This is one of the first studies made, in a rural area of British Columbia, of the co-operation between the Provincial Probation Branch and the Social Welfare Branch of the Government of British Columbia in the allocation of responsibility for the probation supervision of, and the casework services to, certain male juvenile delinquents. The juvenile delinquents under consideration in this study are those who were known to the Social Welfare Branch or who were in need of a specific service provided by that Branch at the time that they were brought before the Court. The research material was obtained from the files of one probation office and cover all cases opened over a three year period from 1953 to 1956. This probation office served a territory that was also served by one district supervisor and six welfare workers of the Social Welfare Branch. The study compares the characteristics of a group of 28 juvenile delinquents who were known to both the Provincial Probation Branch and the Social Welfare Branch with those of a group of 99 delinquent juveniles who were referred to the Provincial Probation Branch by the Juvenile Courts but who had no contact with the Social Welfare Branch. The groups are compared on the basis of age, offence, family background, religious affiliation, school record, work record and recreational interests. The study then presents seven case digests in detail, to show how the decision was reached between the probation officer and the welfare worker as to who would provide probation supervision, casework services to the child and casework services to the parents. These cases present a brief social history of the juvenile delinquent, a tentative social diagnosis of his troubles, an evaluation of his needs and a suggested solution to his problems. The results of the study indicate that there is no hard and fast rule to be used in allocating responsibilities towards the juvenile delinquents in the group under study between the two Government Branches. Each case must be considered on its own merits so that the agencies can cooperate to function in the best interests of the client. The usual social work practise of dealing with each client as a unique individual must be carried over into the field of corrections if the needs of the child are to be met by the social workers. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

For many year, correctional theory has shown the need for a greater variety of treatment programs to combat the problem of delinquency. It has been mainly administrative problems, stemming from a lack of public support, that has resulted in the extensive gap between theory and practice. There have been several attempts to introduce new programs, but there are still many wide gaps in the total range of services that are needed. In adapting the principles of Outward Bound to a Correctional Program, the B.C. Corrections Branch has taken an imaginative and radical step towards filling part of the gap. Their Search and Leadership Training program (S.A.L.T.) is an injection of new ideas into an established field of practice rather than a progressional development within the field. However, there is virtually no theoretical or scientific evaluation of the principles or methods of Outward Bound available. In this study of the 1966 Search and Leadership Training courses for boys on probation, an attempt has been made to identify the basic theoretical assumptions on which the program rests. These assumptions have been related to current social science theory in order to show what concepts can eventually be tested by evaluation of the program. The main focus of this study has been at the pre-evaluative level. The research team has concentrated on developing instruments for the effective collection of data. These instruments, particularly the one developed to extract information from the pre-sentence report, are generic in scope and can be used to evaluate a variety of programs or the effectiveness of the pre-sentence report itself. The information collected on the twenty-four boys who took the two S.A.L.T. courses in 1966 has been tabulated to show the amount and the consistency of the data available. Perusal of this information gives a concise picture of that data and suggestions have been made as to what areas of information should be solicited to ensure future evaluative studies have adequate material to analyze. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate