Social Work and Criminal Justice

SUMMARY

We shall begin with the principal, and complicated, conclusion: Regrettably, the social work profession has largely abandoned the criminal justice field. That is not to say that social workers are not employed in criminal justice settings. Certainly they are. Significant numbers of social workers earn their living as probation and parole officers, caseworkers in public defender offices, counselors in correctional institutions and halfway houses, and so on. As a profession, however, social work no longer has a major presence in the criminal justice field (Gibelman and Schervish, 1993). Relatively few social workers embark on their professional education with the aim of employment in the criminal justice field. Virtually no courses in social work education programs focus explicitly or comprehensively on criminal justice (Knox and Roberts, 2002; McNeece and Roberts, 1997). Workshops offered at professional conferences or continuing education seminars rarely focus on criminal justice issues per se. And, relatively little serious scholarship on criminal justice issues is authored by social workers.

Interestingly, this has not always been the state of affairs. Earlier in the profession's history, social workers were much more visible and vocal participants in dialogue, debate, research, and practice related to criminal justice. Ideally-in light of social work's unique perspectives on practice and social problems, and the profession's noble value base-the profession will reclaim its preoccupation with criminal justice. As Sarri (2001) concludes with respect to social workers' involvement in the juvenile justice system in particular:

Thirty years ago, social workers were in leadership positions in juvenile justice in the majority of states. In the 1980s, a gradual decline began in agencies and in social work education for practice in juvenile justice. Some have suggested that the decline was at least partially due to professional resistance to working in coercive settings with involuntary clients. However, given the millions of people now caught up in the criminal justice system who are not receiving the social services they desperately need, it is a priority that social work return to a more central role in criminal justice. (p. 453)     

The Relationship Between Schools of Social Work,Social Research,and Social Policy

This paper outlines a curriculum model for the continuing education of graduate social workers. The curriculum plan is based on the assumption that western industrial man has entered a new era—the cybercultural era. The paper argues that the graduate practitioner must be retooled to fit the conditions and circumstances of the new era. Eight knowledge areas are explored as priorities in this continuing education plan: the nature of global ecology, the nature of mass organization, the nature of youth, the nature of the new economy, the nature of contemporary politics, the nature of inter group communications, the nature of professionalization, and the condition of social work theory. Through the exploration of these knowledge areas, it is felt that a new updated social work practice theory will be developed.     

Social Security in the Middle East

Abstract

The countries of the Middle East all have traditional social insurance type social security programs. The move towards defined contribution individual accounts that is occurring in some regions has not affected this region The social security programs in the Middle East are not facing the problems of financing found in Europe and North America, in part because they still have relatively high fertility rates and are thus little affected by population aging. They tend to have low retirement ages and some of the wealthy countries of the region provide very generous benefits. Many of them need to consider reforms that raise retirement ages. A characteristic of many of the social security old-age benefit programs of the region is that they exclude foreign workers, who in some countries account for more than half the workforce.     

The Myth of Global Social Work: Double Standards and the Local-Global Divide

The push towards “global standards” in social work is part of a movement to generate uniformity, quality control, and benchmarking for professional education programs. It acts as a powerful vestige of modern institutions and professional associations to prescribe through processes of standardization, formalization, and technical specificity. In social work “global standards” attempt to create a fixed set of minimal requirements to which all professional programs should adhere. Standards are viewed along two dimensions: (i) as a necessity due to the changes and scale of complexity in social work; and (ii) as a vehicle for importing dominant forms of knowledge, values, and skills. Those parties who enthusiastically underwrite attempts to construct “global standards” in fact create a powerful network of allies that undermine local or cultural differences and fail to reconcile them. Global standards in social work undercut indigenous skills and values and negate the expertise of professional judgement. They constitute an unnecessary and politically motivated intrusion in the world of social workers. Ultimately, standards such as these are an illegitimate, impersonal, and voluntary means of regulation. As such, global standards are inherently political because their construction and application formally regulates the local practices in which they become embedded. Over time, they modify the position of social work practitioners and alter relations of accountability to the standards themselves.     

Professional Socialization: A Bridge Between the Explicit and Implicit Curricula

Professional socialization has become a notable construct for social work with the publication of the Council on Social Work Education's (2008) revised Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards. Though historically regarded as essential, little is known about the professional socialization of social workers. This article presents professional socialization as a key element that bridges the explicit and implicit curricula. Results from this study provide empirical support for a theoretical framework of the professional socialization of social workers with a particular focus on factors that predict professional socialization, which is defined as a multidimensional, temporal construct beginning before formal education and continuing after it, with values, attitudes, and professional identity as outcomes. Implications for social work education, development of systematic research in this area, and recruitment and retention are discussed.     

