Workshop on the Role of Legitimacy in Offender Compliance

Probation Service Headquarters, Haymarket, Smithfield, Dublin 7

Thursday 22 October 2015 Workshop commences 2.30pm – 4.30pm. Tea/coffee from 2pm.

The event is funded by the Irish Research Council under the New Foundations Scheme and is organised by the School of Languages, Law and Social Sciences, Dublin Institute of Technology in conjunction with the Probation Service. This event is the final workshop in a series exploring the theme of offender compliance on community supervision. Presentations will be given by Dr. Gwen Robinson, Reader at the University of Sheffield and Dr. Mairead Seymour, Senior Lecturer at the Dublin Institute of Technology (see below for further detail). The workshop will be chaired by Judge Patrick McMahon.

Compliance, engagement and legitimacy (Dr. Gwen Robinson)

This presentation will take a critical look at the notion of compliance and consider the importance of legitimacy in supervision practice, where the aim is engagement and cooperation (i.e. substantive compliance), rather than passive compliance with minimum expectations. It will argue that legitimacy (from the perspective of people under supervision) is a crucial component of effective supervision, but also that it can be difficult to achieve and to maintain, especially when the purposes of supervision are contested.

Building legitimacy and promoting compliance with young offenders on probation supervision (Dr. Mairead Seymour)

This paper focuses on legitimacy and compliance in the context of young people referred for probation supervision from the Children Court. It draws on the perspectives of supervising practitioners and a sample of 20 young people who were identified as medium or high-risk of reoffending at the time of referral and had spent an average of 22.7 months under probation supervision. The paper explores the processes and practices that appeared to legitimise the supervision experience and encourage compliance over time.

Further queries contact mairead.seymour@dit.ie

Admission is free but registration is required as places are limited.

Click on the link to register: https://offendercomplianceoncommunitysupervision.eventbrite.ie