‘Patience, persistence and proportionality’: Probation officer's perspectives of desistance in practice
| Published date | 01 June 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02645505241236780 |
| Author | Peter Beck,Emma McGinnis |
| Date | 01 June 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
‘Patience, persistence
and proportionality’:
Probation officer’s
perspectives of
desistance in practice
Peter Beck
PBNI, UK
Emma McGinnis
University of Ulster, UK
Abstract
Desistance from crime is a priority for criminal justice policy and practice yet the term
carries varying definitions across research literature. Contemporary discourses pro-
mote a refocusing from desistance’s representation as an individual’s personal jour-
ney, to understanding desistance more akin to a social movement. Research has
predominantly focused on the lived experience of those striving to achieve desistance,
with practitioner perspectives remaining under researched. This study, conducted post
COVID-19, aimed to explore and evaluate how probation officers operationalise
desistance in practice. Outcomes evidence that whilst practitioners acknowledge the
diverse conceptualisations of desistance, it remains a priority in practice, even
where the focus is predominantly risk management. Key practice features emerging
as essential to promoting desistance include identifying and cultivating a motivation
to change, approaches to forming the supervisory relationship and how practitioner’s
respond when risks increase. A supporting organisational ethos is critical but chal-
lenged in the complex post COVID-19 context.
Corresponding Author:
Peter Beck, Intensive Support Unit, PBNI, 80-90 North Street, Belfast, BT1 1LD, Belfast, UK.
Email: peter.beck@probation-ni.gov.uk
Article The Journal of Communit
y
and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
2024, Vol. 71(2) 139–158
© The Author(s) 2024
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/02645505241236780
journals.sagepub.com/home/prb
Keywords
desistance, probation, probation supervision, probation officers, relationship-based
practice, professional values
Introduction
Desistance from crime is a priority for criminal justice policy, research and practice
(McNeill et al., 2012). However, Weaver and McNeill (2010, 37) contend there
remains no ‘agreed theoretical or operational definition of desistance’. Recent litera-
ture regarding desistance evidences a refocusing from its once prominent depiction
as an individual’s journey away from an offending lifestyle, to viewing desistance as
a social movement (Barr and Montgomery, 2016; Maruna, 2017). Journey meta-
phors, as Phillips (2017, 92) conceives, ‘unwittingly obfuscated the truly complex
nature of desistance’. Such a repositioning explicitly accounts for the structural bar-
riers individuals attempting to desist may encounter, alongside challenges faced in
realising personal agency, for example, the impact of multiple exclusions (McNeill
et al., 2012). This ‘person in environment’focus is critical, as opposed to the narrow
lens of the risk paradigm, often critiqued as further pathologising and reductive
(Wigzell, 2021).
Desistance literature has reviewed the ‘correlates of desistance from crime’
(Kazemian, 2021, 6) found in the extensive research linking successful desistance
to constructs of marriage, employment, social capital, alongside individual attri-
butes such as maturation, pro-social values and personal agency. Desistance
research privileges the views of the individuals serving or having served community
and custodial sentences, with practitioner perspectives remaining largely under-
researched. This may be considered curious, given probation practitioners role in
‘bearing witness to desistance’(Anderson, 2016, 408), and acknowledging super-
vision has been evidenced to promote positive outcomes in supporting individuals to
desist from offending (Forbes, 2010; Salyers et al., 2015; Raynor et al., 2014).
Theoretical perspectives differ on how desistance is conceptualised, arguably this
is reflected within the practice setting with varying perceptions of how desistance
is conceived and operationalised.
Maruna and Farrall (2004) distinguish between the terms of ‘primary’and ‘sec-
ondary’desistance. Primary desistance pertains to a specific period free from
offending, whereas secondary desistance relates to individual’s perspective of self
and formulation of a non-offending identity. McNeill (2016) later developed the
concept of ‘tertiary desistance’proposing an individual’s pro-social changes is
more successful if recognised by others. However, recent revisions of desistance
argue its limitations in adequately acknowledging the stigma, isolation and hope-
lessness experienced by those seeking new identities; that is, the structural determi-
nants in addition to psychodynamic influences. Nugent and Schinkel (2016)
introduced the notion of ‘act desistance’, for periods of non-offending, ‘identity desis-
tance’, for internalisation of a non-offending identity, and ‘relational desistance’,
encompassing acknowledgement of change through others. Whilst there remains
no agreed definition of desistance, theoretical or operational, consensus exists on
140 Probation Journal 71(2)
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
