European Journal of Probation

Literature on the media representation of probation highlights that probation as a ‘brand’ and concept is poorly understood and lacks public visibility. This has implications for its legitimacy and credibility. In this article we explore probation's visibility in one country, the Republic of Ireland, through a critical analysis of print media representations of probationover a 12-year period (2001 to 2012). While our study finds that the majority of the coverage of probation was either positive or neutral in tone, we note a recent shift towards a more negative tone that we argue is reflective of the changing shape of the penal-probation boundaries. These changes are linked to resourcing of the criminal justice system and have implications for the public perception of probation.

This paper presents the findings of a sample of 2,000 articles published in English newspapers about community punishment between 2003 and 2011. The data suggest that challenges to the legitimacy of community sanctions in English media, whilst occasionally vociferous and vitriolic, are as muchlinguistic as political in nature, rooted in a tendency to dismiss non-custodial sentences as inherently inferior to incarceration, and to overstate the severity and frequency of crime. This should influence penologists' and penal reformers'attempts to improve popular support for non-custodial sanctions.

This article draws on the personal experience of two lecturers delivering the academic programme of the Probation Qualification Framework to students employed by a number of different Probation Trusts. It considers the current qualifying arrangements and identifies a number of issues that have come to the fore over the first three years of implementation. Specifically, it establishes the importance of all stakeholders, students, the employing Trust and NOMS understanding what is of fundamental importance for work-based distance learning study. The changing composition and characteristics of the student body and the ways in which new developments in professional knowledge are included in the curriculum are explored with particular focus on the new group of graduate entrants at Part 3. The authors remain committed to the belief that those who work in the criminal justice system of England and Wales, supporting change and rehabilitation with a complex and vulnerable client group must have a nationally recognised qualification which includes both employer responsibility for quality practice based learning and a Higher Education award.

Electronic monitoring was introduced nationwide in Belgium in 2000 and has expanded ever since. Currently important changes are taking place, radically transforming its operation and nature. The aim of this article is to describe and critically discuss the current shift in EM discourses and practices in Belgium from a penological perspective. We start with a brief sketch of the historical evolution of EM, explaining the penal and political context in which EM emerged and was further established, what goals it was supposed to meet and how these goals and practices shifted. With the new regulations of 2012 and 2013, both the rationale and the technology of EM have further evolved. These recent evolutions will be illustrated and situated in a consideration of the wider transformation of punishment in the community.

This paper presents the analysis of a single life-story drawn from a larger study examining theindividual, relational and structural contributions to the desistance process. The emphasis here is on the contributions of key social relations in ‘Evan's’ narrative of change. How people relate to one another, and what these relationships mean to them both as individuals and together, are critical aspects of understanding the role of social relations in desistance. This paper concludes by considering how penal practices might generate and sustain the kinds of social capital and reflexive, relational networks relevant to desistance.