Keith Davies

The price of targets: Audit and evaluation in probation practice

Performance management targets and audit have exerted a powerful influence over probation practice for some time. This article traces their development and critically evaluates their effectiveness. Drawing on the findings of a study of the views of experienced probation practitioners it is argued that, whilst the monitoring and evaluation of practice is critical, audit and the measurement of organizational outputs alone are inadequate tools. Furthermore, they set in motion a train of unintended consequences which tend to undermine the effectiveness of practice. The distinction between audit and evaluation is explored and recommendations are made regarding approaches to the evaluation of probation practice.

Introducing the special edition on occupational culture and skills in probation practice

We are delighted to introduce this special edition of the European Journal of Probation focusing on occupational culture and skills in probation practice. As the quotations above illustrate, that culture is subject to change and to a variety of widely contrasting characterisations both complimentary and critical. This edition explores the dynamics whereby probation culture is formed, maintained and altered whilst also highlighting some variations and continuities across Europe. It might be fair to say that, in many European jurisdictions, there is currently a struggle for the power to define probation culture and that this struggle concerns practitioners intimately. It is hoped that, in this context, this edition is timely and useful.

Work-based distance learning for probation practice: Doing the job properly

This article supports Dominey’s ‘Work-based Distance Learning for Probation Practice: Doing the Job Properly’ whilst examining some of the points she makes on the basis of research evidence. In particular, it argues the case for the practice-based teacher and for sufficient study time as two essential elements in any effective learning environment for probation trainees. The value of face-to-face teaching to probation trainees is explored in the context of the current shift to a predominantly distance learning mode of delivery and the relationship between higher education and the commissioners of training is discussed.

Skills for social work practice

1. Developing Communication and Interviewing Skills Kathleen Henderson & Jane Mathew- Byrne 2. Writing Skills for Social Worker Ray Jones 3. Preparing the Ethical Toolkit: balancing rights and responsibilities Farrukh Akhtar 4. Working with the Experiences of Service Users and Carers 5. Assessment for Social Work Practice Ray Jones 6. Applying Theory in Practice 7. Legal Skills for Social Workers Susan Watson 8. Reflective Practice Skills Carol Dicken & Dale van Graan 9. Skills for Leadership Jeremy Ross 10. Skills for Inter-professional Social Work Practice Vivienne Barnes 11. Working with Resistance

Case management and Think First completion

This article considers the findings of a small-scale study of the practice of case managers supervising offenders required to attend the Think First Group. It explores the interface between one-to-one and group-based work within multi-modal programmes of supervision and seeks to identify those practices that support individuals in completing a group.

Book Review: J Shapland, S Farrall and A Bottoms (eds), Global Perspectives on Desistance. Reviewing What We Know and Looking to the FutureShaplandJFarrallSBottomsA (eds) Global Perspectives on Desistance. Reviewing What We Know and Looking to the Future, Routledge: Abingdon, 2016; 304 pp.: ISBN 978-1-138-85100-9, £34.99 (pbk)

This rich and authoritative book originated in a conference held at Sheffield University in September 2014 to which researchers from around the world were invited to discuss their work in the field of desistance from crime. Simultaneously, the Criminal Justice Alliance in the UK published a report on 20 interviews with policy-makers and managers that made clear that, despite the attractions of desistance research for policy and practice in criminal justice, there was widespread misunderstanding regarding its findings, their strength and implications. In this context, the conference presenters agreed to revise their papers and subject them to peer review for publication in this book. Conference ‘Ideas Sessions’ formed the Afterword with which it concludes. As the Editors note, the book seeks to ‘draw together the authors of these various studies on desistance into a creative dialogue’ (p. 5). At the same time, it ‘celebrates the “coming of age” of research on desistance in many countries of the world’ (p. 2) as, for example, longitudinal studies following the careers of participants over time begin to generate successive sets of data. It provides a wonderful statement of current knowledge regarding desistance from offending, raises a wide range of fascinating questions and is rich in suggestions for further research. Although extremely accessible given the complexity of the conceptual and methodological issues discussed, this collection is perhaps best approached by those with some initial grounding in desistance studies. The success of the book in acting as a forum for dialogue means that it might be most fruitfully read as a whole, allowing the reader to hear the echoes and disagreements between the voices of the different contributors. There is a danger of misrepresentation and over-simplification in reviewing the chapters that make up the book, which are so full of fascinating detail that a summary would be impossible. What follows, therefore, is an indication of some of the points and themes that most impressed this reader without any intention to be comprehensive. Between a brief Introduction and Afterword, the contributions are presented in three sections. The first section includes four chapters that share a focus on the relationship between agency and structure in the process of desistance. It is opened in a tremendously cogent and authoritative chapter by Giordiano who considers the role played by cognitive processes when individuals move towards and sustain desistance. The cognitive 681903 EJP0010.1177/2066220316681903<italic>European Journal of Probation</italic>Book Reviews 2016

