The Balance between Care and Control in Probation: A Research Note

Summary The study explores the probation experience of thirty male probationersand their probation officers and their perceptions of it Traditionallyprobation work is often analysed in terms of a polarity or continuumbetween care and control or treatment and punishment. The relevanceof these and other ideological constructs is challenged by empiricaldata which suggests that the probation service is mainly concernedwith providing relief and service to clients who face difficultenvironmental and social pressures. It is need, rather thantreatment or control, which dominates the probation process.     

Perceptions of Staff Supervision in the Probation Service

Summary This study collates and comments upon the views of main-gradeprobation officers in West Yorkshire on the subject of staffsupervision. It shows that a majority of officers hold positiveopinions about supervision, provided that it is related to assistingthem in their main task of helping clients. The use of supervisionas a means of administrative control over standards of workis acceptable only to a minority of officers. The article includesa detailed analysis of the content of officers' own definitionsof supervision from which many examples are quoted. It showsalso the degree of importance accorded to supervision in relationto other probation officer and senior probation officer functions.     

Research note. An evaluation of motivational interviewing as a method of intervention with clients in a probation setting

Summary There have been increasing calls on the probation service todemonstrate effectiveness with the recent Evidence Based Practiceguide (Home Office, 1998) explicitly citing evaluative researchas a means of achieving this. This article describes the quantitativepart of a research project undertaken within Middlesex ProbationService to evaluate the introduction of motivational interviewingas a technique to aid probation officers in their assessmentand supervision of offenders who misuse alcohol and drugs. Resultssuggest that, irrespective of stratification, all offendersindicated an improvement in their questionnaire scores duringtheir contact with the probation service. However, there weremore statistically significant improvements in the attitudinalscales amongst offenders whose officers were trained in thetechnique compared to officers who were not trained in motivationalinterviewing.     

Decision Making and Social Inquiry Reports in One Juvenile Court

Summary In 1965 it was already the practice of this juvenile court torequire the preparation of pretrial social inquiry reports.The study examined the effects of particular types of information,including the probation officers' advice, on the court's disposaldecisions. For the majority of cases the Bench and the probationofficers, in terms of their advice in the social inquiry reports,agreed on the disposal that was ‘obviously’ themost suitable for a particular offender, while in a substantialminority of cases the Bench ‘deferred’ to the adviceoffered and rejected the advice in less than 10% of cases. Themagistrates indicated that the offenders' home background, followedby the seriousness of their offences, were the two most importantfactors they took into account in arriving at their disposaldecisions. In spite of the close agreement between the magistratesand the probation officers on the most suitable disposals forparticular offenders, the effectiveness of the disposals, measuredby the proportions of offenders reconvicted during the fiveyears following the disposals, was no better than expected.The statistical association between the measure of the offenders'home background (based mainly on the content of the social inquiryreport) and the likelihood of reconviction was low enough toquestion the relevance of this kind of information for the selectionof effective juvenile court disposals.     

Social Work Ideologies in the Probation Service

Summary The research described in this paper was an attempt to exploresome aspects of social work ideology in the probation service.We were particularly interested to identify the extent to whichprobation officers subscribed to certain ‘treatment model’assumptions about criminal behaviour. The project was designedas a small-scale study in depth of probation officers' socialinquiry practices. The data-collection methods used for thiswere a combination of depth interviews with probation officerswho also completed self-administered questionnaires. We foundthat some probation officers appeared to subscribe to ‘treatmentmodel‘ ideals more than others, but that all probationofficers were treatment orientated towards some of their casesand not to others. Their treatment preferences seems to relateto the seriousness of the offender's criminal history and personalproblems and the recommendation that was being made. Some ofthe implications of these findings for social work practicewere discussed.     

