Navigating Probation and Managing Substance Use: The Roles of Gender and Class

The nature of the Criminal Justice System in the United Kingdom has been argued to disproportionately impact specific groups of people, in the way they are policed and sentenced. This chapter addresses the way that gender and class impact on people’s experiences of probation in the context of substance use. The chapter draws upon semi-structured interviews with ten practitioners and eight service users of the probation service. The analysis of these interviews highlights how intersectional oppressions impact on how individuals navigate through the Criminal Justice System, and the influence that substance use has had on that journey. It will show that those who are from lower class backgrounds are likely to stay in the Criminal Justice System for longer, and face heightened issues with finance and housing, than those from middle-upper class backgrounds. It will also highlight how higher levels of domestic violence, and an increased likelihood of engagement with sex work for female service users, impacts on their substance use and offending. This will demonstrate, through an intersectional lens, the way that females and those from lower class backgrounds face numerous challenges that influence how they experience probation and their ability to desist from crime.