Probation worker cultures and relationships with offenders

Abstract

The occupational cultures of criminal justice practitioners are an under-researched area. In this article we argue that amidst changes in training regimes and in ways of working with offenders, different probation worker cultures co-exist which share common central values, including the belief in people to change and the importance of the relationship between probation worker and probationer in facilitating that change. Using the construct of ‘ideal types’, we describe three cultural types of probation worker. Despite differences in social and employment backgrounds, training received and perspectives on the politics of probation work, we conclude that belief in the relationship is one of the ties that bind these types into an ‘honourable profession’.