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essential to resolve these issues if the future of community service is to be of use to
courts and satisfying to the Probation Service.
In assessing an offender for suitability for community service, the probation officer might
nowask, where previouslythe question would never have arisen – what can you do to help
rather than what are your problems? (Pease et al 1975), thereby recognising the shift in
function of the probation officer in supervising the convictedperson.
The therapeutic function of community service emerges perhaps indirectly in the
performance of the community service order when the client is best matched to a
particular community service scheme (Pease 1981:6). Without denying the disciplinary
aspect of community service which requires the offender to conform to the dictates of
punctuality, consistency and the controlling supervision of the community service
organiser, the provision of such activity for certain offenders can provide some element of
socialisation, especially for socially isolated offenders (Winfield 1977). Community service
emphasises what the offender may contribute while on community service rather than
what he mayreceive on traditional probation. This “abilityorientated rather than problem
orientated approach” (Young 1979:40) may act as a spur to the offender’s self-image and
esteem and further contribute to his reintegration in the community. By recasting the
offender in the role of self-autonomous agent in contrast with the role of passive recipient
of help, West suggests the community service order allows the offender to find “an
alternative andlegitimate source of achievement and status (West1976:74).
Young (1979) examined a number of specific hypotheses about the rehabilitative potential
of community service. The use of qualitative methodology allowed him to test these
hypotheses in interviews with central actors in the communityservice schemes.
Young considered the claim that community service fosters greater social responsibility.
By placing the offender in schemes which would expose him to the difficulties
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