What Matters in Probation
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What Matters in Probation edited by George Mair Cullompton: Willan (2004) ISBN 1 843920 52 2 (357 pages, £20.00)
Reviewed by Jill Annison The pace and extent of change in the Probation Service over the recent past has been of such magnitude that much of the writing in this area has focused on reviewing these developments, evaluating research findings on emerging practice and exploring the implications of these new directions in policy and practice. This book takes a very different stance, with the 15 chapters providing critical analyses on a range of issues arising from the wider concerns of the ‘What Matters’ rather than the dominant ‘What Works’ paradigm. In this respect the four objectives of this book are clearly outlined on the back cover as: •
to assess critically the claims of the What Works initiative;
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to examine the foundations on which What Works is based;
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to demonstrate the limitations of the What Works initiative as currently conceived; and
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to begin the process of constructing an alternative vision for the National Probation Service.
From the very start the reader anticipates a challenging critique of the What Works movement, and this is indeed what this collection of chapters provides. In the Introduction George Mair, in his role as editor, points out that the authors are respected commentators on probation. They can thus be seen as acting as ‘critical friends’ who are broadening and deepening the debate from an informed viewpoint. A key strength of this book is therefore a sense of critical engagement with issues from the inside, although this is from an ‘agnostic’ rather than a ‘converted’ perspective. These turns of phrase mirror analogies and metaphors that run through this book. In particular, in Chapter 2 Mair introduces a theme of religious imagery, referring to the imposition of cognitive behaviouralism in work with offenders as an ‘article of faith’ (page 16). He points out with some irony that he does not wish to be viewed as a heretic, although he does acknowledge that What Works is ‘rapidly assuming the status of an orthodoxy which cannot be challenged’ (page 13). By drawing on his personal experience as Principal Research Officer in the Home Office Research and Planning Unit, Mair reviews the origins of What Works, providing a fascinating insight into what he describes as ‘a messy, uncoordinated, coincidental set of factors that lie behind this highly significant initiative’ (page 21). In this way Mair’s account in Chapter 2 provides a historical and contextual account in the light of which all the other chapters can be viewed. In the Introduction Mair describes Chapters 3 to 5 as probing behind the façade of What Works. While the rationale for this structure is clear in respect of David Smith’s interesting chapter on ‘The Uses and Abuses of Positivism’ and Kathleen Kendall’s penetrating critique of cognitive behaviouralism, this seems rather to undersell the crucial importance of the gender and diversity issues highlighted in Chapter 5 by Margaret Shaw and Kelly HannahMoffatt
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