Exploring probation officer styles and goals with individual, organizational, and social characteristics
| Author | Brian Payne,Matthew DeMichele |
| DOI | 10.1177/2066220318822845 |
| Published date | 01 December 2018 |
| Date | 01 December 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Original Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/2066220318822845
European Journal of Probation
2018, Vol. 10(3) 232 –248
© The Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/2066220318822845
journals.sagepub.com/home/ejp
Exploring probation officer
styles and goals with
individual, organizational,
and social characteristics
Matthew DeMichele
RTI International, USA
Brian Payne
Old Dominion University, USA
Abstract
Probation offices are organizational units that provide the structure necessary to develop
shared meaning systems that influence individual level attitudes, values, and beliefs. We
analyze survey responses (n = 252) from county-level probation departments (n = 19)
in a single state. The dependent variables are three-factor scales combining items to
measure enforcement, reentry, and protection scales. Our central goal is to determine
if the authoritarian (i.e. law enforcement) and assistance (i.e. social worker) typologies
predict supervision goals. The robust regression analyses show that department (e.g.
caseload size, number of officers) and county-level measures of poverty and percent
black in the population are significant factors for enforcement and reentry. The article
concludes with policy implications.
Keywords
Officer attitudes, organizations, probation, supervision goals
Introduction
Probation departments are social and cultural systems. These systems introduce agents to
varying levels of authoritarian and rehabilitative altitudinal dispositions (e.g. Clear and
Corresponding author:
Matthew DeMichele, RTI International, Applied Justice Research Division, Center for Courts and Corrections
Research, 3040 Cornwallis Road, P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194, USA.
Email: mdemichele@rti.org
822845EJP0010.1177/2066220318822845European Journal of ProbationDeMichele and Payne
2019
Article
DeMichele and Payne 233
Latessa, 1990). These attitudes shape officers’ views about how to interact with proba-
tioners and inform officers’ decision making such that officer attitudes contribute to pro-
bationer outcomes. Probation offices are organizational units that provide the rules,
routines, policies, and procedures necessary to develop shared meaning systems that
shape individual level attitudes, values, and beliefs (Katz, 1982; Scott, 2001). We ana-
lyze survey responses from 19 county-level probation departments in a single state in the
US to determine the association between authority and assistance probation officer
frameworks with three scales measuring officers’ views of the goals of supervision. We
use the authority and assistance scales developed by Glaser (1969), adapted by Clear and
Latessa (1990), and extended by Steiner et al. (2011). Our intention is to determine how
well these frameworks explain officers’ use of enforcement, reentry, and protection goals
of supervision.
The theoretical unpinning for this study incorporates organizational studies, social
psychology, and criminal justice literatures. Bringing these theories together allows us to
view probation officers’ styles and goals as a combination of social, organizational, and
individual characteristics. Organizational studies have shown that a central feature of
organizations is to embed employees with “values beyond the technical requirements of
the task at hand” by having them adopt organizational views (Selznick, 1957: 17).
Bureaucratic structures encourage workers to conform to organizational rules to such an
extent that that they will replace a priori individual values with newly embraced “organi-
zational attitudes of moral legitimacy” when making decisions as part of their job duties
(Merton, 1940: 202).
Community corrections agencies are situated within broader social and cultural struc-
tures. Departments will adopt policies and procedures that reflect the sentiments and
preferences for punishment that emulate broader community values (Garland, 2001).
Officers’ attitudes tend to align within departments, and a department’s orientation
toward supervision will reflect the communities’ attitude toward crime and punishment.
Organizational scholars have found that the layered nature of organizational goals (e.g.
reentry, enforcement, public protection) and attitudes (e.g. authority, assistance) reflect
social dispositions in several other fields. DiMaggio and Powell (1983) demonstrated
that the tendency for organizations to become more similar as a way to reflect the struc-
tural and cultural influences in which they are embedded (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983;
Grattet and Jenness, 2005; Scott, 2001).
Social psychologists have shown attitudes to be a central aspect to understand
human behavior. In a series of research projects, however, Martin Fishbein and Icek
Ajzen (e.g. 1975) questioned the prevailing multidimensional view of attitudes and
demonstrated that beliefs provide the causal basis of attitudes, and attitudes provide a
causal basis for action (Ajzen, 2012; Ajzen and Fishbein, 1977; Fishbein and Ajzen,
1975). In their theory of attitude, Ajzen and Fishbein (1977: 888) showed “that peo-
ple’s actions are found to be systematically related to their attitudes when the nature of
the attitudinal predictors and behavioral criteria” are considered. Probation officers
have broad discretion when working with supervisees, and prior criminological
research has investigated the link between officer between attitudes (i.e. orientations)
and their goals of supervision.
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