The Problem of Pseudoscience in Social Work Continuing Education

The National Association of Social Workers requires social workers to obtain continuing education (CE) after they receive their social work degrees. A large and profitable industry that has emerged catering to this need for CE that is particularly focused on the needs of licensed social workers. Quality control mechanisms in place to monitor the content and delivery of CE approved by the field of social work is relatively lax, and as a result a considerable number of social work CE programs convey content that can be labeled as pseudoscientific. We provide illustrations of currently approved social work CE courses that provide training in a variety of bizarre and unsupported assessment methods and treatments that are pseudoscientific.     

Social Work Practice in Mental Health: An Introduction

The results of empirical research suggest that the ability to assess, regulate, and utilize emotions is important to the performance of health professionals. Nevertheless, few professional programs adequately address this matter in their curricula. The main objective of the present research was to examine whether emotional intelligence and empathy could be improved in the traditional classroom, employing experiential teaching modes. Pre- and post-questionnaires were used to assess the emotional competencies of 165 social work undergraduate students. The results indicated an increase in emotional intelligence at the end of a course for advanced-year students. Overall empathy had not increased for both first- and advanced-year students. Further findings indicated significant correlation between empathy and emotional intelligence at the end of a course for advanced-year students compared with an insignificant correlation at the beginning of the course, whereas for first-year students, findings were in the opposite direction. Future research should focus on strategies for the teaching and professional training of social workers that promote emotional competencies.     

People and Contexts: Social Development from Birth to Old Age,by Henry S. Maas. Englewood Cliffs,New Jersey: Prentice-Hall,Inc., 1984

Abstract

Throughout the history of professional social work education, the liberal arts have been regarded as not simply the most suitable basis for professional education but as the essential basis. As undergraduate programs developed more fully, liberal arts content inevitably decreased. Also, because graduate programs rely increasingly on undergraduate programs for students, the need to define clearly the nature and purpose of liberal education for social work students has become even more apparent. This article addresses the purposes of liberal education and the “content” versus “perspective” controversies and their relation to social work preparation. The premise is that social work has a natural alliance with the liberal arts. For one reason, social work is a complex set of “ideals” reflecting many ideas that have had currency over the century in the literature, politics, economics, history, philosophy, and the human and natural sciences that compose the liberal arts. Social work is not so much “technology of intervention” or science, as it is applied humanistic value. As such, the relationship of social work to the liberal arts is one of intertwined strands. This article proposes that social work education emphasize the ideas, assumptions, and events that have shaped, and are shaping, the profession, and in so doing, recast and strengthen its relationship with the liberal arts.     

Professional identity and continuing education: A study of social workers in hospital settings

In a Master of Social Work study, looking at Continuing Professional Education (CPE) for social workers, it was found that the profession's status and image are linked to the status of continuing professional education. Other major findings were that the schools of social work have not inculcated the concept of CPE into undergraduates as a norm, and that until the recent establishment of the National Continuing Professional Education and Practice Standards Project, the profession itself had not accorded CPE a high status. Such long-term neglect has impacted on the position of social work in organisations and on the professional identity of workers. The study was undertaken from a qualitative perspective, with the data arising from the field. Interviews were held in focus groups which consisted of social workers in teaching hospitals at various levels: new graduates of less than two years experience, experienced workers of more than five years experience and co-ordinators of CPE programs. The interviews were guided by an inquiry instrument, and conducted at six metropolitan hospitals in Melbourne with fifty social workers participating.     

Attitudes and Opinions Regarding the Use of the Internet for Continuing Education Among Social Workers

SUMMARY

Development of continuing education opportunities for social work license renewal requires participant access to the Internet, knowledge of the Internet's use and willingness to enroll in such programs. A survey of a random sample of licensed social workers in New Mexico revealed that 71% of participants (N = 403) have used the Internet while 61% reported no formal training in the use of the Internet and its features. Findings are reported that reveal substantial interest among subjects in the Internet as a medium for continuing education programs for license renewal.     

The Dawn is Too Distant: The Experience of 28 Social Work Graduates Entering the Social Work Field in China

Nurturing new, competent social work professionals requires multilevel preparation extending from school to the workplace. However, not much has been done to understand this school-to-work transition process in countries where the social work profession is still in an early stage of development. This paper reports the findings of an exploratory qualitative study of 28 new social workers in China, where social work is an emerging profession, on how they entered the field and what challenges they encountered. Their stories indicate that what they learned in school did form a foundation for the establishment of their professional identity in the workplace. However, due to workplace politics and to the lack of recognition of their professional status, they experienced an unsettling induction process. Coupled with the challenges of inadequate financial compensation, the careers of these new social workers may face an early end despite the great future for the profession promised by the government. Implications of this study for social work education in China are also discussed.     

Social work training in Central and Eastern Europe: Experiences in Bulgaria and Slovakia

The authors draw on their experiences as members of EU-funded projects for training social workers in post-communist countries to reflect on developments in social work education there and in the United Kingdom. They argued that the emergence of social work in Central and Eastern Europe has a double agenda—to improve professional skills and values in the public services, and to contribute to the strengthening of a democratic and participatory civil society. Hence it is concerned both with changing the organizational culture and practices of the official social services, and with promoting voluntary organizations, community associations and service-user groups. Training in partnership, negotiation, networking and empowerment is as relevant as the teaching and learning of professional competences. This double agenda leads to tensions, both within universities and in various parts of the organizational systems in which social workers are employed. But these issues are not fundamentally different from the ones still being struggled over in the UK context. Similar issues over the respective roles of official social control and the authoritative enforcement of responsibilities, and empowerment and participation among excluded and deprived communities, are central to British social work education also.     

