Strengths, resources or controls? The assessment of protective factors in probation practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-235
Author(s):  
Rob Whyman
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Protective Factors ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Probation Officers ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Probation Service

This article is based on research that explored how well protective factors are understood, assessed and used in risk assessment within probation practice. The research was facilitated by the Sir Graham Smith Award, administered by the Probation Institute. Semi-structured interviews explored the knowledge, ability, confidence and attitudes of a sample of probation officers working in the National Probation Service. The findings suggest that understanding of the term is varied, and there are some limitations around knowledge, but that attitudes towards protective factors are positive and there is some good practice in terms of assessment.

scholarly journals From clients as fellow citizens to service users as co-producers of social work

Social Work ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 141-156
Author(s):  
Peter Beresford ◽  
Suzy Croft
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Probation Officers ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Work Skills ◽  
Youth Justice ◽  
Income Security ◽  
Social Work Training ◽  
Work Training ◽  
Probation Service

Social work training remained the required pattern for probation officers for the first half of the last fifty years. With the abandonment of that link probation has gradually shifted its focus from ‘advise assist and befriend’ to surveillance and risk assessment. With that shift has come incoherence in management and organisation culminating in the disaster of Transforming Rehabilitation, the flagship reform introducing the private sector and payment by results. The policy on adult offenders is contrasted with the relative success of the Youth justice Board.Despite the absence of relationships from probation service publicity material, social work skills are required to engage with the issues of housing, employment and income security which blight lives of offenders after discharge.

scholarly journals Clinicians’ Perceptions of the Implementation of the Structured Assessment of Protective Factors for Violence Risk (SAPROF) on an Inpatient Forensic Unit

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Domjancic ◽  
Treena Wilkie ◽  
Shaheen Darani ◽  
Brittney Williams ◽  
Bandhana Maheru ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Protective Factors ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Violence Risk ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Consensus Scoring ◽  
Additional Value

The Structured Assessment of PROtective Factors for Violence Risk (SAPROF) is an assessment tool that examines protective factors when assessing for violence risk. There is limited research on clinicians’ perceptions of the use and implementation of risk assessment tools, and this study aimed to examine the experiences of clinicians using the SAPROF in a low secure forensic rehabilitation inpatient unit in Canada. An exploratory research design was used, and five clinicians participated in semi-structured interviews. Data was analyzed using a thematic approach and three central themes were identified: understanding of the patient from a strengths-based point of view, providing clinicians with a focus on how to help the patient, and bringing in opportunities to collaborate as a team. The findings highlight the additional value of the SAPROF as tool in helping forensic teams to adopt strengths based approaches to risk assessment, enhancing treatment planning and inter-professional collaboration.   Keywords: strengths, risk assessment, SAPROF, consensus scoring, recovery

scholarly journals Signs of Resistance? Swedish Probation Officers' Attitudes towards Risk Assessments

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 95-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Persson ◽  
Kerstin Svensson
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Probation Officers ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Risk Assessments ◽  
What Works ◽  
Risk Assessment Tools ◽  
Probation Service ◽  
Organizational Logic ◽  
Risk Concept

The Swedish Prison and Probation Service has been influenced by the ‘What Works’ agenda since the late 1990's and an orientation towards risk and risk management has gradually become visible in the organization. But there is, within the probation service, a discrepancy between two types of logics — an organizational logic and a professional logic. Although guidelines prescribe the use of risk-assessment tools, they are in reality seldom used by practitioners. Through an examination of the reasons given by the probation officers who expressed doubts or concerns about the risk-concept, we question whether this could be seen as signs of resistance based on professional logic.

Assessing and managing the risk of violence to others

2020 ◽  
pp. 1461-1468
Author(s):  
Alec Buchanan
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Protective Factors ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Predictive Accuracy ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Violence Risk ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Patient Violence

Assessing and managing the risk of patient violence is integral to the clinical practice of psychiatry. This chapter reviews the principles governing the assessment of violence risk in psychiatry, discusses clinical practice in this area, and examines the limits of psychiatric violence risk assessment. Assessment involves both the identification of risk and protective factors and a cause-based analysis based on an understanding of the case. Good practice involves the use of multiple sources of information and the integration of information gleaned from the identification of correlates of violence and a cause-based analysis. Empirical data on the limits to the predictive accuracy that can be achieved suggest that information concerning risk will usually be one of many pieces of information governing the management of a case.

