Book Review: Probation Practice and the New Penology: Practitioner Reflections
| Author | Dr Janet Jamieson |
| Date | 01 December 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1473225412461217b |
| Published date | 01 December 2012 |
274 Youth Justice 12(3)
J Deering, Probation Practice and the New Penology: Practitioner Reflections, Ashgate
Publishing, Farnham, 2010, £55.00 Hb, ISBN 978-1-40940-140-7.
Reviewed by: Dr Janet Jamieson, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool UK.
This volume seeks to examine the reality of probation practice in the early years of the
21st century by exploring the gap between official accounts of probation practice and
those offered by probation professionals delivering services to courts and offenders.
The analysis draws on qualitative data derived from semi-structured interviews and
focus groups with a range of probation professionals which is complemented and sup-
plemented by data derived from attitudinal surveys undertaken with probation staff and
analyses of case files and pre-sentence reports. The empirical data is considered in rela-
tion to the profound changes produced in Western societies in the movement to late
modernity. Thus the findings are theoretically contextualized with regard to the ‘new
penology’ and its accompanying penological aims of risk assessment, offender manage-
ment and punishment.
The first two chapters address the broad social changes occurring over recent decades
in Western societies which have contributed to ontological insecurity and fear of crime
and criminals, which in turn has influenced government policy and priorities in relation to
the work of probation professionals and probation services. Chapter 2 provides a concise
but engaging overview of the shift from modernity to late modernity and the emergence
of an increasingly punitive criminal justice system, while Chapter 3 provides a historical
review of criminal justice practice and priorities from 1970s to the first decade of the 21st
century. The former keys into a range of influential ideas and theories regarding the nature
of contemporary criminal justice, which incorporates a diverse range of commentators
including Foucault, Garland, Giddens, Loader and Sparks, O’Malley, Pratt and Rose. The
latter charts the emergence of the increasing emphasis on ‘what works’, tough enforce-
ment and partnership working via a range of legislative and policy developments culmi-
nating in a consideration of the introduction of National Standards, Multi-Agency Public
Protection Panels (MAPPs), Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPAs),
and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). The emergence of a manageri-
alist and punitive approach to criminal justice is effectively and engagingly drawn, which
in view of the UK Coalition Government’s promotion of ‘payment by results’ includes a
particularly interesting discussion, in Chapter 2, on the impact of ‘New Public Management’
and the movement to the ‘entrepreneurial state’ for probation policy and practice.
Notwithstanding the profound challenges of these developments for probation practice,
the tone here is not wholly negative and − drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of ‘hysteresis’ −
Deering emphasizes the unpredictability of the implementation of top-down policies
concluding that ‘their final shape (in terms of actual practice)... is likely to be something
not quite intended by either management or practitioners’ (p. 28).
Hereafter attention turns to the author’s empirical findings. Chapter 4 addresses the
attitudes, beliefs and values of probation professionals with regard to risk, enforcement
and managerialism. Chapter 5 focuses on the practice of assessment, the use and impor-
tance of risk assessment and the influence of the ‘new penology’ agenda. Finally, Chapters
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