Sir, As a former probation officer turned researcher I endorse Professor Shepherd’s call for frontline practitioners to lead the way in conducting rigorous scientific inquiry into what works in rehabilitating offenders (letter, Mar 10). In the past local research officers have been diverted from this task by having laid on them the useless endeavour of churning out statistical data for central government monitoring purposes. Main grade staff are ideally placed to evaluate their own programmes providing they are given the necessary research skills to do so. This will require a complete paradigm shift in government attitudes toward research and a difference of emphasis in probation officer training.
Terence Crolley
Maghull, Merseyside