Probation, PSRs and public protection: Has a ‘critical point’ been reached?

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 471-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Nash
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Critical Points ◽  
Probation Officer ◽  
Information Gathering ◽  
Probation Officers ◽  
Protective Measures ◽  
Police Interviews ◽  
Probation Service

This article asks if the time has come to develop ethical and legal safeguards in respect of probation service interviews with offenders related to public protection matters. Police interviews in England and Wales with suspects have long had protective measures around them and have also in recent years developed a whole range of ethical training and protocols to govern the quality of interviewing and information gathering. The measures are deemed necessary as these stages in criminal justice processes are considered to be ‘critical points’. It is argued here that at a time when probation interview training (at least in the qualifying phase) has decreased, the importance attached to the information gained has increased. As indeterminate sentences for public protection become ever-more popular with sentencers, the importance of probation officer risk assessment has reached new heights; yet offenders have only minimal safeguards in terms of what they say to probation officers in interview.

Queer citizens and the perils of the neoliberal city: Racialized narratives of homophobic hate crime in Oslo, Norway

Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072110193
Author(s):  
Henning Kaiser Klatran
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Hate Crime ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Lgbt Community ◽  
Lgbt People ◽  
Queer Citizenship ◽  
The Relationship

This article examines the relationship between queer citizenship, state violence and the exclusion of racialized, homophobic ‘others’. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with LGBT people in Oslo, Norway, I investigate the presence of racialization in narratives of homophobic hate crime. The findings suggest that racialization structures narratives of risk assessment among several of the participants. However, in these narratives, racialization often operates through place-specific references, rather than racial and ethnic markers of identity. The narrative work thus displays ambivalence and a disassociation from racism. I argue that these narratives feed on an already established conflation of space, ethnicity, religion and homophobia, to which both mainstream media and part of the LGBT community contribute.

scholarly journals Record of the circumstances of falls in the community: perspective in the Iberian Peninsula

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria de Fátima Araújo ◽  
Nilza Nogueira Caldevilla ◽  
Candida Maciel ◽  
Felicidade Malheiro ◽  
María Aurora Rodríguez-Borrego ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Assessment Instruments ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Basic Health ◽  
Risk Of Falls ◽  
Quantitative Descriptive ◽  
One Year ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Basic Health Units

ABSTRACT Objective: to determine the diagnosis of the situation regarding documentation of falls and risk of falls in people older than 75 years in basic health units in Spain and Portugal. Method: mixed exploratory study in two stages: (i) quantitative descriptive of randomly selected fall records produced in one year (597 records; 197 Spanish and 400 Portuguese); and (ii) qualitative, with the purpose of knowing the perception of health professionals employing semi-structured interviews (72 professionals, 16 Spanish and 56 Portuguese). The study areas were two basic health units in southern Spain and northern Portugal. Results: in the fall records, the number of women was higher. The presence of fall was associated with the variables age, presence of dementia, osteoarticular disease, previous falls and consumption of antivertiginous medication. Health professionals perceived an absence of risk assessment instruments, as well as lack of prevention programs and lack of awareness of this event. Conclusion: falls are perceived as an area of priority attention for health professionals. Nonetheless, there is a lack of adherence to the registration of falls and risk assessment, due to organizational, logistical and motivational problems.

scholarly journals Austerity and financial governance: a UK case study of the National Health Service

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 212-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Prowle ◽  
Don Harradine
Keyword(s):  
Financial Management ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Executive Directors ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Financial Governance ◽  
Governance Process ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Finance Directors

