The strained manufacturing of judicial reports: The social functioning of youth

In Criminal justice, the presentence report informs the judiciary about the young person and his or her social context prior to sentencing. In Québec, those who craft these reports are psychosocial workers. Few studies sufficiently address organizational realities that stand between policies and the work of these professionals. This article highlights that the writing of presentence reports sits between two antagonistic logics of action. One is influenced by organizational strategies to standardise the reports and the other by contextual pressures experienced by the professionals. The article concludes that the ongoing clash of these logics generates discrepant signals culminating in an undebated tension. Confronted with such undiscussed tensions, professionals opt for reconciliation of the tension that open the door to creative practices.