Professional Disobedience in Probation

This book comprises an in-depth and highly inclusive ethnographic study of daily life in two local Danish probation offices. With a special emphasis on manual-based rehabilitative interventions, the book explores the interactions between probation officers and citizens on probation, serving conditional sentences, or performing community service, as well as the professionals’ rationales behind their rehabilitative efforts.

By presenting ethnographic findings that indicate a divergence between the envisioned trust-based interactions and the reality of manual-based, scripted practices within the Danish probation service, the analyses reveal how rehabilitative interactions may seem choreographed, with roles predetermined by an asymmetric social hierarchy. This framework portrays the client as inherently obstinate, unpredictable, and cast as an irresponsible subject.

Despite these challenges, the book underscores probation officers’ genuine belief in the transformative power of motivational programs. More precisely, it assesses the potential for manual-based or ‘scripted’ rehabilitative interventions to genuinely inspire participatory citizenship among disenfranchised clients. Building on these empirically informed discussions, the book ultimately endeavors to provide a positive and instructive conceptualization of the diverse activities in which probation officers, acknowledging the limitations of their scripted interactions with clients, appear to transgress their manual-based mandate and perform 'professional disobedience'.

Given the broad applicability of the concept of ‘professional disobedience,’ extending beyond probation to other social service practices navigating the intersection of help and control, this book is intended for a wide array of researchers, students, practitioners, and policymakers with an interest in punishment, disenfranchisement, and rehabilitation. This book is essential reading for those engaged in probation, criminal justice, ethnography, and Nordic criminology.