ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on attitudes, values and beliefs of probation practitioners and trainees and to a lesser degree, those of probation managers. It considers the view expressed by practitioners, managers and trainee probation officers (TPOs) are consistent or differ across a range of variables. The only differences that have emerged were those apparent between trainees and practitioners as regards a range of value statements and between PO and other grades about the placing of certain individual offenders on accredited programmes for the purposes of hitting targets for participation and completion, rather than for suitability purposes. Furthermore, whilst there was a lack of spontaneously expressed values about the causes of offending and society's approach to crime, punishment and rehabilitation, it was nevertheless apparent that there was no support for notions of punishment or 'simple' management of offenders as overall aims for the probation service.