NCJ Number
84902
Date Published
1969
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Two dimensions of probation decisionmaking of particular relevance to the professionalization of staff and services are the formal structure of the probation agency as a social system and the different types of decisions and their relation to agency structure and function.
Abstract
An analysis of probation as a social system indicates that the probation officer functions in a bureaucratic structure, where positions are organized into a hierarchical authority structure. The officer is accountable to a superior and is dependent upon superiors rather than colleagues for rewards and approval. Further, most officers are not professionally trained, since less than 10 percent have graduate training in social work. Although increasing emphasis has been given to graduate education and improved staff training in an effort to professionalize the probation staff, this alone will not result in the professionalization of probation staff, given the bureaucratic structure of the organization. Unless the autonomy of the officer in decisionmaking is expanded in appropriate areas and the officer can turn to colleagues in the field for judgment on performance, a professional orientation will not develop. Autonomy and colleague performance assessments must develop in the areas of (1) case decisions, which involve the probationer for whom programs are designed; (2) policy decisions, which are concerned with broad issues that guide agency operations; and (3) operational decisions, which affect the implementation of policy decisions. Eleven footnotes are listed.