ABSTRACT
Perhaps the starting point of this chapter is to clarify that unlike arrangements in England and Wales, the supervision of offenders in the community in Scotland is the responsibility of criminal justice social workers employed by local authorities. That said, the origins of and developments in the purpose and focus of practice share similarities with England and Wales (see, for example, Robinson and McNeill 2004; McIvor and McNeill 2007). This chapter, however, intends to concentrate on more recent changes in the purpose and focus of probation practice and indeed of wider community-based criminal justice social work services in Scotland, with a specific emphasis on the rise and implications of the public protection agenda.
