Having appeared in crown court in December 07 for GBH, I found the Pre-sentence report process to be down to earth and reasonably fair. The officer on my case, through structured chat, seemed to be tasked with establishing my risk to society of reoffending and then recommending a sentence length. She had time to listen and when we over-ran, happily booked a further appointment.
The conversations dealved into childhood and family (which felt a little invasive) but were aimed at discovering attitude to situations rather than 'why has this happened?'.
At times times suggestions of feelings were given to me, for instance 'that must have made you angry?'. I felt a weaker person may have have just agreed with her rather than correcting.
It was disappointing that the officer had only the prosecutions story to go by and wasn't interested in my side. I quickly realised this and decided not to push it. She wasn't the judge after all.
I must summarise by saying (I'm led to believe) how important the report that follows is generally taken by the judge. Recommended sentence lengths, either custodial or communal are, I think, not influenced by the interview. But which of the two it is will be.
Hope this helps, Bob.