Employment and the Probation Service: The Client Perspective
| Published date | 01 June 1996 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059604300206 |
| Date | 01 June 1996 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
84
Employment
and
the
Probation
Service:
The
Client
Perspective
Peter
Gregory,
Lecturer
in
Social
Policy
at
the
University
of Hull,
reports
research
undertaken
on
behalf
of
Lincolnshire
Probation
Service
on
clients’
experiences,
knowledge
and
suggestions
for
improved
facilities,
suggesting
that
unemployment
is
not
given
sufficient
priority
by
probation
staff.
ince
1994
the
relationship
between
offending
and
unemployment
has
gained
a
particularly
high
profile.
The
Home
Secretary,
stung
by
repeated
claims
that
the
recession
has
demonstrated
quite
clearly
that
rising
unemployment
and
rising
crime
we
causally
linked,
has
drawn
attention
to
research
indicating
that,
over
the
post-war
period
as
a
whole,
crime
had
risen
relentlessly
whatever
the
state
of
the
economy’.
However,
a
series
of
parallel
research
findings
has
reinforced
the
’common
sense’
view
that
there
is
a
connection
between
crime
and
unemployment.
.
Dickinsori2
found
that,
when
one
looks
at
youth
crime
in
general
and
property
offending
by
young
people
in
particular,
the
relationship
between
crime,
unemployment
and
deprivation
is
much
more
consistent.
Home
Office
statistics
in
1993
showed
the
first
drop
in
crime
as
a
whole
for
five
years
at
precisely
the
time
when
unemployment
had
begun
to
fall.
Also
in
1993,
the
Probation
Service
carried
out
large-scale
detailed
research
using
28,000
pre
sentence
reports
which
found
that
nearly
70%
of offenders
were
unemployed,
ie
seven
times
the
rate
for
the
population
as
a
whole.
Additionally,
a
large
comparative
survey
in
1990
by
Lipsey,
an
American
criminologist3,
showed
that
providing
offenders
with
jobs
reduced
the
re-
offending
rate
by
a
third.
Finally,
very
recent
research
from
the
Home
Office
suggests
that
up
to
a
third
of
young
men
in
their
late
twenties
are
offending,
that
they
are
less
likely
to
grow
out
of
it,
and
that
unemployment
is
likely
to
be
a
crucial
factor.4
4
If
Probation
Service
clients
are
seven
times
more
likely
to
be
unemployed
than
other
people,
why
is
this?
Four
possibilities
suggest
themselves:
0
employment
services
offer
a
much
worse
deal
to
clients
than
other
people;
o
employers
are
less
willing
to
employ
ex-offenders;
*
clients’
characteristics,
other
than
just
their
offending,
make
many
of
them
unemployable;
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