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Risk Management and Rehabilitation in the Probation Service: Collision and Collusion

NCJ Number
180697
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 38 Issue: 4 Dated: November 1999 Pages: 421-433
Author(s)
Gwen Robinson
Date Published
November 1999
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This article addresses two trends discernible in the British probation service in the last 10 years: the rise of the concept of "risk management" and the revival of interest in rehabilitation in the guise of the "What Works" movement.
Abstract
There appears to be no escape from the view that the probation service is a risk management agency; however, despite assertions to the contrary, neither rehabilitation nor the individualizing tendency with which it is associated is obsolete in the British probation service. The tendency to view offenders as aggregates and to classify them in terms of "risk profiles" has been increasingly observed since the mid-1980's, but the totalitarian vision of actuarial regulation does not appear to have been realized. This article argues that although the concept of risk management clearly provides a "master status" for the probation service, it has not obliterated the concept of rehabilitation. One example of the practical integration of risk management and rehabilitation is the evolution of "third generation" assessment instruments. These instruments provide both a measurement of the likelihood of recidivism and information about the offender's criminogenic needs. Such instruments are capable, in theory, of identifying both who warrants the investment of probation resources according to the logic of risk and what needs to be changed in order to reduce the risk of recidivism. 2 notes and 62 references