Social Work Education, Pro-Social Orientation And Effective Probation Practice
| Published date | 01 December 2000 |
| Date | 01 December 2000 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455050004700405 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
256
Social
Work
Education,
Pro-Social
Orientation
And
Effective
Probation
Practice
Chris
Trotter
discusses
the
practical
implications
of
his
research
in
Victoria,
Australia,
which
found
that
social
work
and
welfare
trained
probation
officers
were
more
likely
to
learn
and
make
use
of
effective
practices,
which
were
in
turn
linked
to
significantly
lower
rates
of
re-offending.
his
paper
is
about
effective
practice
J!!L
in
probation
work.
It
reports
on
a
study
undertaken
in
Community
Corrections
in
Victoria,
Australia.
Although
’Community
Corrections’
replaced
the
term
’Probation
Service’
some
years
ago
in
Victoria,
the
structure
of
the
Service
is
similar
to
that
of
the
Probation
Service
in
the
UK.
It
provides
supervision
of
offenders
on
community
corrections
orders
and
parole,
and
co-ordination
of
treatment
programmes.
An
important
point
to
note
is
that,
unlike
in
the
UK,
Victorian
probation
officers
are
not
required
to
have
a
specific
professional
qualification
to
obtain
employment
in
Community
Corrections.
They
tend
to
have
backgrounds
in
a
range
of
disciplines
including,
for
example,
criminology,
social
work,
youth
work
and
psychology.
’What
is
effective
practice?’
is
of
course
a
complex
question,
and
the
complexities
of
measuring
effectiveness
in
probation
work
are
well
articulated
by
McNeill
(2000)
in
an
earlier
edition
of
Probation
Journal.
Nevertheless,
for
the
purposes
of
this
paper
effective
practice
is
defined
in
perhaps
limited
terms,
as
that
which
leads
to
reduced
rates
of
re-offending.
The
reduction
of
re-offending
is
viewed
as
one
legitimate
aim
of
probation.
Some
of
the
research,
particularly
the
more
recent
meta-analyses,
suggests
that
correctional
interventions
including
probation
supervision
may
be
effective,
ineffective
or
even
harmful,
depending
on
how
the
intervention
is
structured
and
delivered
(Andrews et
al,
1990;
Andrews,
2000;
Gendreau,
1996;
Lipsey,
1991).
This
paper
provides
a
summary
of
a
study
conducted
in
Australia
in
the
early
to
mid-
1990s
which
supports
this
view;
it
also
discusses
why
some
probation
officers
choose
to
make
use
of
more
effective
practices
and
some
choose
not
to.
It
then
discusses
some
impediments
to
and
strategies
for
implementing
more
effective
practice.
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