Making, unmaking, remaking: Mapping the boundaries of professional legitimacy, identity and practice in probation in England and Wales

Abstract

This article maps the (shifting) boundaries of professional legitimacy, identity and practice in probation in England and Wales. Probation established itself in the 20th century as a core institution in the modernist pursuit of offender rehabilitation; however, changing political economic priorities in recent decades have prompted a new consensus that also incorporates mentalities of punitivism, managerialism and risk. With a particular emphasis on the reunification of services after the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms, the article presents a practical and moral case for how the Government’s (re)professionalisation agenda can be developed. It draws upon the sociology of the professions literature to emphasise the service’s ‘interstitiality’ as a professional jurisdiction that operates between different social spheres. The article argues that reunification provides an opportunity to remake the boundaries of professional practice in such a way that people on probation can take ownership of their desistance, while reasserting the service’s internal self-image and external legitimacy.