The long-term impacts of probation supervision

This chapter draws upon data from a longitudinal study of desistance from crime to investigate the impacts of criminal justice interventions specifically, probation supervision on probationers' behaviour over a period of fifteen years. It demonstrates important aspects of how efforts made by probation officers (POs) to assist probationers with their efforts to desist can come to fruition. The chapter outlines the criminal career paradigm within criminology and its contribution to life-course and developmental criminology before moving onto a more detailed consideration of one aspect of the criminal career, desistance from crime. It presents material from interviews with three ex-probationers, namely Peter, Bobby and Brett who discuss the probation orders they were subject to. The chapter discusses the results with regard to existing desistance research and the importance of offender readiness to receive help in their attempts to desist from crime