Explain the role of a probation officers. What are the different types of parole officers?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Probation offers a dual role: law enforcers and brokers of services. These two spectrums, working in seeming contraction with one another, mean that four basic categories emerge that describe the officer’s general tendency when supervising officers. Identify and explain the four categories: paternal officers, punitive officers, welfare worker, and passive agent. The paternal officers use a great degree of both control and assistance techniques. They protect both the offender and the community by providing the offender with assistance, as well as praising and blaming. These officers tend not to have a high degree of formal training or secondary education, but they tend to be very experienced and thus are able to weather the difficulties associated with burnout within the field of probation. Punitive officers (also known as pure law enforcers) see themselves as needing to use threats and punishment in order to get compliance from the offender. These officers will place the highest emphasis on control and protection of the public against offenders, and they will be suspicious of offenders on their caseload. Human relations between these officers and their caseload are usually fairly impaired and sterile. The welfare worker (also known as the pure broker of services) will view the offender more as a client rather than as a supervisee on the caseload. These individuals believe that, ultimately, the best way in which they can enhance the security and safety of the community is by reforming the offender so that further crime will not occur. These officers view their job more as a therapeutic service than as a punitive service. The passive agent tends to view his or her job as just that, a job. These officers tend to do as little as possible, and they do not have passion for their job. Unlike the punitive and the welfare officer, they simply do not care about the outcome of their work so long as they avoid any difficulties. These individuals are often in the job simply due to the benefits that it may have as well as the freedom from continual supervision that this type of job affords.