NCJ Number
80460
Date Published
1978
Length
68 pages
Annotation
The study attempts to demonstrate the effectiveness of training probation officers and volunteers in social learning principles by comparing groups of trained and untrained probation officers and volunteers.
Abstract
The issue is significant, as the trends toward deinstitutionalization of delinquent youths and toward development of juvenile community treatment programs increases the demand for probation officers skilled in techniques for treating the severe juvenile offender. Study groups consist of three officers and two volunteers in the training group and four officers and one volunteer in the comparison group; each subject selects a delinquent youth from his or her caseload for the study. All subjects come from a densely populated, urbanized area of New Jersey. Trainees undergo six training sessions of 2 and 1/2 hours each in which social learning intervention procedures were demonstrated; the comparison group continues its routine job assignment. Pretests and posttests are administered to both groups to determine subjects' effectiveness in intervention with the selected juveniles. Results indicate that the training group improves significantly more than the comparison group on the dependent measures determining level of knowledge and information. It is concluded that psychological intervention with delinquent youths should have a community-based rather than an institutional emphasis. A bibliography, tables, and appendixes containing sample instruments are supplied.