The Transformation of Probation Through the Logic of Risk: A Critical Literature Review of Canadian Publications

• Main Author: Billinger, Erin
• Other Authors: Quirion, Bastien
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa 2019
• Subjects: probation evolution; probation objectives; penal governance; logic of risk; knowledge production; decision making; governmentality; new rehabilitationism; probation officers; risk assessments
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10393/39650; http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-23893

Contemporary probation practice has come to be subject to the logic of risk. The rise in the logic of risk has led to significant changes in penal practices. Therefore, it is sociologically important to explore the recent research on the evolution and transformation of probation in Canada with regard to the logic of risk. The purpose of my research was to explore how the logic of risk has impacted and transformed probation objectives, and how it impacted the role of probation officers. Specifically, I wanted to explore how publications present the transformation of probation due to the logic of risk, the formation of new objectives for the system, the deployment of new practices and tools, and how these transformations and new objectives have changed the role of probation officers. To do this, it was determined that a critical literature review of published articles (both academic and government sources) would be the most appropriate data collection method. To analyze the data, an eleven-stage process to a hybrid thematic analysis was utilized. Through this analysis, four main themes were uncovered and explored using a governmentality framework. Objectives of probation as forms effective penal governance were presented, efficient governance through risk was demonstrated through resource allocation, and effective and efficient decision making is explored. It is hypothesized that risk logic leads to the use of heuristic strategies in probation officer decision making. In this thesis, I argue that we are in a phase of ‘new rehabilitationism’ that draws on notions of rehabilitation and reframes them under neo-liberal strategies for control through normalization. In addition to this, knowledge production of probation through the logic of risk is explored and the effects of knowledge/power and its implications for probationers outlined.