Emotion, Action and Power in the Penal Voluntary Sector

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.From mental health services to family support, the overlooked and often overburdened penal voluntary sector (PVS) provides vital assistance to those impacted by the criminal justice system. This book offers a thorough analysis of PVS practitioners’ emotions, and the sector’s largely unrecognised potential to improve criminal justice outcomes.Drawing on research with a diverse range of PVS practitioners, the book provides a means to enrich service delivery and outcomes, and to address systemic disadvantages. Developing insights from symbolic interactionism and narrative criminology, it shows how attending to the intersections of emotion, action and power is essential for understanding the PVS’s transformative potential, and for reimagining the sector’s role in criminal justice systems worldwide.