The Probation Service has been described as a law enforcement agency. Explain this term and identify features of probation practice that support or negate this notion.

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The Probation Service has been described as a law enforcement agency. Explain this term and identify features of probation practice that support or negate this notion.

The following essay aims to answer the question, ‘what is the Probation Service and how does law enforcement fit in with such practice?’ The Probation of Offenders Act (1907) allowed the appointment of probation officers with the aim to assist, advise and befriend offenders; the service has since progressed into a law enforcement agency responsible for advising the court on suitable sentences through pre-sentence reports (PSR’s) and for community supervision (Chapman and Niven, 2000, ch.3). The Probation Service delivers community punishments by supervising offenders under orders made by the courts, to reach its aims and objectives. The key features of this law enforcement agency include effective intervention, teamwork of a diverse range of professionals bringing an array of core skills, the assessment of risk and the establishment of management systems.

The Criminal Justice and Court Services Act (2000) has established a National Probation Service (NPS) for England and Wales, launched on April 1st 2001. The NPS is seen as a law enforcement agency working in partnership with other key agencies including the police, prisons, courts and local authorities e.g. health, education and housing. Thus individual employers must recognize the aim of protecting the public, the reduction of re-offending, the proper punishment of offenders, ensuring victim and public awareness and the rehabilitation of offenders (Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000, Ch.43). The NPS takes on the supervision of approximately 175,000 offenders who complete up to eight million hours of unpaid work in the community a year.

Before applying ‘Law Enforcement’ to probation practice, it is important to understand the terms ‘law’ and ‘enforcement’ as two separate entities brought together in protecting the public. The term ‘law’ can be described as a set of standards or social rules established by a governing authority to prescribe what is “usual, expected and permissible way of doing things…” (Blackburn, 1999, p.3). Furthermore ‘enforcement’ focuses on taking positive steps to ensure compliance of such standards (A New Choreography, 2001/4, p.8). 

The vision of enforcement in recent years has been portrayed in the development of The New Choreography (Wallis, 2001). Taking on a different perspective to increase confidence in the N.P.S, the development of ‘objective V’ in this strategic framework states, “…the Home Secretary has made enforcement the highest priority for the NPS in 2001/4. Substantial improvements have already been made by most probation areas with the overall rate of enforcement lifted from 44% in 2000 to 70% in early 2001. Some areas achieved 100% in the most audits…” (p.29).

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        From this objective it is then stated that the strategic imperative is to sustain high performance in the successful areas and lift performance in others in order to meet national standards in 90% of cases (Wallis, 2001, p.29)

The comprehensive assessment and management of risk and dangerousness through accredited programmes is one approach to reducing re-offending. One example is ‘Think First’ which focuses on the idea that how an offender thinks affects what they think and subsequently how they act. This is mainly looking at problem solving and essentially is equipping the individual with basic skills. Accredited programs display ...

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