Dr Rob Mawby from the Department of Criminology and Professor Anne Worrall from Keele University have completed the first detailed study of the occupational cultures of probation officers. The research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, involved conducting sixty in-depth interviews with a range of probation workers who varied in seniority and experience. Some had joined the probation service in the 1960s while others were on the verge of qualifying as trained probation officers. Some had risen to chief officer grade while others had remained as front-line practitioners. Yet others had left the service. Consequently the resulting data provides a rich picture of the changes in probation work over recent decades.

The project found that probation workers share core beliefs about the ability of offenders to change and about the importance of ‘responsibly creative’ risk management. It also found that the probation service is now a feminised organisation in contrast to the position until the early 1990s when the culture was male-dominated. The report also notes that probation workers are now multi-specialists who recognise the importance of inter-agency work despite its tensions and relish working alongside the courts, the police and the prison service.

Rob and Anne have been commissioned by Routledge to write a book based on their research which will be published in 2013. In the meantime they have written a summary of their findings which is available at: http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/criminology/research/current-projects/rim3_culture_probation.