A legitimate business? Representations of privatised probation in England and Wales

Carr, Nicola; Robinson, Gwen

Abstract

The Transforming Rehabilitation reforms implemented in England & Wales in 2014 witnessed the transfer of responsibility for a large proportion of the work of the public sector probation service to 21 newly created Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs), which were contracted out to a range of providers dominated by private sector interests. This part-privatisation of probation services has raised important questions about the legitimacy of the new organisations in the eyes of both internal and external audiences, and about the ‘legitimation work’ that the CRCs might engage in to address any legitimacy deficits they themselves perceive. This article presents the findings of an analysis of the websites of all 21 CRCs, and considers what these externally facing representations of the CRCs suggest about legitimation work in the private probation sector. Our analysis suggests that CRCs use some of the same strategies of legitimation that have been found in another ‘tainted trade’ – the private security industry – and are similarly ambivalent about what – and to whom – they are marketing their ‘business’. We suggest that our analysis sheds new light on old questions about how the somewhat intangible goods of probation work can be captured and communicated to a mixed constituency of potential stakeholders, as well as raising new questions about the role of websites (and other marketing materials) in that endeavour.

Citation

Carr, N., & Robinson, G. (2021). A legitimate business? Representations of privatised probation in England and Wales. Crime, Media, Culture, 17(2), 235-254. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659020903771

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 4, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Feb 12, 2020
• Publication Date: 2021-08
• Deposit Date: Feb 19, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 20, 2020
• Journal: Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal
• Print ISSN: 1741-6590
• Electronic ISSN: 1741-6604
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 2
• Article Number: 174165902090377
• Pages: 235-254
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659020903771
• Keywords: Probation, Privatisation, Legitimation, Website Analysis, Transforming Rehabilitation; Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); Cultural Studies; Communication; Law
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3581882
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1741659020903771
• Related Public URLs: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/cmc