What gives them the right? Police legitimacy and the self-reflections of prolific offenders on their criminal behaviour.

This paper explores how individuals managed by a specialist policing unit, referred to as ‘integrated offender management’ (IOM), conceptualise legitimacy. It draws on ethnographic fieldwork carried out as part of a study of policing. Continuous fieldwork was undertaken in 5 research sites across Southern England over a period of 12 months. A total of 400 hours were spent observing police officers and other IOM workers. 28 interviews with police officers, probation staff, drugs workers and those subject to IOM were conducted during the same period. 20 people subject to IOM were also interviewed, including 10 individuals who, at the time, were in custody. Observations and interviews focused on the perspectives and experiences of workers and those managed by the scheme. Yet, more broadly, I sought to examine what kind of policing is taking place under the umbrella of IOM and with what implications for offender desistance, procedural justice, and the proportionality of interventions in offenders’ lives. A further core aim of the investigation was to theorise about what was shaping offender evaluations of the scheme’s legitimacy. This paper, which is a rich case study rather than a representative picture of IOM activity through the country, sets out to add to understandings of the relationship between legitimacy and the cooperation of people with the central institutions of criminal justice, particularly the police