Purpose – This research concerns the issue of financial governance within the UK NHS and aims to assess the effectiveness of existing financial governance arrangements in the main providers of health services in the UK. Also considered is the importance of good financial governance in a time of financial austerity. Design/methodology/approach – The primary research for this project was based on the use of a questionnaire to all finance directors in NHSTs in England supported by semi-structured interviews with: finance directors, non-executive directors, executive directors and senior finance staff. Findings – Among the main findings of the study were: certain financial management systems were not prioritised in line with what is seen as good practice; existing financial management systems were not always seen as adequate for the achievement of good financial governance; there was sometimes a lack of understanding of financial issues by non-executive directors; and the complexity of the NHS funding process often resulted in opaqueness of the financial risks. Research limitations/implications – The research is limited by the relatively small coverage of NHS trusts but this has been compensated for by a series of in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in the governance process. Practical implications – Weaknesses in financial governance could result in further scandals which result in loss of life and poor patient care. Originality/value – There are many papers on the issue of governance in the public sector in general and the NHS in particular. However, there is little published on the issue of financial governance in the NHS. Also of great value is the emphasis on strengthening financial governance in an era of austerity

scholarly journals Will You Run? The Development of a Risk Assessment Tool to Predict Absconding from Secure Youth Justice Residences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jesse Wood
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Protective Factors ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Risk And Protective Factors ◽  
Risk Assessment Tool ◽  
Youth Justice ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Contextual Risk ◽  
Staff Members

<p>Absconding, or escaping, from usually state-based custody is a growing problem in different settings across the world, including New Zealand’s secure youth justice residences. This thesis provides an in-depth review of absconding from Oranga Tamariki’s secure youth justice residences in New Zealand, providing important insight that will be useful in preventing absconding in the future. A review of the international and New Zealand absconding literature was conducted looking at the risk and protective factors associated with absconding risk. From this, a coding framework of absconding related factors was developed, and then applied to historic absconding incident reports and interviews with Oranga Tamariki staff members. These were analysed to confirm potential absconding risk or protective factors and identify any new factors. Results fell into four key categories: individual (e.g. previous absconding history), relational (e.g. avoidance goals), contextual risk factors (e.g. significant life stressors), and protective factors (e.g. positive staff relationships). Several implications and conclusions were drawn from the findings. Absconding factors identified in international research were also present in the current research adding weight to these as potential risk and protective factors in a New Zealand context (Martin et al., 2018; Powers et al., 2018; Pyrooz, 2012). Novel absconding related factors were identified which were not found in the extant literature, such as planning indications, ringleaders, and hope. The reasons young people abscond are complex and individual, however, they abscond for reasons that make sense—often as a coping strategy—and thus are identifiable. By identifying these underlying reasons, it is possible to intervene and reduce their absconding motivations. A preliminary risk assessment tool aimed at doing this, was created for Oranga Tamariki use, incorporating factors drawn from the current research and the wider literature.</p>

scholarly journals Some Countries’ Experience in Organizing Professional Training and Activity of Probation Officers

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 98-102
Author(s):  
Oleh Duka
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Probation Officers ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Probation Service ◽  
Training Courses ◽  
Organizational Features

Abstract In the article, some countries’ experience in organizing professional training and activities of probation officers has been analyzed. Based on comparative analysis of activities of the Probation Institute abroad, it has been determined that probation service has different functional and organizational features in individual countries. For instance, probation service in different countries is subordinate to different agencies. Thus, probation service in Great Britain, Denmark, Japan, Finland, Norway, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Estonia is under the control of the Ministry of Justice; in the USA, Germany, Hungary, it is subordinate to the judiciary; in the Netherlands – public prosecutor’s office; in Sweden – prison authorities; in Singapore, probation service is under the guidance of the Ministry of Community Development and Sports. Another difference consists in the fact that in some countries the law defines probation as punishment (Sweden, Finland, Latvia), whereas in other countries it refers to some criminal measures (Great Britain), exemption from punishment (Estonia) or is not determined at all (the USA). Despite the differences, the goals and means of achieving them in each probation service are similar in the context of criminal law. The approaches to professional training of probation officers have been analyzed and relevant conclusions have been drawn regarding organization of probation officers’ professional training in Ukraine. In particular, work with offenders should be performed by highly qualified specialists who have a degree and who have passed specialized training courses in educational institutions subordinate to probation authorities. It is important that the content of probation officers’ professional training should be constantly updated, taking into account new approaches and methods of working with convicts, which are recognized as effective.

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