Courting Confidence in Probation: Unpacking Organisational Legitimacy Within the Criminal Justice System

ABSTRACT In this article, we address the hitherto neglected question of how sentencers and other professional actors in the criminal courts think about the legitimacy of probation services. We deploy a framework from the organisational studies literature, which suggests three dimensions of legitimacy that organisations seek from their stakeholders: pragmatic, moral and cognitive. Drawing on empirical research conducted in England and Wales, we find a mixed picture, with the Probation Service experiencing a crisis of pragmatic legitimacy in the eyes of court actors but performing more strongly in respect of cognitive and moral legitimacy. We argue that the analysis presented in this article not only helps us to understand the opportunities and challenges for the probation service in building legitimacy vis‐a‐vis the courts but that it also serves as a case study that could inform future research on (inter‐)organisational legitimacy in the criminal justice field.