The high recidivism rate of Black male juvenile offenders is a problem in the United States that continues to be of great concern. Probation has gained popularity as being a means of addressing and reducing the high recidivism rates of juvenile offenders. However, there is a lack of research regarding Black male juvenile probationers' perceptions of their probation officers' role in reducing their recidivism. This study examined the following: a) the predictive relationships between Black male probationers' perceptions of their probation officers, their perceptions of the probation officers' job, and their recidivism within 3 years of being place on probation; and (b) Black male probationers' perceptions of their probation officers, their perceptions of the probation officers' job, and their ratings of the probation officer's effectiveness in deterring their recidivism. Ecological systems theory was used as the theoretical foundation for guiding this research. Results from a logistic regression analysis showed that Black male probationers' perceptions of their probation officers and the job of their probation officers did not predict their recidivism. The study has implications for social change because the results provide empirical evidence regarding Black male probationer's perceptions of their probation officers and recidivism. Human services professionals, leaders in the criminal justice field, and policy makers could use findings from the study to advocate for the need to develop training programs for probation officers that foster positive relationship building between probationers and probation officers. The positive relationships may subsequently bring social change by reducing recidivism among Black juvenile male offenders.

Using questionnaire survey generated data from the DWI Probation Program in Dallas County. This study investigated the factors related to the perceived effectiveness of that program from the probationers perspectives. The findings in this study indicate that the perceived effectiveness of the DWI program by the probationers is an area that calls for more research and investigations. The findings have shown that factors related to the perceived effectiveness of the program by the probationers have a profound effect on the efficiency of the program as a whole in order to achieve its stated objectives.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

No description available.

No description available.

The vast number of individuals under correctional supervision in the United States has been an area of concern for decades. The correctional population as a whole is made up of approximately six million individuals, with approximately four million serving community sentences. It is essential to provide adequate services and resources to those serving community sentences due to the large number serving such sentences. To add to the concern is the immense number of offenders with mental illness under correctional supervision. Often, offenders with mental illness receive psychiatric services, but treatment programs that address the cause of criminal activity are neglected. The goal of this study is to examine scores from two assessment instruments measuring criminal thinking and the therapeutic alliance to determine their predictability for future criminal activity using a sample of thirty-five probationers with mental illness. Probationers completed both the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles and the Working Alliance Inventory in order to determine the extent of criminal cognitions and measure the relationship between therapist and patient and agreement towards the goals and tasks of therapy, respectively. Results indicate that probationers who score less favorably on each of the scales were more likely to obtain a new charge following completion of the program. Further, less Agreement on the Tasks of Therapy was a significant predictor for future criminal activity. This study adds to the correctional mental health treatment literature, and illuminates areas which can be improved and provides recommendations for future research.

The vast number of individuals under correctional supervision in the United States has been an area of concern for decades. The correctional population as a whole is made up of approximately six million individuals, with approximately four million serving community sentences. It is essential to provide adequate services and resources to those serving community sentences due to the large number serving such sentences. To add to the concern is the immense number of offenders with mental illness under correctional supervision. Often, offenders with mental illness receive psychiatric services, but treatment programs that address the cause of criminal activity are neglected. The goal of this study is to examine scores from two assessment instruments measuring criminal thinking and the therapeutic alliance to determine their predictability for future criminal activity using a sample of thirty-five probationers with mental illness. Probationers completed both the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles and the Working Alliance Inventory in order to determine the extent of criminal cognitions and measure the relationship between therapist and patient and agreement towards the goals and tasks of therapy, respectively. Results indicate that probationers who score less favorably on each of the scales were more likely to obtain a new charge following completion of the program. Further, less Agreement on the Tasks of Therapy was a significant predictor for future criminal activity. This study adds to the correctional mental health treatment literature, and illuminates areas which can be improved and provides recommendations for future research.

In a wide range of counselling situations, including those involving offenders, researchers have bemoaned the lack of consensus about outcome. Some researchers have argued that a lack of consensus is due to the fact that the different sources retain unique points of view, which can never be amalgamated into a common outcome. The current paper argues that, while sources will have their own unique perspective, it is possible to develop a meaningful consensus, if it is done very carefully. The factors which need to be taken into consideration are: measuring different outcomes; the different interpretation of the question by each source; and bias. An important outcome in correctional settings is an offender's current level of criminality, or likelihood of reoffending. It was hypothesised that the 12 Probation and Parole Officers' predictions about the likelihood of recidivism of 368 offenders would correlate with fresh charges recorded within 12 months by the Magistrates Court. This hypothesis was supported. It was also hypothesised that the Level of Service Inventory - Revised (LSI-R) would also correlate with fresh charges and that the former correlation would be different to the latter. While the LSI-R did correlate significantly with fresh charges, the predictions of the Probation and Parole Officers were not significantly different. The use of correlation coefficients to assess predictive validity has been criticised as they are affected by base rates of offending and selection ratios of offenders to high and low risk categories. However when a more appropriate statistical tool, the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (ROC) was employed, the results were not substantially different. The predictive abilities of offenders was also tested against the same criterion and Intersource Agreement on the Prediction Recidivism were found sorely wanting, failing to correlate with fresh charges or any of the other predictive measures. It is argued that the offenders failed to predict accurately because of bias and/or poor ability to predict their own behaviour. The ability of the Probation and Parole Officers to predict reoffending to a much greater level than usually recorded in the criminological literature was ascribed to the higher level of information about their own predictive abilities, through a natural feedback mechanism which does not usually apply to professionals making clinical predictions about recidivism, and to training in predictors of reoffending which they received when they were trained in the administration of the LSI-R. It was also found that the ability of the LSI-R to predict recidivism was improved by incorporating offender age through linear regression. Suggestions were made for improving consensus among sources in counselling outcome studies. In particular, it was noted that sources do not necessarily interpret the question in the manner the researcher desires and it may be necessary to test the subjects' ability to distinguish between similar questions when this distinction is important.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 220-234). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.