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List of contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Marriage Menders: Probation and Marriage Reconciliation
Chapter Three: Stopping Domestic Violence: Probation and Wife Assault
Chapter Four: A Safety-net for the Suicidal: Probation and Attempted Suicide
Chapter Five: Probation and Male Sexual Offences: Gross Indecency, Indecent Assault and Indecent Exposure
Chapter Six: Recusing ‘Fallen Women’: Prostitution and Probation
Chapter Seven: Conclusions and Reflections
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Louise Settle is a researcher at The Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She has previously held two postdoctoral fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Edinburgh, and the Institute for Advanced Social Research, Tampere, Finland
Summary
In 1907 the Probation of Offenders Act introduced a system which allowed offenders to be rehabilitated at home under supervision, rather than being sent to prison. This book explores how the probation system was used to regulate the private lives, emotions and behaviours of people in Britain between 1907 and 1962.
Access to the private sphere, both physically and psychologically, meant that the probation system was particularly well-suited to offences related to intimate and personal relations. With each chapter focusing on a particular type of offence, including wife assault, attempted suicide, male sexual offences and female prostitution, Settle shows how experiences of the probationers were shaped by the everyday practices of probation, and assesses the extent to which probation was successful in rehabilitating offenders and protecting the public. Also examining the role of probation officers in marriage reconciliation, the book explores how ideas about gender and domesticity were crucial to both the process of rehabilitation and the endeavour to make the home a safe environment in which these domestic ideals could come into fruition. Probation and Policing of the Private Sphere in Britain enriches our understanding of the role of the state in policing, monitoring and promoting the well-being of its citizens, and explores the nuances of probation’s dual purpose as a form of social control as well as a social work service designed to help the most vulnerable in society.
Foreword
A history of the policing of private lives and the use of probation to rehabilitate offenders in Britain from 1907 to 1967
Additional text
This fascinating study uses extensive archival research to reframe our understanding of the everyday operation of probation in 20th-century Britain. Full of rich material about the dynamics of private life, the book will be of interest not just to scholars of policing and criminal justice, but to historians of the family, marriage, and sexuality.
