ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the idea of probation, with a preliminary sketch of the principal tasks and duties of the probation agencies in England and Wales. The wider criminal justice system is then discussed and some models set out, which offer different and complementary ways of understanding the character and significance of criminal justice and probation's place within it. The character and work of probation have to be understood in the context of the wider criminal justice system. Sometimes the model appears to sit uncomfortably with the due process model: the safeguards of due process can look like obstacles to conviction and consequently undermine crime control. A criminal justice system that gave priority to treatment, then, would be characterised by assessment and individualisation, with wide discretion to allow for differences among people and their circumstances. The bureaucratic model recognises that in modern societies responses to crime are managed through established procedures, institutions and offices.
