NCJ Number
193714
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 41 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2002 Pages: 59-86
Date Published
February 2002
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This article is an implicit commendation of the "sociology of time" to criminologists, and an explicit application of some of its concepts and insights to the emerging National Probation Service in England and Wales.
Abstract
The sociological understanding of time has grown in recent years but tends to have remained a specialist preserve that has had little impact on reflection about criminal justice processes. The Effective Practice Initiative -- a collection of accredited, fixed-length groupwork -- is at the heart of the new National Probation Service. It purports to be the most empirically defensible approach to changing offenders' behavior ever made available to probation officers. The article concludes that the ideal of community justice is likely to be stifled by narrowly focused attention on short-term performance targets in the new Service. Only a reaffirmation of the importance of respect for local variation in both the pace of possible change and the nature of what most needs to be done will ensure that the crime reduction aims of the new National Probation Service might reasonably be achieved. The article proposes that employees of the new Service ask themselves not "How can we implement the central agenda in this locality," but "What will it take to create community justice in this locality?" The latter question directs the authorities toward a realistic appraisal of local circumstances and the temporal processes needed to bring about improvement, and the claim of time for the task. Notes, references