Book Reviews
| Date | 01 September 1978 |
| Published date | 01 September 1978 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455057802500310 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
103
supervision,
of
hostels,
Community
Service
Orders
and
other
develop-
ments.
Probation
officers
provide
in
many
ways
an
efT’icient
service
to
the
Crown
Courts.
The
Service
must
be
sure
of
itself,
capable
of
increasing
its
influence
in
relation
to
its
responsibility.
Growth
is
now
at
a
standstill,
providing
an
opportunity
to
evaluate
established
working
procedures:
therefore
to
increase
involvement
in
the
sentencing
process
would
seem
logical
in
the
circumstances.
If
successful
co-operation
with
sentencers
at
a
local
level
could
be
established
it
might
be
possible
to
have
an
influence
throughout
the
country
in
the
Crown
Courts
to
complement
the
improved
relationship
with
local
Benches.
(Martin
JVargent
is
a
Senior
Probation
Officer
in
the
South
1’orkshire
Proba-
tion
and
A f ter-Care
Service.)
PROBATION
FORUM
CHILD
ABUSE
David
Millard
is
of
course
entitled
to
dismiss
the
notion
that
procedures
may,
if
properly
devised
and
used,
both
promote
and
uphold
good
professional
practice.
If
he
cared
to
put
that
another
way
and
suggest
that
procedures
(in
the
context
of
child
abuse
as
often
elsewhere)
have
value
only
to
the
extent
that
they
do
so,
I
would
have
no
difficulty
in
agreeing.
I
therefore
find
his
distortion
in
his
review
in
the
June
issue
of
Probation
Journal,
of
what
I
said
in
the
paper
to
which
he
refers,
somewhat
unhelpful.
Whilst
the
passage
to
which
he
addresses
his
sarcasm
may
need
some
amplification
(it
was
prepared
of
course
for
oral
presentation
in
a
discussion
forum)
its
limitations
scarcely
call
for
the
reference
to
an
&dquo;ideal
world&dquo;
being
understood
to
mean
other
than
that
in
highly
demanding
high
risk
situations,
such
as
these
cases
often
are,
an
obeisance
to
professional
competence
and
integrity
is
not
enough.
Indeed,
there
is
ample
evidence
in
this
area
of
work
to
demonstrate
that
this
is
so.
And
of
course
people
will
go
on
needing
understanding
and
help
in
their
particular
circumstances
notwith-
standing
broader
community
approaches
which
he
advocates,
and
which
I
acknowledge
to
be
equally
relevant.
ROB
SPEIRS
Deputy
Chief
Probation
Inspector
BOOK
REVIEWS
Probation:
A
Changing
Service
David
Haxby
Constable
London,
£8.50
When
David
Haxby
left
the
general
secretaryship
of
NAPO
in
1969,
he
chose
a
virginal
as
his
farewell
gift.
I
remember
thinking
at
the
time
that
this
was
a
strange
choice!
Having
read
his
new
book,
I
now
wonder
whether
he
has
had
much
time
to
devote to
this
unusual
instrument
for
he
must
have
been
very
fully
occupied
in
gathering
material
for
the
book
which
has
just
been
published.
As
a
source
of
reference,
this
book
takes
over
where
Joan
King
left
off
in
1969
and
also
complements
the
Jarvis
Manuel.
The
author
takes
up
To continue reading
Request your trial