Introduction Part 1: Understanding practice, understanding practitioners, 1. Professional ideologies in the United States' probation and parole 2. Correctional officer training in Canada, 3. Who works in the probation service in Romania, 4. Explaining French probation: social work in a prison administration, 5. Probation practices and Übergangsmanagement in Germany: state of play and challenges, 6.Volunteers in the probaiton service: a comparison between Germany and Japan, 7. Redefining professionalism by seeking legitimacy in probation? A comparison between Belgium and England and Wales, 8. Understanding 'the relationship' in English probation supervision, 9. What quality means to probation staff in England in relation to one-to-one supervision, 10. Staff-prisoner relationships, moral performance and privitization, 11. Changing lives, changing work: social work and criminal justice, Part 2: Supporting practitioners, improving practice 12. Staff skills and characteristics in probation history: a literature review, 13. Co-producing desistance: who works to support desistance? 14.Practicing the Good Lives Models (GLM), 15. Effective supervision in youth justice: a comparison of data sources, Chris Trotter 16. Supporting probation officers' evidence-based professional development in the strategic thinking initiative in community supervision (STICS): Ongoing clinical support activities and the individuals who lead the charge, 17. Supervision skills and practices: the Jersey study, 18. Supporting practitioners to engage offenders, 19. Sources of professional effectiveness, Anneke Menger and Andrea Donker 20. Wraparound care as a booster of the crime reducing effects of probation, 21. Aligning the purposes of probation with professional and learning competencies: basic conditions for a new professionalism, Conclusion: changing penal practice.