Accounting for Pre-Sentencing Recommendations: Typologies and Probation Officers' Theory of Office

• NCJ Number: 105995
• Journal: Social Problems Volume: 34 Issue: 3 Dated: (June 1987) Pages: 277-293
• Author(s): K A Drass; W J Spencer
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 18 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Many studies of social reactions to deviance have focused on how agents of social control make decisions, but little is known about how these agents produce accounts for their decisions.

Abstract

Research on accounts or rationales for decisions can provide important insights into the typologies of deviant actors used by agents in their daily work. We present an analysis of the accounts that probation officers produce as support for their evaluations of defendants during the presentencing process. Using quantitative and qualitative analytic techniques, we identify the typologies that officers employ when assessing a defendant as a 'high risk' for probation. We use the concept 'theory of office' to discuss how such typologies reflect the work perspectives used by agents in particular locations within the criminal justice system. (Author abstract)