Book Review: Victim Contact Work and the Probation Service: A Study of Service Delivery and Impact
| Published date | 01 September 2000 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026975800000700408 |
| Date | 01 September 2000 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
335
VICTIM CONTACT WORK AND THE PROBATION SERVICE: A STUDY
OF SERVICE DELIVERY AND IMPACT.
Adam Crawford and Jill Enterkin. Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, Univer-
sity of Leeds. CCJS Press 1999. pp 102. ISBN 0-95-110323- 7 f10.00
This study, funded by a grant from the Nuffield Foundation is the first external
assessment of the work undertaken by probation services in England and Wales
as a result of the Victim's Charter. As such it is both timely and welcome.
The authors have looked at how two probation services, Northumbria and
West Yorkshire, have implemented the responsibilities and tasks facing the
Service following the introduction of the Charter, and have sought comment
from both staff and users of the service as to the impact of the work. Their
conclusions and recommendations deserve careful consideration by all within
the probation services and the Home Office and are likely to provide a useful
addition to the findings of a thematic inspection by HM Inspectorate of Prob-
ation, published in 2000.
Despite a long history and association with pioneering work with victims of
crime, probation services were unprepared for the new responsibilities of con-
tacting victims of life sentence prisoners and serious offenders serving over 4
years. The lack of any identifiable resources for this new work and the absence
of any policy direction from the centre contributed to a slow and to some extent,
reluctant, approach by many areas. One of the findings of this report is that ten
years after the first Victim's Charter there is still a need to define and clearly
communicate the purpose of contacting and consulting victims.
The approaches to this work taken by the two probation services, as described
by the authors, are contrasting, being based upon fundamentally different philos-
ophies. In West Yorkshire there has been a long history of victim-centred work
and the service had participated in the mediation and reparation pilot projects
established by the Home Office in the 1980s. From this work had developed a
semi-independent system of countywide Mediation & Reparation Services ad-
ministered by the West Yorkshire Probation Service. Staff within these units
provided a source of expertise and experience to undertake victim contact work
and a change of name to Victim- Offender Units signalled this transition. Service
delivery is provided by sessionally paid workers and volunteers, none of who are
trained probation officers.
In Northumbria there was no similar existing victim centred structure and an
operational system had to be developed to meet the demands of this new work.
Early collaboration between this new Victim Liaison Service and the local Victim
Support scheme was a significant feature and shaped its subsequent develop-
ment. Victim contact is undertaken by specialist probation officers following an
introductory visit by a Victim Support volunteer who outlines the purpose of the
scheme and establishes the victim's consent to further contact.
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