Marginal Influence The limits of social enquiry

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Marginal Influence?The limits of social enquiry

• Fergus McNeill
• University of Glasgow
• f.mcneill_at_sccjr.ac.uk

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SER use in Scotland
1991-1996 108,000 reports (23.5M) 2001-2006
195,000 reports (80_at_?)
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Research question and methods

• Part of a larger multi-method study of social
  enquiry and sentencing in the sheriff courts
• What does the contemporary report writer try to
  communicate to the sentencer, why are these
  particular messages selected and how are they
  communicated?
• Research sites (close and remote) and
  participants
• A qualitative approach participant observation
• Fieldwork diary
• Observing cases
• Shadow writing
• Post-observation interviews

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Social enquiry past and present?

• Then Separating the incorrigible from the
  reclaimable? Rationales for leniency and for
  punishment (by de-selection)
• Supervision (1905-1931)
• Treatment (1931-1971)
• Welfare (1971-1991)
• Responsibility (1991-1997)
• Public Protection (1998)
• Now Assessing manageable, reducible risks
• Or Deploying risk in pursuit of welfare?

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Influence

• Are social workers supposed to influence
  sentencing or not?
• How else are they supposed to enable reductions
  in the use of custodial sentences?
• The logic of the policy
• Create credible community disposals and direct
  alternatives to custody, and
• Provide credible (and hence influential) reports
  to encourage their use, and thereby
• Reduce the use of prison where it is used for
  want of an available, appropriate community
  disposal

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Case Study Geena and Patrick

• Geena
• Social worker and practice teacher
• Qualified for more than five years, specialist in
  criminal justice social work
• An enthusiast, committed to effective practice a
  moderniser?
• Patrick
• Male, early 20s, 40 previous convictions,
  history of drug misuse, on remand for possession
  of class C drugs, theft and possession of an
  offensive weapon and now in breach of an existing
  probation order, of bail and of release licence

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Geenas Patrick

• Communication
• Aims for a consonant story but thinks that some
  dissonance lends credibility
• Her mentioning of the two previous probation
  orders shows that she is not daft and is being
  realistic with the court (Diary week 12).
• Risk as a rationale for redemption
• It is the authors opinion that Mr Swan remains
  at high risk of re-offending if he does not
  address his addiction difficulties and breaks his
  cycle of offending behaviour (SER case 19).
• Redemption and/for risk reduction?

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Redeeming Patrick

• For Geena, Patricks drug use is the main issue
  for her, from which his offending stems. Geena
  is trying to tell the sheriff that he is
  motivated and by noting his honesty in telling
  her about drugs, she is trying to show that he
  wants help. (Fieldwork diary week 12, p.20)
• Mr Swan was open and honest about his drug use
  and at our last probation meeting expressed a
  willingness to engage with the addiction
  services. However, he was incarcerated before he
  had the opportunity to speak to a trained drug
  counsellor (SER Case 19, p.4)
• According to Mr Swan his offending behaviour has
  mainly been influenced by his drug dependency
  problems. With regards to the offences before the
  court, Mr Swan has accepted all responsibility
  for all charges. He frankly admits that he
  offended on the date by stealing a quantity of
  personal goods for financial gain. Mr Swan was
  able to demonstrate a degree of regret and
  remorse for the offence committed. He was able to
  understand the direct correlation between his
  drug dependency and his offending (SER Case 19)

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Geena on the margins

• Geena on the margins of social work
• No, we don't have any direction, any influence,
  they social work managers are not interested in
  what we do and how, as long as we get reports to
  court So it's us and seniors, we really apart
  from us getting told off about something
  (Interview Geena).
• Geena on the margins of criminal justice
• The writer has informed Mr Swan that she is
  prepared to work with him during probation,
  however, if he were to miss any appointments or
  fail to engage with the addiction services she
  would alert the court to this (Case 19 SER).
• Geena tells me that she is showing that she is
  accountable to the court and that she will do
  her job to ensure that Patrick complies (Diary
  week 12).

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Sentencing Patrick 1 Whose interests?

• Sh 8 I looked at it from the point of view of
  dealing with a man in his early twenties with
  an absolutely horrendous record, serious
  problems, not much in not much positive to be
  said and yet the emphasis in the report appeared
  to be for some form of probation and assistance.
  Assistance is all very well if he's at an age,
  stage and position where he can take advantage of
  it but it doesn't appear to me from reading this
  report that this man was anywhere in the realms
  of getting that sort of disposal in the public
  interest. Maybe in his interest but it doesn't
  appear to be in the wider public interest that
  would be a likely outcome.

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Sentencing Patrick 2Hope and hopelessness

• Sh 10 I look first of all at the complaint
  and then look at the previous convictions. What
  this would tell me is that the accused is looking
  at a maximum custodial sentence but that he is
  such a bad offender where custody has had no
  possible benefit and is unlikely to be of any
  benefit other than keeping him away for a short
  period, that I may well be looking at the social
  enquiry report to see if there are any realistic
  reasons or proposals for a sentence other than a
  maximum custodial sentence... it is looking for
  hope in a hopeless situation. That's the
  approach I come to -

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Sentencing Patrick 3 Bad and hopeless

• Sh 9 Is there any good reason for deflecting
  this man from custody?
• Intv And is there?
• Sh 9 I don't think so, no.
• Sh 8 Not reading the report, no.
• Sh 9 He's a very, very bad offender he's
  only in his early twenties and he's got a
  terrible record.
• Intv I mean how would you characterise this
  guy?
• Sh 9 A hopeless case, to be honest.
• Intv That's something else I was going to
  ask you, whether you thought there was any hope
  here.
• Sh 9 I think he is no, it doesn't look like
  it.
• Sh 8 He appears to be in the throes of a
  dreadful addiction to drugs and unable to sustain
  any assistance of any sort from anybody to try
  and deal with it in any united way for any length
  of time because his record shows he's just
  constantly in trouble.

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Sentencing Patrick 4 Upsetting the system

• Intv And you think the social worker should
  play a part in managing acceptance of the
  sentence?
• Sh 10 I don't think the social worker no, I
  don't think the social worker should be saying as
  the defence agent will Look, with this record
  you're facing a maximum sentence, I will try to
  persuade the court A, B, C but I have to tell you
  and you will know you're facing a maximum
  sentence and you're lucky not to be on
  indictment. Now, she has upset the system by
  associating herself too closely with the accused,
  I think.
• Sh 9 Yes.
• Sh 8 Uh-huh, it's quite clear
• Sh 10 I haven't seen that phraseology before.
• Sh 8 No I haven't either but it's clear from
  reading the last two paragraphs that the author
  of this report thinks that this person should be
  placed on probation again and that she will
  support him in endeavouring to achieve a
  successful outcome on a probation order which, as
  history tells us, is extremely unlikely at this
  stage. And I think it takes away from the
  independence of the report.
• Sh 9 Uh-huh, yeah, absolutely.

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Problems in social enquiry

• Role tension (whose interests?)
• Risk, compliance and redeemability
• The reliance on engaging with sentencing through
  narrative just one among many
• The vulnerabilities of the narrative
• Timing in the legal process
• Information problems weak points
• The role of defence agents
• Judicial ownership of sentencing

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Conclusions

• Report writers are marginal actors
• In social work
• In criminal justice/sentencing
• They have to somehow construct influence
• Problems of credibility and insecurity
• Limited access to the field (but N.B. different
  kinds of access in different courts)
• Limited access to information
• Limited feedback
• Marginal influence and/or influence from the
  margins? The flawed logic of the policy