‘I’m getting out to nothing’: A temporal analysis of dominant discourses and practices with residents convicted of child sex offences in probation Approved Premises
| Published date | 01 June 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02645505231221194 |
| Author | Nicola Roberts,Carla Reeves,Louise Jackson |
| Date | 01 June 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
‘I’m getting out to
nothing’: A temporal
analysis of dominant
discourses and
practices with residents
convicted of child sex
offences in probation
Approved Premises
Nicola Roberts
University of Sunderland, Sunderland, UK
Carla Reeves
University of Huddersfield, UK
Louise Jackson
University of Sunderland, Sunderland, UK
Abstract
People convicted of child sex offences are viewed as a dangerous and demonised
offender group, yet little research has considered their resettlement post-residency
from Approved Premises. Using data from two qualitative studies carried out
15 years apart, we explore what changes there have been in the discourses and prac-
tices with residents convicted of child sex offences. The authors found that whilst
rehabilitation and resettlement were contemporarily considered as more holistic
endeavours, the primary function of the Approved Premises remains managing the
Corresponding Author:
Nicola Roberts, University of Sunderland, School of Social Sciences, Wearside View, St Peter’s Campus,
Sunderland SR6 0AN, England, UK.
Email: nicola.roberts@sunderland.ac.uk
Article The Journal of Communit
y
and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
2024, Vol. 71(2) 159–178
© The Author(s) 2024
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/02645505231221194
journals.sagepub.com/home/prb
risks of residents convicted of child sex offences. Most significantly, this hindered their
social integration into the community.
Keywords
child sex offences, probation Approved Premises, resettlement, risk management,
reintegration, re-entry
Introduction
There are 101 Approved Premises (APs) (informally referred to as hostels) across
England and Wales, providing accommodation for more than 2000 high-risk offen-
ders whilst simultaneously working to reduce their risks of reoffending (HMI
Probation, 2017). Of these, around 90% are directly managed through the proba-
tion service and the remainder through the independent sector (IAPs) (NAPA, 2021).
APs started life in the early twentieth century as places of support and befriending,
much as the broader probation services did, but slowly shifted into their current place
embedded in the criminal justice system. This shift led to a gradual prioritisation of
public protection and risk management (and arguably risk averseness) over rehabili-
tation and reintegration –although at no point were the latter ever removed from the
aims of APs (Reeves, 2011). Despite the upheavals of the last 20 years, APs have
remained broadly stable in their structural positioning within probation. Most pertin-
ently, during the changes heralded by Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) in 2014, APs
continued in the reformed National Probation Service (NPS) as opposed to the priva-
tised Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs), before their collapse; focussing
as they did on high-risk offenders (NOMS, 2014).
Nowadays, APs:
‘provide a credible way of managing the transition from custody to the community for
many of the most dangerous offenders in England and Wales. They offer a structured
method of protecting the public and rehabilitating and resettling offenders’(HMI
Probation, 2017: 8).
The purpose of this article is to explore the changing discourses and practices of
APs, with a specific focus on residents convicted of child sex offences (CSOs), ana-
lysing empirical data gathered from two separate studies with AP staff and residents
in 2003–2005 and in 2019. In doing so we can add to the dearth of data on this
resident group in APs and highlight the extent of change and stasis in the work and
lived experience of staff and residents through periods of immense change and
upheaval in probation service structures and practices. The article begins by review-
ing the literature on broader understandings of rehabilitation and resettlement of
offenders from APs into communities. Unavoidably, the rhetoric of risk is reviewed
and its central role in AP practices outlined. This focus on risk management is par-
ticularly salient to those convicted of CSOs as they are often thought of as the
most dangerous and demonised of offender groups.
160 Probation Journal 71(2)
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