Premium
Rehabilitating Probation: Strategies for Re‐legitimation after Policy Failure
Author(s) -
ROBINSON GWEN
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the howard journal of crime and justice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.462
H-Index - 7
eISSN - 2059-1101
pISSN - 2059-1098
DOI - 10.1111/hojo.12398
Subject(s) - legitimation , legitimacy , restructuring , agency (philosophy) , public administration , work (physics) , service (business) , political science , public relations , identity (music) , sociology , law , business , politics , social science , engineering , aesthetics , mechanical engineering , philosophy , marketing
Abstract This article draws on insights from the organisational studies literature to make sense of the recent history of probation in England & Wales in the aftermath of the failed Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) reform programme. It considers that recent history as a crisis of legitimacy, necessitating active strategies of re‐legitimation aimed at recovering from reputational damage. It argues that top‐down plans to restructure the service will only go so far in this endeavour: the expanded National Probation Service must also be prepared to engage in legitimation work on its own behalf. However, this is likely to be challenging for a number of reasons that include the mixed constituency of external stakeholders whom probation seeks to satisfy, and important questions of identity, agency, and voice.