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The study ESRC funded, 20 months, Supported by Probation Chiefs Association Small scale and reflective 60 interviews completed: 26 current PSOs, POs, SPOs (PWs) 10 Trainee Probation Officers (TPOs) 16 Chief Officer Grades (COs) 8 former & retired probation workers (FPWs) North and South-East England locations
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DOING PROBATION WORK: IDENTITY IN A CRIMINAL JUSTICE OCCUPATION
Rob C. Mawby and Anne Worrall
Doing probation work ‘Doing probation work’ is demanding
physically, mentally and emotionally How do probation workers and managers
make sense of these demands? Under what conditions do they feel they
do their best – and worst – work? What sustains/ rewards and what
debilitates?
The study• ESRC funded, 20 months, 2010-2011• Supported by Probation Chiefs Association• Small scale and reflective• 60 interviews completed:
26 current PSOs, POs, SPOs (PWs) 10 Trainee Probation Officers (TPOs) 16 Chief Officer Grades (COs) 8 former & retired probation workers (FPWs) North and South-East England locations
What it was not
Evaluation of the effectiveness of probation work in general or programmes in particular
Observation of what probation officers do (as opposed to what they say they do)
The square of probation work
Source: Mawby and Worrall (2013) Doing Probation Work, London: Routledge
Backgrounds and motivations Lifers
Peter – public school educated with a strong sense of duty and a structural understanding of society
Second careerists Bill – a former merchant seaman with
transferable skills and a strong desire to ‘make a difference’ at a personal level
Offender managers Gemma – with a degree in law and criminology
and a strong sense of victim empathy
Time and place Daily routines
Tyranny of the computer Typical days
Buildings – swamps, crocodiles and barricades
Home visits Different places
Prisons Approved premises Unpaid work
Changing relationships Courts - from federation to co-ordination
Prisons - from co-operation to merger
Police - from mutually suspicious communication to federation
Media - (mis)perceptions and (mis)representations
Responses to turbulent conditions
Diversity and different voices Religion Union Ethnic diversity Feminisation
Cultures, nostalgia and the future Features of cultures
Motivations, artefacts, job satisfactions, meanings and (re)presentations
Nostalgia and the narrative of decline Not hankering after a golden age but
making sense of the present Search for stability, predictability and
reassurance at times when one’s own values are being challenged by change
Implications for offender management
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