M.A. (Social Work) / The importance of the role of the social worker in the Court in connection with the preparation of pre-sentence reports necessitated an investigation into the expertise with which these reports are being submitted to the Court. " The objectives of the study were to evaluate deficiencies as well as positive elements of pre-sentence reports prepared by social workers and, were necessary, to lay down guide lines to ensure that a- properly prepared and authoritative product could be presented to the user (the Court). During the investigation a qualitative approach was followed and the study can be described as exploratoryjdescriptive. Firstly, a study of literature was done through which deficiencies in and guidelines for pre-sentence reports were pointed out. Secondly, structured and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 interested parties. These interested parties were probation officers and supervisors of three public service departments. Regional Court Prosecutors and Magistrates of the Johannesburg Magistrate's Office, a State Advocate of the office of the public defender, and five legal practitioners who are regularly exposed to pre-sentence reports during proceedings for extenuation of sentence. The "purpose of the semi-structured interviews was to determine the SUbjective experience by interested parties of pre-sentence reports. A brief and structured interview schedule was utilised in order to gather certain general information which was useful for the interpretation of data. It was found that deficiencies and positive elements obtained from literature accorded to a large extent with the perception of interested parties of pre-sentence reports. After deficiencies and positive elements in pre-sentence reports had been abstracted, reasoned conclusions were drawn. In addition guide lines were drawn for the preparation and writing up of pre-sentence reports.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:4383 |
| Date | 18 March 2014 |
| Creators | Robbertse, Shaun Rosalind |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Johannesburg |
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