ABSTRACT
The work of the probation officer may seem to be largely or even wholly a straightforward matter of applying var ious specialist skills, methods and techniques in dealing with clients. For example, Phyllida Parsloe spends a great deal of her book, 'The Work of the Probation and After-Care Officer' (1967), setting out the social and legal role of the probation officer and the methods and ways of working which he has available to him. She hard ly even touches upon any important theoretical issues raised by probation work. (On the occasions that she does discuss theoretical issues, her treatment is unsatis factory as, for example, in her few remarks on the respon sibility or otherwise of offenders on p. 89.) Probation work is taken to be theoretically (though not, of course, practically) straightforward and unproblematic.
