NCJ Number
80045
Journal
Justitiele verkenningen Issue: 2 Dated: (1979) Pages: 29-39
Date Published
1979
Length
11 pages
Annotation
The results of a survey of Dutch rehabilitation and probation officials to establish what special training is needed for social workers involved in offender rehabilitation and probation work are summarized.
Abstract
Rehabilitation workers have the task of providing help and support to individuals who have come into contact with the justice system. At the same time, rehabilitation workers must supply information to justice officials which may be used in prosecuting suspects. Client contact usually comes when the social worker is called in by the justice system at some phase of the justice proceedings against an individual. Assistance may be brief, as in the case of early assistance immediately after arrest, but may also continue for the duration of judicial proceedings. Client problems may be related to the legal proceedings themselves, to practical matters such as housing, or to personal and family circumstances. In addition, the social worker must deal with a variety of officials, including police officers, lawyers, and judges, all of whom must be approached differently. A survey of training institutes indicates that social workers are trained for general social work without specialization in rehabilitation and probation functions. General training encompasses factual information about social work; little attention is devoted to social laws, writing skills, family and group treatment methods, or knowledge of deviant behavior. Trainees are not taught short-term crisis intervention skills or how to deal with unmotivated clients, to interface with other organizations and officials, and to understand criminology and criminal court procedures. In general, training institutes emphasize theory rather than practical applications. A basic training plan for rehabilitation workers proposes a 3-year continuing education course which encompasses 1 year of instruction on the justice system, law, investigation techniques and other basic information; a second supervised year emphasizing the position of the social worker in the system; and a third year to be determined more exactly. Such a continuing education system is needed to assure both a broad background in social work and specialized rehabilitation knowledge with skills in such matters as dealing with unmotivated clients, concrete assistance, and short-term intervention.