What matters most in probation supervision: Staff characteristics, staff skills or programme?
| Author | Ioan Durnescu |
| Date | 01 April 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1748895811428174 |
| Published date | 01 April 2012 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Criminology & Criminal Justice
12(2) 193 –216
© The Author(s) 2012
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DOI: 10.1177/1748895811428174
crj.sagepub.com
What matters most in
probation supervision:
Staff characteristics, staff
skills or programme?
Ioan Durnescu
University of Bucharest, Romania
Abstract
This article explores what the existing literature has to say about what is most important in
the probation supervision: staff characteristics, staff skills or programmes? In broader historical
perspective, the story begins in a time when the probation officer was cast as ‘a man of God
… full of the milk of human kindness’ (Jarvis, 1972: 8) and arrives in the present day when the
probation officer looks like ‘homo technicus’; equipped to deliver sophisticated programmes.
One important observation of this critical historical analysis is that although they were considered
essential in the early days, the centrality of staff characteristics faded from view in the years after
professionalization. At the same time staff skills and programmes came to be seen as more and
crucial in probation supervision. A possible explanation of these developments is that the quest
for professionalization increased the pressure on probation practice to gain public recognition,
and that this was pursued through the imperative of objectification (Kaufmann, 1998 [1996])
which forces all sciences to use observable tools. Another explanation of the disappearance
of probation characteristics in the literature could be that the current mainstream research
methodologies are not fully capable of capturing the complexities of the human and social worlds
in which supervision takes place. By using Cohen’s (1985) and Garland’s (2001) work, it also
provided a possible framework for understanding this dynamic within a broader crime control
perspective. At the end of the article the author suggests some ideas that could be explored
in future research.
Keywords
desistance, effectiveness, industrialization, probation, programme, research methods, RNR,
social casework, staff skills and characteristics, What Works
Corresponding author:
Ioan Durnescu, University of Bucharest, 36–46 M. Kogalniceanu Street, Sector 5, Bucharest, Romania
Email: idurnescu@gmail.com
428174CRJ12210.1177/1748895811428174DurnescuCriminology & Criminal Justice
2012
Article
194 Criminology & Criminal Justice 12(2)
Introduction
The aim of this article is to provide a critical historical analysis of the literature on the
question of what matters most in probation supervision: staff characteristics, staff skills
or programme? Since there have been few empirical studies focusing on this topic
and insufficient data in the published materials, a meta-analysis was considered to be
premature.
Instead, using different keywords (like probation staff, probation staff characteris-
tics, effectiveness, probation programme and so on) the relevant literature was chosen
from a significant number of databases. Books and handbooks were identified, using
the same keywords in the library search engines.1 The language used in this search was
English and the libraries contacted were in England and Wales and the research
accordingly covers these countries, which constitute a single jurisdiction. Taking into
consideration the similarities between Anglo-Saxon countries in terms of probation
development, it is likely that some of the comments resonate also with other jurisdictions
(for a full account of the commonalities in pressures and demands on practice across the
world see Vanstone, 2008).
In this article the concept of staff skill is understood as ‘a complex organization of
behaviour directed towards a particular goal or activity’ (Datar et al., 2010: xxxi).
Furthermore, skills are explicit behaviours that can be learnt and refined through expo-
sure and experience. Examples of probation skills include skills of communication
(especially interviewing) and personal engagement that staff require to undertake
assessment, planning, intervention and evaluation. In contrast, staff characteristics are
moral qualities or personality features that can be considered as inner traits of the pro-
bation officer that are relevant to his/her job (e.g. being reliable, respectful, trustworthy
and so on). Obviously there is no clear-cut distinction between these two categories, but
overlaps and shifting boundaries. One example of this is empathy. Some authors con-
sider empathy as inherited or a personality feature, while others argue that empathy can
be taught and could therefore be considered as a professional skill (Trotter, 2006). The
term ‘programme’ in the probation context refers to a planned sequence of learning
opportunities (McGuire, 2001). Thus a programme is an organized and systematic
intervention directed towards specific objectives. The term ‘programme’ will be used to
refer not only to the sequenced and systematic interventions associated with What
Works, as will be discussed later on, but also to the diverse range of methods that have
been employed by probation officers to bring about change.
The article is divided into seven parts. The first six of these describe the profile of the
probation officer in different eras of probation history, exploring the relative emphasis on
staff skills, characteristics and programmes in each period (following Vanstone, 2004).
Although these eras are described as having distinct time limits, in reality there is no such
clear-cut differentiation. Aspects of probation ideals and practices from the early days
can be found nowadays under different names or in different practice paradigms.
Sometimes distinctive probation practices run in parallel. Even in the present time,
although the mainstream rhetoric is towards managerialism and risk assessment there are
probation officers practising social casework (Deering, 2010). The last part of the article
presents the conclusions and suggests some directions for further research.
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