for one of these facets (team vision). There is a need for staff competency development in this field. A model for improved service delivery is proposed.

Promoting offender engagement and compliance in sentence planning: Practitioner and service user perspectives in Hertfordshire

The following article is based on research in Hertfordshire regarding sentence planning and offender engagement, undertaken with the support of a Graham Smith bursary. The findings suggest that interpersonal contact and relationships between service users and practitioners are of most significance in encouraging compliance and engagement. This in turn suggests that interactional practice skills should be the key focus of future training and development of staff, in terms of enabling them to plan with service users.

A comparative imagination

Probation in America: Armed, private and unaffordable?

While America is renowned for its enormous prison industrial complex, less academic attention has been paid to the state of probation intervention. The probation population has long been rising more swiftly than the prison population, and one in 45 adults in the USA is now subject to community supervision. This article explores the development of American probation and considers a series of key contextual issues, including the fragmented nature of the US probation system and the philosophies which underpin it, supervision fees, privatization, and the arming of probation officers, in order to illuminate how the community corrections system functions. The Justice Reinvestment initiative is also considered, and the impact of budgetary pressures upon probation is taken into account.

The Japanese Probation Service: A third sector template?

The use of probation in Japan is similar in some respects to probation in England and Wales (E&W) and unrecognizable in others. This article provides an outline of the structure and operation of probation in Japan and draws comparisons and contrasts with probation in England and Wales. It is intended to provide an overview for those who know little about Japanese criminal justice in general and about Japanese probation in particular. The focus in on accessible English language sources that will enable readers to follow up their interest and deepen their knowledge.

Probation in France: Some things old, some things new, some things borrowed, and often blue

French prison based probation services merged with their community based counterparts in 1999. This reform was aimed at placing the service under the wing of prison services and to reduce the influence of the judiciary. Despite still adhering to their rehabilitative goals and to a one-to-one pre-Martinson type of supervision, French probation services have long abandoned social work. Their exceptionally heavy caseload, a prevailing prison thinking, their newly acquired judicial work and managerialism explain this evolution. French probation services present an odd mix of old traits, insularism, and denial of recent scientific progress, with penal transferring, modern management and frenetic law reforming. All this has generated an identity crisis along with work-related stress.

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