Have Community Supervision Officers Changed Their Attitudes Toward Their Work?

• NCJ Number: 120088
• Journal: Justice Quarterly Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Dated: (June 1989) Pages: 233-246
• Date Published: 1989
• Author(s): P M Harris; T R Clear; S C Baird
• Length: 14 pages
• Grant Number(s): 83-IJ-CX-0005
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Survey

Annotation

Studies of probation and parole officers' attitudes conducted in the 1960s and 1970s indicated respondents' preference for assistance over authority as the most important goal of community supervision.

Abstract

The present research compares results obtained from the 1970s and 1980s applications of the Authority/Assistance Questionnaire and the Correctional Policy Inventory. The findings point not only to increased concern for authority but also to the diminished meaningfulness of the assistance objective. The authors suggest that a new emphasis on surveillance, in which delivery on service is largely a means for monitoring client risk, has "crowded" the rehabilitative ideal. 4 tables, 25 references. (Publisher abstract)