Book Review: Johannes Wheeldon, After the Spring: Probation, Justice Reform, and Democratization from the Baltics to Beirut

that little actual motivational interviewing was ever delivered to offenders. However, the authors do suggest that CCP combined with motivational interviewing did make an impact with the high risk of reoffending group. This is a fascinating book that looks in great detail at what actually happens between workers and offenders and if it did make a difference. I think it has a lot of helpful information for practitioners, managers and policy makers. My only minor criticism was that virtually every contributor starts by looking at Bottoms’ and then Robinson and McNeill’s work and that did get a little repetitive when reading the whole book. The book ends by suggesting that a new area of work will be to look at the impact of the introduction of private sector providers into the probation world in England and Wales and whether this will impact on offender worker relationships. I look forward to reading that book.

Book Review: Doing Probation Work: Identity in a Criminal Justice Occupation

This rewarding book is unusual in its focus on the culture of probation and the motivations, strategies and personal narratives of probation practitioners. Reporting on and analyzing in exciting ways the data arising from sixty in-depth interviews, it gives voice to the experience of probation staff, often heard first-hand through quotation, whilst simultaneously using a range of theoretical concepts to explore and understanding that experience. (The author of this review was one of the participants). A sense of time and change is powerfully present as the authors consider how radically probation culture has altered in recent years and how probation officers have responded to those alterations. In this connection, the book is timely as, in England and Wales, probation work with ‘low risk offenders’ (the numerical majority those supervised) is tendered out to private and voluntary agencies (and to those Probation Trusts which are successful bidders), leaving the traditional state service with assessment and high risk tasks only. At what seems another watershed moment for the culture of probation in England and Wales, it is valuable to be offered a vocabulary for evaluating the meaning of this transformation for probation culture and for probation staff. In a less direct sense, the book is also timely in a European context as, in exploring occupational culture in one jurisdiction, it supports similar studies across the continent and, as a result, contributes to the very rich potential for comparative studies.

Step by steppe - progressing probation in Russia

This article seeks to trace the development of probation services in the Russian Federation in recent years. It illustrates those developments by reference to two contrasting projects involving collaboration between Russian and European Probation Services. The first is a pilot training project for probation officers organized by a Human Rights NGO in Russia, whilst the second is an EU led policy and practice initiative with the Russian Ministry of Justice to strengthen alternative sanctions and to introduce electronic monitoring on a pilot basis.

Review: Rehabilitation Tony Ward and Shadd Maruna Routledge, 2007; pp 204; £15.99, pbk ISBN—10: 0—41538—643—8; ISBN-13: 978—0—41538—643—2

This stimulating book introduces a relatively new approach to working with prisoners and those under probation supervision the ‘Good Lives Model’ (GLM). At the same time, the authors compare the GLM with the existing and much more widely known Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model developed in particular by Andrews and Bonta (2003). Whilst openly arguing the merits of the Good Lives Model and, at the same time, developing a detailed critique of the Risk-Need-Responsivity approach, the authors are at pains to acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of both and to explore what they might offer practitioners if used in tandem. One of the attractions of this book lies in its providing an alternative perspective with regard to why people offend and why they might engage with rehabilitative interventions. In doing so it gives a high priority to the questions of motivation and the probationer viewpoint: