Book Reviews : Comparative Criminology
| Published date | 01 September 1966 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455056601200311 |
| Date | 01 September 1966 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
tion officers could now be receiving salaries lower than those paid to basic grade
officers. Mr. Dick Taverne (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State), answering
for the Home Office, said that his Rt. Hon. friend was aware of this anomaly.
Miss Bacon (Minister of State), answering a question by Mr. David Winnick
(Lab. Croydon South) said it was intended to raise the output of qualified
students for the child care service from about 275 in 1966 to 650 by 1969
but when asked by Mr. Sharples whether the Government’s wage freeze will
apply to child care and probation officers, Miss Bacon said &dquo;that is another
question which I could not answer now&dquo;. In reply to an earlier question by
Mr. Hogg, the Home Secretary had informed the House that in 1965 there
were 2,010 child care officers, which compared with 1,773 in 1964 and 1,549
in 1963. The figure for 1965 was, nevertheless, 366 short of the authorised
establishment. The proportion of professionally qualified officers had risen from
27 per cent in 1963 to 30.4 per cent in 1965.
COMBINATION ORDER
On the 30th June Mr. S. O. Davies (Lab. Merthyr Tydffl), raised on the
adjournment a complaint about the combination of the Merthyr Tydfil probation
service with the Glamorgan County Service. He regarded this as a threat
to local initiative. He felt that to bring the Merthyr Tydfil officers under the
supervision of a senior officer was a humiliation which they could not be
expected to suffer. Miss Bacon, replyinb for the Home Office, reminded the
House that the Morison Report had recommended that areas with a staff of
less than six probation officers should be merged into a larger unit, and what
was ~happening in Glamorgan was fol-lowing a pattern which had already ’been
accepted in many other parts of the country. She explained that the provision
of a supervising officer was regarded as a great help to probation officers rather ·
than a humiliation. Supervision by a senior officer provided the professional
caseworkers with an opportunity to enter into detailed discussion of cases.
Miss Bacon appealed to the opponents of this combination to come together and
devote all their energies to making probation really work within the new frame-
work. She pointed out that the probation service today is at the centre of the
Government’s penal policy and it was absolutely essential for the probation
service &dquo;already admired throughout the world as a pioneer in modem penal
treatment&dquo; to be brought up to its greatest possible efficiency.
APROPOS
BOOK REVIEWS
Comparative Criminology
A text book in two volumes
Hermann Mannheim
Routledge and Kegan Paul
£4 4s.
A review by Herschel Prins, Probation Inspector, Home Office
Readers of PROBATION will need no introduction to the name of Hermann
Mannheim and many, like the reviewer, will at various times in their careers
have attended his lectures. For those who have done so, these two volumes cover
some familiar ground, but how helpful it is to have...
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