In a range of tasks from pre-sentence reports to the oversight of long- term prisoners on licence, probation officers are asked to predict and manage future behaviour. How is risk defined and operationalised by probation staff and upon what knowledge base and value systems do understandings of risk rest? Hazel Kemshall, Lecturer in Probation Studies at the University of Birmingham, uses the initial findings of her recent research to sketch how probation practitioners gauge and rationalise their risk assessments.
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