The Objectives of the Probation Service

Summary Two kinds of objective are identified: an organizational objectiveconcerned with efficiency, and a functional objective concernedwith the effectiveness of the service. Increasing responsibilitiesin respect of social enquiry work, parole, after-care and prisonwelfare have been absorbed remarkably smoothly during the 1960s,and even the inevitable administrative changes have been lessdisruptive than might have been anticipated. Any discussionabout the 'effectiveness' of the probation service highlightsthe need to clarify its purposes and its functions. It is arguedthat, although most officers would accept that their primaryfunction is and has traditionally been that of exercising oversightover the offender on behalf of the court and the community,there are unmistakeable signs that pressure will be broughtto bear on the probation service to adopt a more treatment-orientatedapproach. The switch to such a correctional role is bound todisturb the organizational objectives of the service, and raisequestions about the place of casework theory in the trainingand supervision of probation officers     

Probation Officers Working with Men

Correspondence to Jonathan Scourfield, School of Social and Administrative Studies, University of Wales Cardiff, 50 Park Place, Cardiff CF1 3AT, UK. Summary Recent debates on making masculinities explicit in work withoffenders are reviewed as the context for a qualitative researchstudy. Interviews were conducted with probation officers andfiles and pre-sentence reports read with the aim of exploringthe construction of masculinities within the probation service.Tensions about gender were found within and between the threeareas of professional rhetoric, practice and internal relations.The most significant finding is a gap between rhetoric and practice.While most officers interviewed spoke of an interest in focusingeither directly or indirectly on their clients' identity asmen, the files and reports found only a very small amount ofdirect work on this. There was a larger amount of evidence ofwork that could be seen as indirectly challenging masculinites,but another significant part of the files and reports on menreflected a tendency towards ignoring gender or even colludingwith oppressive masculinities.     

Probation Training and the Community Justice Curriculum

Summary In England and Wales the Diploma in Social Work was supersededby the more specialized Diploma in Probation Studies in 1997/98as a basic qualification for probation officers. It combinesacademic and practical learning in the form of a two-year undergraduatedegree and a twelve-module National Vocational Qualification(NVQ). There was considerable professional opposition to thisat the time and opinion remains mixed as to how justifiablethe change was, and how successful it has been. This articleseeks to defend the principle of combining the academic andthe practical but, via a critique of two recent commentarieson the Diploma in Probation Studies, questions whether the ideaof academic teaching on a professional qualification has beenadequately conceptualized and implemented. It argues againstteaching that is governed uncritically by the protocols andproblematics of pure academic disciplines, and insists uponthe use of material which is selected and tailored to the intellectualneeds of working probation officers. It outlines a better conceptualizationof what a ‘community justice curriculum’ might looklike, based in part on the approach taken to probation trainingat the University of Birmingham.     

Work Satisfaction in Probation and Social Work

Correspondence to Professor Martin Davies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ. Summary The design and preliminary development of a research instrumentintended to provide comparable measures of work satisfactionwithin different social work settings is described. The resultsof administering it to two separate samples of social workersand probation officers are presented. It appears that probation officers feel themselves more highlyregarded by members of the general public and are less likelyto say they are badly paid; they enjoy more job autonomy; rathermore social workers tend to feel alienated at work, but mostbelieve that they have better chances of career advancementthan is the case in the probation service. There are broad similarities between the two work settings sofar as work with clients and attitudes towards colleagues areconcerned; it is argued that the emergence of these similaritiesis methodologically reassuring because it suggests the stabilityof the data overall, and therefore increases the likelihoodthat the findings regarding agency differences are a valid reflectionof social reality in each setting.     

Client Careers and the Structure of a Probation and After-care Agency

Summary This paper describes the results of a research project in whichthe first year's work of a newly-established Probation CourtIntake and Assessment Team was monitored. The subsequent changesin the practices of the probation officers are analyzed in relationto client careers and organizational boundaries; some implicationsfor social work practice are discussed.     

