The value of ‘bearing witness’ to desistance
| Published date | 01 March 2018 |
| Date | 01 March 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0264550517752083 |
| Subject Matter | Practice note |
Practice note
The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
The value of ‘bearing
2018, Vol. 65(1) 89–96
ª The Author(s) 2018
witness’ to desistance:
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DOI: 10.1177/0264550517752083
Two practitioners’
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responses
Emma Cluley and Peter Marston
National Probation Service (North West), UK
Abstract
Sarah Anderson’s article, ‘The Value of “Bearing Witness” to Desistance’ (2016),
aims to consider the relevance of trauma in work with offenders and the importance of
‘bearing witness’ to offenders’ experiences of trauma. Anderson explores its relevance
to probation practice. We reflect on how being aware of our own life journeys and
encounters with trauma can impact on such work, and this article seeks to highlight
ways within practice that practitioners ‘bear witness’ and in doing so support offen-
ders’ desistance journeys and risk reduction.
Keywords
bearing witness, psychological trauma, desistance, reflective practice, risk
Introduction
Reading Sarah Anderson’s article ‘The Value of “Bearing Witness” to Desistance’
(2016), that explores the importance of bearing witness to offender trauma and its
links to desistance, generated a number of responses within us. Firstly, there was the
recognition of trauma experiences and how common we felt it was amongst pro-
bation staff to encounter trauma narratives. We both hold roles within the Offender
Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway (NOMS and NHS England, 2015) and the
article linked strongly to psychologically informed approaches now being used with
some high-risk offenders. Secondly, we reflected on the universal nature of trauma
Corresponding Author:
Peter Marston, National Probation Service, 77–79 Duke Street, Barrow-in-Furness, LA14 1RW, UK.
Email: peter.marston@probation.gsi.gov.uk
90
Probation Journal 65(1)
and its long-lasting tremors. While Anderson does not comment on practitioners’
own encounters of trauma, like others who read this, the authors both brought with
them their own experience of childhood trauma on joining the service and we will
discuss how this has aided and abetted us in work with offenders. In her article
Anderson (2016) methodically explores what ‘bearing witness’ entails, and she
considers this from different standpoints, including morally and politically. She goes
on to consider a practice example drawing on her experience of evaluating a
counselling service for women facing complex issues. How we ‘bear witness’ and
what this looks like in practice was of particular interest for us. As part of this
practitioner response we identify ways that we think probation staff already ‘bear
witness’ to a person’s story and we offer some suggestions for directions in practice
in this area and how such practice can support effective risk management.
Links to the offender personality disorder pathway
One of our own personal motivations for being involved with the work of the OPD
pathway was its central component of understanding early years’ trauma and how
these experiences can contribute to harmful behaviours. Key to that motive has been
our own different experiences of trauma, and in this piece we share something of how
this has shaped our work, with positive and negative aspects. We seek to speak in
favour of the psychological understanding that is a key tenet of the OPD strategy and
how this provides opportunities for both desistance and effective risk management.
The OPD strategy is essentially focused upon reducing the high harm behaviours
linked with serious sexual and violent offending by improving the psychological
responses to offenders in both prison and the community (NOMS and NHS Eng-
land, 2015). Key to this is the tool of case formulations (Radcliff et al., 2018): the
evidence and assessment based hypotheses that seek to understand, appreciate
and predict offender reactions, traits and behaviour. This is made possible by the
building and understanding of significant experiences and their meaning in an
individual’s life history; using the interviewing skills of the offender manager to draw
out key events and their significance. Ideally this is a collaborative inquiry with the
service user, but often in criminal justice settings it can be done at one remove. These
formulations are then used to better manage interactions and work with the offen-
der, forming in some cases the basis of a sequenced plan of intervention, or in
others simply a guide to cope with difficult exchanges. Thus, such work could be
argued to be bearing witness to someone’s distress and trauma by working with
them to try and work out how to build a safe relationship, distinct from those in the
past that may have been traumatizing.
This meticulous appreciation of an individual’s schema (how we perceive our-
selves and others) and traits (ways of behaving or coping) is, we would argue,
anathema to a managerialist approach to offender management. Anderson argues
that when face-to-face contact is motivated solely by fulfilling prescribed purposes, it
silences the lived experience and traumas...
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