Good cop, bad cop, both? Examining the implications of risk based allocation on the desistance narratives of intensive probationers

Abstract

The following paper shall discuss the implementation of the Coalition Governments Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) reforms in 2014 by focusing on the impact of these reforms on the desistance narratives of high risk intensive probationers, paying particular attention to the division of probation work between the National Probation Service (NPS) and the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC). It is argued that the reallocation of offenders between the NPS and CRC altered high risk probationers’ perceptions of self, caused probationers to question the occupational competence of CRC offender managers and saw probationers evidence the emergence of an attitudinal dissonance between the two services.