... complete the report. The court will usually adjourn for a period of three weeks while the report is compiled. As Whitfield (2001) says " If a Pre-sentence report is to be really useful it has to make the offender 'come alive' - to be understandable in the context of the whole of their life and not just the few minutes of behaviour which has led to them being placed in the dock" The key headlines in the report are offence analysis, Offender assessment and the assessment of the risk of harm to public and likiehood of re-offending. The PSR writer will also assess the offender's suitability for a community order. As the probation service is a key part of the Criminal Justice System, it is useful to assess how this aspect of the service fits in to the context of the various models of the system put forward by King (1981) It could be ...

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