::With reference to relevant literature discuss the history of the probation service and its changing role

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-‘’With reference to relevant literature discuss the history of the probation service and its changing role’’

The history of the probation service, although relatively short lived has gone through some major changes.  Throughout this essay I shall discuss the history of the service and look at its changing role with the use of relevant literature.  There have been a number of distinct phases in the development of the probation service in England and Wales from 1876 up until the present day.  These are outlined as the missionary phase, the welfare phase, a decline of treatment/diversion from custody phase and most recently a public protection phase (Chui and Nellis, 2003, p. 4).  I shall outline and discuss each of these phases and alongside explain the changing role of the probation service and what its goals and aims are in the present day.

        

Between the years 1876 – 1930’s was known as the court missionary era.  In 1876 Frederick Rainer (a printer from Hertfordshire) was appalled by the cycle of ‘offence after offence’ and ‘sentence after sentence’ which he saw in the courts that he gave a five shilling donation to the Church of England Temperance Society so that ‘something might be done’ (Whitfield, 1998, p.  11).  From activities of philanthropic individuals such as Rainer the Church of England Temperance Society appointed police court missionaries to supervise and reform individuals who had become subject to alcoholism, poverty and despair which in turn led to their petty offending.  The missionaries’ aim was largely to reform rather than to punish individuals and withheld the belief that people had a capacity to change.  Offenders at this time were placed under informal supervision if they showed the likelihood of reform.  This gave opportunity to ‘prove’ themselves: hence the term probation (Raynor, 2002, p.  1173).  The birth of probation followed in 1887 when the Probation of First Offenders Act came into place, giving the missionaries identity and recognition for work undertaken with offenders.

The missionary phase led into the welfare phase of probation history.  In 1907 The Probation of Offenders Act was implemented and at this time the act had made probation available to all criminal courts.  During this era there was an apparent move away from the religious missionary ideal towards a more professional based service however the main values still laid in tact. A probation officers role was mainly to ‘befriend’ the offender and to ensure that they observed and recognised what they had done wrong within society, and to take responsibility for their actions.  

The early account of the history of the probation service has recently been developed and it seems that there is a more complex understanding of its origins as a pose to its orthodox accounts.  Vanstone (2004, p.  35) cites (May, 1991) arguing that ‘probation developed as the direct result of ‘struggles between various forces’ and at a time when there was increased concern about moral degeneration amongst a section of the working class’.  Therefore probation developed as a result of a relationship between elitist classes and working classes and essentially was involving social order and to a large extent controlling the lives of working class people.  Factors such as these have largely been neglected within the research of the history in the probation service.  The welfare phase saw a period of growth and change through the introduction of the Criminal Justice Act 1948 and during this period there was an apparent shift from the religious missionary ideals toward a more social work role.  This shift was mainly influenced by the introduction of the ‘treatment model’.

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Probation officers at the time became trained experts in diagnosing, assessing and intervening in the social and personal factors assumed to lie behind offending behaviour, and in advising magistrates with social inquiry reports before sentence was passed (Chui & Nellis, 2003, p.  5).  The aims of the treatment models were to find out underlying knowledge and psychology of an offenders behavioiur.  The treatment of an offender at this time was mainly carried out on a one to one basis and was aimed at trying to cure an offenders’ anti-social behaviour as a pose to the original idea of saving ...

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