RT Article
T1 Whose confidence? Regional leaders’ perspectives on building confidence in a reconfigured probation service
JF Criminology & criminal justice
VO 26
IS 1
SP 288
OP 307
A1 Robinson, Gwen
A1 Annison, Harry 1985-
A1 Burke, Lol
A1 Carr, Nicola
A1 Millings, Matthew
A1 Surridge, Eleanor
A2 Annison, Harry 1985-
A2 Burke, Lol
A2 Carr, Nicola
A2 Millings, Matthew
A2 Surridge, Eleanor
LA English
YR 2026
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1960298275
AB The idea that the institutions of criminal justice should command the confidence of the public and other stakeholders is a taken for granted ‘good’, but one which has rarely been considered from the perspectives of operational leaders within those institutions. We also know little about what happens at times of crisis, when claims are made about the erosion of confidence and leaders are charged with rebuilding it. In this article, we seek to engage critically with the idea of confidence in one criminal justice institution – the Probation Service in England & Wales – at just such a time. Drawing on original empirical research with the 12 leaders of the recently unified service, this article focuses on the question of whose confidence matters and considers some of the challenges associated with confidence-building work from the perspectives of these leaders. Our research revealed that the stakeholder groups whose confidence most concerned them were sentencers and other partner agencies; government ministers; and their own staff within the unified service. We introduce the idea of ‘domains of confidence’ to highlight the importance of understanding perspectives on confidence (and efforts to strengthen or rebuild it) in a relational space in which the particular positionality of actors in the criminal justice field must be understood.
K1 sentencers
K1 Probation
K1 positionality
K1 Legitimacy
K1 Confidence
DO 10.1177/17488958231218571