Report of the Departmental Task Force on Social Work Education and Manpower. Washington,D.C.: U.S. Department of Health,Education, and Welfare, 1966. 90 pp., $.55

The continuum of education for social work will be deficient until it systematically includes continuing education opportunities for workers employed at the bachelor's level. The paper addresses the importance of attractiveness and relevancy in the design of continuing education for members of this substantial component of social service manpower. It discusses ways of facilitating movement by more bachelor-level workers than at present into graduate-level training, and suggests several ideas for an educational design relating to continuity and progression in career learning, and to competency, career advancement, and continuing professionalization.     

Values,Commitments, and Ethics of Social Work in the United States

Social workers in the U.S. practice at the margins of society where value conflicts in the larger culture are particularly acute. This paper reviews the value and ethical conflicts that social workers encounter daily and explores the impact of the continuing drive for professional recognition and status upon the profession's traditional commitment to the poor.     

The Early Professional Experience of a New Social Worker in China

Social work is emerging as a rapidly developing profession in mainland China, a unique context that affects how these new social workers view themselves, their professional identity, and their work. Few studies explore the lived experiences of these new social workers as they enter agencies and begin working with clients while interacting with larger systems that influence clients and social workers alike. This case study highlights the experience of one of the first professionally educated social workers in Shanghai and describes the challenges and achievements of her first 5 years of professional practice. This case highlights the professional experiences and feelings of many social workers in China. We give recommendations for social work education and training.     

Social security in the Middle East: a brief review

The countries of the Middle East all have traditional social insurance type social security programs. The move towards defined contribution individual accounts that is occurring in some regions has not affected this region The social security programs in the Middle East are not facing the problems of financing found in Europe and North America, in part because they still have relatively high fertility rates and are thus little affected by population aging. They tend to have low retirement ages and some of the wealthy countries of the region provide very generous benefits. Many of them need to consider reforms that raise retirement ages. A characteristic of many of the social security old-age benefit programs of the region is that they exclude foreign workers, who in some countries account for more than half the workforce.     

Continuing Social Work Education: Results of a Delphi Survey

This study addresses the need for social work professionals to remain current with the changing bases of knowledge and skills that impact on their daily experience. Continuing social work education is assumed to be one of the most effective means of avoiding professional obsolescence. The purposes of the study were to achieve a level of consensus relative to theories, methodologies, and content areas of continuing social work education and then to project a functional model of continuing social work education useful for intermediate and long-range program planning.     

Early Childhood Education and Care as a Social Work Issue

Early childhood education and care affects millions of young people, their parents, and ultimately society at large. Social workers are employed directly in early childhood education and care programs and also witness the results of inadequate early interventions in various practice settings. Yet social workers do little of the research related to this topic. Numerous issues relate to both social work and to thoughtful discussions of early childhood education and care, including the unequal use of high quality early education programs, which is ultimately a social justice issue. This article elucidates how social workers can and why they should contribute to practice, policy, and research related to early childhood education and care.     

Perceived Levels of Cultural Competence for School Social Workers: A Follow-Up Study

The purpose of this article is to report on findings from a follow-up study that examined the relationship among social work education programs, postgraduate professional development, and school social workers’ perceived levels of cultural competence in practice with urban minority youth. The initial study demonstrated that African Americans perceived a higher level of cultural competence than their Anglo American counterparts did. Findings highlight the need to understand the processes by which practitioners become culturally competent for urban school social work practice. Underscoring the importance of professional development, the authors determined that geographic location of practice may serve as a factor that influences how practitioners anticipate the need for culturally competent practice with diverse populations. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

Readiness to practice social work in Aotearoa New Zealand: perceptions of students and educators

The readiness to practice of newly qualified social workers in Aotearoa New Zealand is a contested subject. In recent years, criticism by public figures including government ministers and the New Zealand government-appointed Children’s Commissioner have stimulated debate within the profession. Media critique of social work practice has highlighted many of the challenges faced by social workers. Significant policy developments, in particular a substantive government review of child protection services, have also increased the scrutiny of the capabilities of social workers.

A timely 3-year multi-phase project ‘Enhancing readiness to practise’ is the first large study of social work education to be funded in Aotearoa New Zealand. The findings reported here have been derived from data collected in a series of focus group interviews with social work educators and students, in which they reflected on curricula in their programs and explored their perceptions of readiness to practice. Overall, educators were positive about the preparedness of their graduating students but held concerns over the organizational environments they would enter. Students were more ambivalent about their readiness, but hopeful and committed to ongoing learning. Development of programs to support graduates to transition to employment is recommended.