Shades of professionalism: Risk assessment in pre-sentence reports in Sweden
| Published date | 01 March 2012 |
| Author | Kerstin Svensson,Anders Persson |
| DOI | 10.1177/1477370811424985 |
| Date | 01 March 2012 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
European Journal of Criminology
9(2) 176 –190
© The Author(s) 2012
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DOI: 10.1177/1477370811424985
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Shades of professionalism:
Risk assessment in
pre-sentence reports
in Sweden
Anders Persson
Swedish Prison and Probation Service, Sweden
Kerstin Svensson
Lund University, Sweden
Abstract
An emphasis on risk assessment has been introduced in the instructions guiding pre-sentence
reports in Sweden. Since this focus indicates an organizational aspiration to risk management,
we examined how pre-sentence assessments are made and especially how probation officers
relate to risk assessments. Our results show that probation officers do not act in accordance with
the guidelines; they tend to focus on offender needs and social situations more than risk factors,
and the reports still resemble the previous social reports based on clinical assessments. This article
is based on an analysis of 1320 pre-sentence reports, along with 18 individual interviews and 6 focus
groups with probation officers.
Keywords
pre-sentence reports, probation, professionalism, risk assessment
Introduction
The idea of a new penology, based on ideas of managerialism more than of transforma-
tion of individuals, has been widely discussed since Simon and Feeley’s (1992) article. The
idea of a ‘new penology’ is not new in itself. In 1913, Theodore Roosevelt argued that
the changes in the US criminal justice system contained aspects of a new penology, in
which both the individual and the system could claim rights. When Murphy (1937) used
Corresponding author:
Anders Persson, Swedish Prison and Probation Service, PO Box 3136, SE 200 22 Malmö, Sweden
Email: anders.persson4@kriminalvarden.se
424985EUCXXX10.1177/1477370811424985Persson and SvenssonEuropean Journal of Criminology
Article
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