ABSTRACT
Only in recent years has the Probation Service experienced the full weight of a
political accountability which, if not threatening its existence, endangers its primacy
in the role of supervising offenders in the community. Until the publication of the
National Statement of Objectives and Priorities (Home Office, 1984) it had lived
its life as a semi-autonomous organisation in a benign political environment which
allowed its methodology and theoretical basis to be shaped by a mixture of current
theories, philosophies, religious and moral trends and individual interests. Whilst it
is not the purpose of this chapter to rehearse a detailed history of probation – that has
been done elsewhere (King, 1969; Bochel, 1976; McWilliams, 1983, 1985, 1986,
1987; Vanstone, 2004) – nevertheless an awareness of the historical context is critical
to understanding how this process has occurred. Essentially, it is a history that can
be divided into three periods: first the religious with its emphasis on salvation and
redemption; second, the quasi-professional with its normative aspiration; and third,
the politically accountable with its shift to evidence-based practice and correction,
along with an ideology of ‘punishment in the community’. Of course, these phases
are not so distinct, but thinking about the history in this way provides a helpful
framework for understanding how the practice of rehabilitative effort with offenders
has been fashioned.
