‘Yes, I can hear you now …’ Online working with probationers in the Netherlands: New opportunities for the working alliance

Date01 December 2021
DOI10.1177/02645505211050869
Published date01 December 2021
Subject MatterArticles
Yes, I can hear you
now …’ Online
working with
probationers in the
Netherlands: New
opportunities for the
working alliance
Annelies Sturm ,
Sylvana Robbers, Renée Henskens,
and Vivienne de Vogel
HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, The Netherlands
Abstract
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, online supervision has increased mark-
edly, including within the Dutch probation services. In the present research, we sys-
tematically collected and analysed both clients and probation off‌icersexperiences
of working online in the prior year. Although the clients were generally positive
about remote supervision, some expressed that they missed the personal contact.
According to most of the probation off‌icers, remote working is f‌lexible (eff‌icient,
saves time, travel costs), appropriate for certain phases of the probation process
(especially at a later stage when a working alliance has been established) and parti-
cularly suitable for probationers with mild problems and low risk prof‌iles. The general
experience was that conversations are both more pragmatic and business-like, which,
in turn, can produce both strengths and limitations. Once a foundation has been
established, it appears to be possible to continue working remotely with clients, albeit
the probation off‌icers stressed that this depended on the type of client, type of offence
and risk level.
Corresponding Author:
Drs. Annelies Sturm, HU University of Applied Sciences, Padualaan 101, 3584 CH Utrecht,
the Netherlands, Phone: +31 642602504.
Email: annelies.sturm@hu.nl
Article The Journal of Communit
y
and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
2021, Vol. 68(4) 411425
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/02645505211050869
journals.sagepub.com/home/prb

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