ABSTRACT
Compared with many Acts of Parliament today, the Probation of Offenders Act 1907 was fairly brief, comprising only a handful of pages. The Act has, of course, been seen as a hugely signifi cant development, a major leap forward for criminal justice, but, while its signifi cance is easy to acknowledge with hindsight, a close inspection of its contents suggests that it was more a hesitant step forward rather than a leap.
