Jennifer Susan Margaret (Jenny) Roberts

Jenny Susan Margaret Roberts, OBE (12 August 1940 – 19 November 2010) was an English probation officer and writer. She served as the Chief Probation Officer for Hereford and Worcester. Roberts introduced new concepts on how women offenders were treated in the UK justice system which went on to influence women's probation services in Australia, the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. She was the first woman to chair the Association of Chief Officers of Probation (ACOP) in 1992.

Early life Jenny Roberts was born Jenny Susan Margaret Dunton on 12 August 1940 in Sevenoaks, Kent. She was the eldest child of Albert Henry Dunton, insurance clerk, and his wife, Joyce Monica, née Cheeseman, and she had an younger brother, Simon. After the family moved to Bexhill-on-Sea, she attended Bexhill girls' grammar school.

Education and first probation career Dunton studied modern languages at King's College London which included a year at the Sorbonne. She initially worked for the BBC and then the Royal College of Physicians. She then took a one-year postgraduate course in social work at the University of Nottingham, qualifying in 1966. She got a job at the Nottinghamshire probation service in 1967.

She was appointed chair of the Association of Chief Officers of Probation (ACOP) in 1992–3, and was the first woman to hold the position.

In 2007, Roberts co-authored 'Provision for women offenders in the community' for the Fawcett Society.

Death Roberts died of spindle cell cancer of the lung on 19 November 2010.