Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This study focuses on how 27 frontline and supervisory probation officers (71% women, 67% Black) view the criminal legal system (CLS), utilizing intersectionality as an analytical framework. We present two themes: probation as ‘minor,’ and the CLS is a manifestation of societal racial oppression. Within each theme we detail sub-themes and highlight where we noted differences for probation officers across the intersections of race/gender/and institutional position. Findings indicate Black women, in particular, recognize the harm of the omnipresence of probation and exercise care with clients. Our findings puncture the illusion that workforce diversification alone is enough to achieve system legitimacy.

Keywords

intersectionality probation workforce diversification criminal legal system system legitimacy

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Acker

(1990). Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender & Society, 4(2), 139–158. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124390004002002

Acker

(2006). Inequality regimes: Gender, class, and race in organizations. Gender & Society, 20(4), 441–464. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243206289499

Alexander

(2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. Choice Reviews Online.

Benton

(2020). Representation is not enough: Symbolic representation and perceptions of the police. Administration & Society, 52(5), 794–822. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399720905368

Bottoms

Tankebe

(2012). Beyond procedural justice: A dialogic approach to legitimacy in criminal justice. J. Crim. l. & Criminology, 102(1), 119–170. https://doi.org/10.0091/416912102010119

Braun

Clarke

(2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Britton

D. M.

(1997). Perceptions of the work environment among correctional officers: Do race and sex matter? Criminology, 35(1), 85–106. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1997.tb00871.x

Britton

D. M.

Logan

(2008). Gendered organizations: Progress and prospects. Sociology Compass, 2(1), 107–121. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2007.00071.x

Cho

Crenshaw

K. W.

McCall

(2013). Toward a field of intersectionality studies: Theory, applications, and praxis. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 38(4), 785–810. https://doi.org/10.1086/669608

10.

Coicaud

J. M.

(2001). Reflections on international organisations and international legitimacy: Constraints, pathologies, and possibilities. International Social Science Journal, 53(170), 523–536. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2451.00342

11.

Gagnon

J. C.

Richards

(2008). Making the right turn: A guide about improving transition outcomes for youth involved in the juvenile corrections system: 62.

12.

Glaser

(1964). The effectiveness of a prison and parole system. Bobb-Merrill.

13.

Hannah-Moffat

(2001). Mothering the flock: Maternal discipline and pastoral power. In Mothering flock: Maternal discipline and pastoral power (pp. 19–44). University of Toronto Press. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442678903-003

14.

Harding

D. J.

Western

Sandelson

J. A.

(2022). From supervision to opportunity: Reimagining probation and parole. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 701(1), 8–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027162221115486

15.

Hinton

(2016). From the war on poverty to the war on crime: The making of mass incarceration in America. Harvard University Press.

16.

Hochschild

A. R.

(1979). Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure. American Journal of Sociology, 85(3), 551–575. https://doi.org/10.1086/227049

17.

Hsieh

M.-L.

Hafoka

Woo

Van Wormer

Stohr

M. K.

Hemmens

(2015). Probation officer roles: A statutory analysis. Federal Probation, 79(1), 61–62.

18.

Jonathan-Zamir

Harpaz

(2014). Police understanding of the foundations of their legitimacy in the eyes of the public: The case of commanding officers in the Israel National Police. British Journal of Criminology, 54(3), 469–489. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azu001

19.

Kadowaki

(2015). Maintaining professionalism: Emotional labor among lawyers as client advisors advisors. International Journal of the Legal Profession, 22(3), 323–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/09695958.2015.1071257

20.

Kaeble

(2021). Probation and parole in the United States, 2020. US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

21.

Kaeble

(2023). Probation and parole in the United States, 2020. Bureau of Statistics; 2021.

22.

Kluckow

Zeng

(2022). Correctional populations in the United States, 2020-statistical tables.

23.

Knupfer

A. M.

(1999). Professionalizing probation work in Chicago, 1900-1935. Social Service Review, 73(4), 478–495. https://doi.org/10.1086/514442

24.

Leiber

M. J.

Peck

J. H.

Beaudry-Cyr

(2016). When does race and gender matter? The interrelationships between the gender of probation officers and juvenile court detention and intake outcomes. Justice Quarterly, 33(4), 614–641. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2014.958185

25.

Mawby

Worrall

(2013). Doing probation work: Identity in a criminal justice occupation. Routledge.

26.

McDowell

(1998). Elites in the City of London: some methodological considerations. Environment & Planning A, 30(12), 2133–2146. https://doi.org/10.1068/a302133

27.

Miller

R. J.

Stuart

(2017). Carceral citizenship: Race, rights and responsibility in the age of mass supervision. Theoretical Criminology, 21(4), 532–548. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480617731203

28.

Nix

Wolfe

S. E.

(2017). The impact of negative publicity on police self-legitimacy. Justice Quarterly, 34(1), 84–108. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2015.1102954

29.

