ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the historical and legal background of probation services in the countries covered by the study, and discusses the aims, objectives and development of each probation system. The accounts of each country’s (or state’s) system have been compiled from the various reports prepared by the country experts. Countries are dealt with in alphabetical order. Two of the countries, Australia and Canada, have a federal structure; we have dealt with the former by presenting three examples of individual probation systems at state level and the latter by providing a generalized overview of provinces’ arrangements for probation.
