ABSTRACT
Probationary work and being a probationer are intersubjective processes, not discrete roles – or at least they should be when and where it is done well. That insight has profound implications for other areas of ‘casework’ across both the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems. In relation to conceptual clarity, RWWwO weaves a number of complex threads together around the emergence, sustaining or derailing of desistance, as well as the role and place of optimism, pessimism and confidence. One of the strengths of RWWwO is that the themes and concepts within the book are, with appropriate nuance, transposable to other contexts. People make no assumptions about the sequencing of the primary, secondary and tertiary dimensions of desistance but ‘hypothesise’ that the tertiary element is too often neglected and likely prevents more meaningful work being done in prisons to assist with positive identity change that can survive not only incarceration, but beyond prison walls.