Ohlin

L. E.

Piven

Pappenfort

D. M.

(1956). Major dilemmas of the social worker in probation and parole. National Probation and Parole Association Journal, 2(3), 211–225. https://doi.org/10.1177/001112875600200305

30.

Phelps

M. S.

(2017). Mass probation: Toward a more robust theory of state variation in punishment. Punishment & Society, 19(1), 53–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474516649174

31.

Phelps

M. S.

(2018). Ending mass probation: Sentencing, supervision, and revocation. The Future of Children, 28(1), 125–146. https://doi.org/10.1353/foc.2018.0006

32.

Phelps

M. S.

Dickens

H. N.

Beadle

D. A. T.

(2023). Are supervision violations filling prisons? The role of probation, parole, and new offenses in driving mass incarceration. Socius, 9(1), Article 23780231221148631.

33.

Phelps

M. S.

Osman

I. H.

Robertson

C. E.

Shlafer

R. J.

(2022). Beyond “pains” and “gains”: Untangling the health consequences of probation. Health & Justice, 10(1), 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40352-022-00193-7

34.

Phelps

M. S.

Ruhland

E. L.

(2022). Governing marginality: Coercion and care in probation. Social Problems, 69(3), 799–816. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spaa060

35.

Phillips

(2013). Probation workers’ practice and practice ideals in a culture of control (dissertation).

36.

Schept

(2015). Progressive punishment: Job loss, jail growth, and the neoliberal logic of carceral expansion. In progressive punishment. New York University Press.

37.

Schiraldi

(2023). Mass supervision: Probation, parole, and the illusion of safety and freedom. The New Press.

38.

Singh

Nalani

Ibrahim

D. A.

Adler

J. G.

Javdani

Godfrey

(2022). When diversity is not enough: An intersectional examination of how juvenile legal system actors of color experience the system’s welfare mandate for girls of color. American Journal of Community Psychology, 69(1-2), 71–85. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12547

39.

Spohn

(2015). Race, crime, and punishment in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Crime and Justice, 44(1), 49–97. https://doi.org/10.1086/681550

40.

Tankebe

(2019). In their own eyes: An empirical examination of police self-legitimacy. Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 43(2), 99–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/01924036.2018.1487870

41.

Taxman

F. S.

(2012). Probation, intermediate sanctions, and community-based corrections. In Petersilia

Kevin

Reitz (Eds.), The oxford handbook of sentencing and corrections (pp. 363–385). Oxford.

42.

Taylor

K. Y.

(2016). From #BlackLivesMatter to black liberation. Haymarket Books.

43.

Tidmarsh

(2023). Gender in a ‘caring’profession: The demographic and cultural dynamics of the feminisation of the probation service in England and Wales. Probation Journal.

44.

Trinkner

Tyler

T. R.

(2016). Legal socialization: Coercion versus consent in an era of mistrust. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 12(1), 417–439. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-110615-085141

45.

Tyler

T. R.

Goff

P. A.

MacCoun

R. J.

(2015). The impact of psychological science on policing in the United States: Procedural justice, legitimacy, and effective law enforcement. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 16(3), 75–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100615617791

46.

US Census Bureau . (2023a). Data USA: Probation officers & correctional treatment specialists. United States Census Bureau. https://datausa.io/profile/soc/probation-officers-correctional-treatment

47.

US Census Bureau . (2023b). Quick facts. United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US#

48.

Ward

Farrell

Rousseau

(2009). Does racial balance in workforce representation yield equal justice? Race relations of sentencing in federal court organizations. Law & Society Review, 43(4), 757–806. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5893.2009.00388.x

49.

Ward

Kupchik

(2009). Accountable to what? Professional orientations towards accountability- based juvenile justice. Punishment & Society, 11(1), 85–109.

50.

Ward

G. K.

(2006). Race and the justice workforce. The many colors of crime: Inequalities of race, ethnicity, and crime in America, 2(1), 67. https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814768549.003.0008

51.

Watkins-Hayes

(2009). Race-ing the bootstrap climb: Black and Latino bureaucrats in post-reform welfare offices. Social Problems, 56(2), 285–310. https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.2009.56.2.285

52.

Werth

(2013). The construction and stewardship of responsible yet precarious subjects: Punitive ideology, rehabilitation, and ‘tough love’ among parole personnel. Punishment & Society, 15(3), 219–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474513481720

53.

Wilson

Koons-Witt

(2024). Gender doesn’t matter—except when it does: Exploring officers’ gendered experiences within the community corrections organization. Feminist Criminology, 56(2), Article 15570851241309283. https://doi.org/10.1177/15570851241309283

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.27 MB

“Even as a Probation Officer,We’re all Very Much Aware That We’re Black First:” An Intersectional Examination of How Probation Officers Experience System Legitimacy

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material