Immanent Punishment: Experiencing Supervision in Scotland

• In Event: Mass Probation and Inequality: Disparities and the Experience of Supervision

Abstract

This paper reports on the methods used in and findings of a small Scottish pilot study conducted under the auspices of COST Action IS1106 on Offender Supervision in Europe -- www.offendersupervision.eu -- and with funding from the Howard League for Penal Reform and the Economic and Social Research Council. People subject to penal supervision in the community (or with previous experience of such supervision) were invited to take photographs that visually represented their experiences. Focus groups and interviews with participants allowed discussion of these representations. Later, a song-writing workshop used some of the images (and others from partner studies in England and Germany) to stimulate a wider range of people (academics, musicians, people with lived experience of supervision and a radio producer) to write songs exploring the same theme; experiencing supervision. The study’s findings differ significantly from existing Scottish research about supervision based on interview-based methods; in particular, they draw attention to supervision's immanent and pervasive qualities. This paper explores create methods, presents key findings and seeks to explore their implications.

Author

• Fergus McNeill, University of Glasgow