NCJ Number
94186
Date Published
1984
Length
177 pages
Annotation
This British study analyzes tape-recorded interviews with 50 probation officers to determine how officers view and conduct themselves in a role that involves the contradictory functions of social control and supportive care of the client.
Abstract
The 50 officers interviewed included trainees and main and senior grade probation officers (PO's) working in 3 probation and aftercare areas. The study also involved 6 months' observation in a number of probation offices, several prisons, a remand center, a detention center, a probation hostel, several intermediate treatment groups, a day treatment center, and a community service unit. Analytic themes were developed from the empirical data. The study concluded that the inherent aspects of probation work as it is formally defined and operated within the occupational culture account for the PO's general commitment to varying measures of social control. However, probation is viewed by the officers as a career in social work in its training, its selection, and the motivation of those who enter it. Control is seen as a necessary part of the work but unlikely to yield much job satisfaction in isolation from the caring and rehabilitative function. An obvious solution to the dichotomy of care and control is commitment to the belief that the control of behavior is an aspect of positive client development, but the study found that officers' approaches to their work are affected by the coexistence of two different approaches to deviants, one emphasizing free will and the other determinism. Officers working under a free will model aim at maximizing reform opportunities for the client, while officers embracing a determinist conception of deviance and social problems find the exercise of control more amenable. Officers express the view that recent developments in criminal justice under the 'justice model' have fostered an emphasis on the control aspects of probation. Chapter notes and a subject index are provided.