Desistance and Offender Management: Probation Perspectives and Experiences

Abstract

Desistance research highlights the importance of risk factors and protective factors in understanding successful desistance from offending, with recent research showing the processes of desistance differ for ethnic minority offenders. In New Zealand, indigenous Māori are significantly overrepresented in reoffending statistics, and a new Integrated Practice Framework is being implemented to guide how probation officers manage all offenders, including Māori offenders. Within this programme of change are also culturally specific models such as the Working with Whanau Engagement Model that tailors professional probation practice to the needs of Māori offenders and support a pro-social, family-focused approach to rehabilitation and reintegration. This research focuses on the implementation of the new framework and investigates to what extent the goals set out in the policies in the current correctional policy are being realized. The research approach is qualitative, and draws on data generated through semi-structured interviews with probation officers to explore the benefits and challenges associated with the new practice framework set against the goals of reducing Māori reoffending. The research also applies desistance theory to critique offender management policy and practice and explore how a culturally responsive approach tailored to the specific needs of Māori offenders responds to the criminogenic and non-criminogenic needs of Māori offenders. The findings of this research have significant implications not only for the continued evolvement of probation practice and offender management, and culturally responsive and culturally competent practice but also for understanding the needs of the probation officer role and how that can be supported to meet the outcomes targeted. The research extended the existing desistance and best practices literature, particularly around how the social and structural context ethnicity adds to offender supervision and management concerns that feature in current debates around improving the effectiveness of probation intervention.