Using a Reconviction Predictor to Make Sense of Reconviction Rates in the Probation Service

Correspondence to John Wilkinson, Research Officer, Inner London Probation Service, Lansdale House, 57 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6AJ. Summary Reducing offending is a main aim of the probation service, butfew mechanisms exist to monitor how this is achieved. This paperdescribes how information about reconvictions can provide routinefeedback about effectiveness in combating offending. Using areconviction predictor, outcome, in terms of reconviction rate,can be evaluated against predicted outcome. A predictor wasvalidated for use in Inner London using case records. Informationwas obtained retrospectively about offenders at the start oftheir probation orders, and about subsequent reconvictions overthirteen months of probation. The predictor was found to haveconsiderable predictive power. The predictor was piloted forroutine use by probation officers, and a customized versionof the predictor was developed. The research is now moving intoa third stage, of developing an end of probation order returnwhich will supply information about reconvictions. Issues relatingto the use of reconvictions as a performance indicator, aondquestions of implementation, are discussed.     

Working with Prostitutes: Probation Officers' Aims and Strategies

Summary This small sample survey examines probation officers' aims andstrategies when working with street prostitutes within the contextof the Street Offences Act, and the results of their work. Itindicates that the officers fail in their main aim of encouragingstreet prostitutes to stay within the law because of the women'sintention to do otherwise. The officers' strategy of definingand tackling prostitutes' legal, emotional and material problemson an individual basis also leads to little impact being madeon such problems. The article suggests that probation officersmight more profitably adopt non-correctional aims when workingwith street prostitutes and consider alternative social workstrategies.     

Stress and Opportunity in the Role of the Prison Welfare Officer

Summary The role of social workers within the penal system has beenthe subject of much discussion and heart-searching by probationofficers and others since the probation service took on responsibilityfor rilling prison welfare posts in 1966. Many officers havebeen reluctant to undertake secondment as Prison Welfare Officersbecause of the difficulties of applying their social work trainingand experience in a penal setting and their fears of absorptioninto a punishment-oriented culture. This article explores thenature of the stresses involved in the practice of social workin this setting, and argues the case for the positive contributionthat social workers can make, at present often ignored in discussingthe stress and conflict inherent in the situation. Stress, itis argued, may be a necessary function of effective work inthis context, and the attempt to reduce it by giving the PWOa more detailed role definition and a clearer position withinthe prison hierarchy is premature. The role is best definedas it emerges from the experience of good practitioners withinthe setting, a concept which has implications for the choiceof probation officers for this type of work and for their approach.They should be able to see and utilize the opportunities foreffective social work, and incorporate available research ina flexible and imaginative methodology     

A Non-punitive Paradigm of Probation Practice: Some Sobering Thoughts

Dr L. R. Singer, Assistant Chief Probation Officier, Merseyside Probation Service, Rainford Hall, Crank Road, Crank, St Helens, Merseyside WA11 7RP. Summary The Government White Paper Crime, Justice and Protecting thePublic proposes a radical change for probation practice. Henceforthprobation work will no longer be an alternative to punishmentbut an alternative form of punishment. This article challengesthe conceptual and practical appropriateness of applying thenotion of punishment to the probation context. Probation officers,it is argued, are concerned with establishing rules for probationersand not inflicting pain on them. An alternative non-punitiveparadigm of probation practice is described. The paradigm isbased on the joint supervisory aims of support and surveillancewhich are implemented through the methods of counselling, assisting,directing, and monitoring. To illustrate the paradigm, referenceis made to an alcohol education course developed for offendersin trouble through drink. The efficacy of the alcohol projectand the non-punitive paradigm is demonstrated by the resultsreported from a three year evaluation study covering 152 offenders.The article concludes with an affirmation of the disciplinedbut non-punitive character of current probation work and arguesthat, to successfully protect the public and reintegrate offendersinto the community, the probation officer's employment of establishedsocial work knowledge, skills, and values is a strength nota weakness.     

Keeping the Probation Service Whole: The Case for Discretion

Summary The function of the probation service has been the discretionarymanagement of the tension between control and care. There wasa time when officers could make these discretionary decisionswith relative confidence, but structural pressures, togetherwith the decline of the correctional/treatment model have madethis more difficult. This has led to arguments for the separationof control and care functions. A recent attempt has been madeto re-instate the correctional/treatment model and this is discussedbut found to be unconvincing. The author presents his own argumentfor retaining discretion and describes how he believes it shouldbe managed.     

