Encoding risk: Probation work and sex offenders’ narrative identities

Abstract

Legislation governing the management of released sex offenders in England and Wales has frequently focused on the monitoring of behaviour and the structuring of external controls. Such policies would appear to limit concern for the subject’s internal world to manual-based cognitive behavioural therapy courses. Interviews conducted in England both with paroled individuals convicted for sexual offences and their supervising (probation) officers, however, reveal the various ways in which officers attempt to direct the narrative identities of their parolees – shaping their subjectivities. Drawing upon Foucauldian descriptions of confession as a ‘technology of the self’, it is possible to see how probation officers sought to transform their clients’ self-conceptualisations. This analysis highlights the internal nature of supervisory work, offering insights into the reasons why sex offenders may engage with or resist their community management. Furthermore, the potential impact of the narratives encouraged must be considered; while explanatory discourses of public protection and risk management prevailed, there are good reasons to suggest that the work conducted may have hindered the pursuit of these aims.

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