Criminology training for French probation officers
In France, probation officers spend two years at the National Correctional Administration Academy before beginning work. Some of the courses they take are in criminology, reflecting the growing interest in this discipline in France. However, introducing criminology into the training content is not neutral as it also introduces a particular concept of probation and the practices related to it. To understand what this means in terms of social reintegration, this article suggests that criminology was made part of the training of future probation officers as a way to affect public action, so that the resulting changes can be seen as the result of political interventions. This analysis leads us to discuss the paradigm in terms of which French probation operates and to emphasize that the change in direction caused by training cannot be considered a new approach to social reinsertion but, on the contrary, is a way to consolidate probation as a tool for preventing recidivism, furthering a risk management approach.