The Probation Officer as Social Worker

Summary In this article the author argues for a detachment of the probationservice from the function of carrying out court orders to superviseoffenders. He suggests that changes in social work traininghave not been matched by any fundamental changes in the probationservice's relationship with the court or by any fundamentalchanges in the probation service's own organization or philosophy.The consequence is that probation officers spend a disproportionateamount of time doing tasks for which their training has notequipped them. He postulates a new relationship between theprobation service and the courts which gives the former greaterautonomy in social work decision making, and gives the lattergreater scope to administer punishments within the community.The need to move away from the utilitarian justification forwork with offenders that it reduces crime is also urged, andit is suggested that there is a need to establish, as a value,the importance of social work provisions and counselling foroffenders as a deprived group in society, irrespective of theeffect of these measures on the crime rate.     

The probation service and the press: the curious incident of the dog in the night-time

Correspondence to: Meryl Aldridge, School of Social Studies, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD. Summary The preoccupation with adverse media coverage in many sectorsof social work is not shared by the probation service. On thecontrary: increasing resources are being devoted to trying toraise its profile in both national and local news media. Basedon an analysis of press coverage and interviews with staff involvedin probation external relations work, the paper opens with anexamination of a number of incidents which might have been expectedto result in unsolicited negative coverage but did not get takenup. What parallels can be drawn between national press reportingof the controversial child murder trials involving local authoritysocial services and the only probation equivalent: the ColinEvans case? Pro-active news management by the service both locallyand nationally is then discussed and, in the final section,the likely success of this strategy given the existing mediatreatment of the probation service is considered.     

Social Workers and Supervision Orders: A Case of Occupational Uncertainty

Summary A distinctive feature of the supervision order is that it canbe administered either by the Probation Service or by the LocalAuthority Social Services Department. An examination of the case files on a large sample of boys (N=971)aged 14–16 placed on supervision orders for criminal offencesreveals a number of differences between the way in which workersin the two agencies approach the task of supervision. The findingssuggest that social workers are in some respects less professionallysecure and certain as to their purpose in performing their supervisorytask than are probation officers. This is accounted for by locatingtheir practice in a number of intersecting contexts, includingan occupational ambivalence over the exercise of authority anda lack of clarity in relation to the role of welfare in thecontext of juridical requirements     

Compulsory Persuasion: A Problem for Correctional Social Work

Summary Social work risks being misused as a technique for controllingundesirable behaviour, regardless of clients' expectations orchoices. This approach to social work involves certain underlyingassumptions about human nature which raise considerable ethicaland practical difficulties. Recent trends in the probation andafter care service are considered, together with some researchstudies of the effectiveness of social work in reducing offendingbehaviour. From these it is argued that social work servicesfor offenders are more likely to be effective when the emphasisis on helping with perceived problems and difficulties ratherthan on crime prevention.     

From Hollis to the Orange Book: Developing a Holistic Model of Social Work Assessment in the 1990s

Correspondence to Margaret Lloyd, School of Social Work, University of Manchester, Dover Street, Manchester M13 9PL. Summary Amidst questioning of its essential identity, social work iscurrently developing new procedures and training programmesin assessment, traditionally one of its core activities. Thedemand for this redevelopment has been created by the changingprofessional climate in both probation and social work practice,in particular the response to legislative changes such as theNational Health Service and Community Care Act 1990. This paperexamines the established model of social work assessment inhistorical context and identifies its shortcomings for practicein the 1990s. It argues that despite the apparently diverserange of assessment tasks now undertaken by social workers andprobation officers, there remains an identifiable, common setof skills. Moreover, unless social work anchors these assessmentskills in a conceptual framework, retaining a sense of its ownhistory, the essential character of social work assessment willbe lost amidst mechanistic procedures and competing philosophies.This paper suggests a typology for making sense of the rangeof assessment tasks in current practice, arguing that this mustbe rooted in a holistic theoretical and philosophical model.The term ‘social work’ is used in its generic senseto include probation practice.