Overview

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.

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9781032952574

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Reviews

“This fascinating book provides a rich insight into contemporary probation practice in Denmark — but its highly original analysis will be of great interest to practitioners, researchers and scholars much further afield. Drawing as much on philosophy as on social theory, this is as deep and thorough an ethnographic exploration of how probation professionals adapt to and resist managerialism and the manualisation of their craft as I have ever read. Ultimately, their ‘professional disobedience’, driven as it is by the inescapably human and therefore messy interactions that are at the heart of probation work, represents both a necessity and, for me, a source of hope. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in the future of probation and of penal systems.” Professor Fergus McNeill, University of Glasgow “What happens between a probation officer and a convicted person is a black box but thank you to Professional Disobedience we can understand how probation services deviate and resist new managerial discourses. This book is an interesting reading for practitioners and for all those interested in policy shifts in the criminal justice.” Professor Elena Larrauri, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona “Asbjørn Storgaard’s book is an ambitious, well-written, and thought-provoking study of the practice of offender supervision in Denmark. It delves into the everyday lives of probation officers and their clients in great ethnographic detail, while never losing sight of the big picture. It is essential reading for anyone interested in state punishment in the Scandinavian countries today.” Professor Thomas Ugelvik, University of Oslo

Author Information

Asbjørn Storgaard is Assistant Professor in the Department of Law, University of Southern Denmark, specializing in criminology and philosophy of law. He holds a PhD in Social Work from Lund University (2023) and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Copenhagen (2016).

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