Presses universitaires de Louvain onixsuitesupport@onixsuite.com 20260719T0902Z eng

COM.ONIXSUITE.9782390610069 03 01 Presses universitaires de Louvain 01 SKU 101109 02 2390610064 03 9782390610069 15 9782390610069 02 01 00 BC 00 01 9.45 in 02 6.30 in 08 27.27 oz 01 24 cm 02 16 cm 08 773 gr BE 10 02 826 01 02 Thèses de l'Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) 03 Thèses de la Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales, politiques et de communication 01 01 Balancing Public Safety and Social Work: An Analysis of Probation Officers' Frontline Practices in Belgium 1 A01 01 Onixsuite Contributor ID 6551 Mathias Sabbe Sabbe, Mathias Mathias Sabbe Mathias Sabbe est titulaire d'un bachelier en sciences politiques, d’un master [120] en sciences de la population et du développement et d’un master [60] en sciences politiques. La présente recherche a été réalisée dans le cadre d’un doctorat en administration publique. Mathias Sabbe est titulaire d'un bachelier en sciences politiques, d’un master [120] en sciences de la population et du développement et d’un master [60] en sciences politiques. La présente recherche a été réalisée dans le cadre d’un doctorat en administration publique. 01 eng 00 490 03 10 LAW027000 12 L 24 INTERNET Droit judiciaire 24 INTERNET Sociologie 29 2012 4093 Sociologie 01 06 03 00 Probation officers (POs) supervise citizens serving a sanction within the community under conditions restricting their liberty. This understudied group of street-level bureaucrats operates in a high-risk environment where resources are limited and where managerial reforms can interfere with their work ethos. This thesis proposes two empirical studies exploring the nature and conditions of officer-offender interactions during public service delivery in Belgium. First, I implemented a thematic analysis of interviews conducted with Belgian POs to examine how they adapt offender supervision in response to multiple work constraints. Second, I used a structural equation modelling of survey data to examine how individual and organizational factors affect the importance officers attach to their trustworthiness assessments when opting for a given course of action with their supervisees. A synthesis of the results reveals that, despite multiple constraints, POs maintain benevolent practices with some offenders. POs assess offenders in two successive steps that are each associated with a specific set of organizational (first step) and individual (second step) conditions that affect their preferences for specific offender traits. Ultimately, POs' benevolent practices are mostly oriented towards the probationers who are considered the most deserving: individuals who are simultaneously in urgent need for help and care, who are regarded as trustworthy, but who do not seem to present any major risk for the community. These results should be applicable to other probation systems as well as many other street-level organizations where frontline workers manage caseloads and operate a guidance of citizen-clients. 02 00 Probation officers (POs) supervise citizens serving a sanction within the community under conditions restricting their liberty. This thesis proposes two empirical studies exploring the nature and conditions of officer-offender interactions during public service delivery in Belgium. 03 00 Probation officers (POs) supervise citizens serving a sanction within the community under conditions restricting their liberty. This understudied group of street-level bureaucrats operates in a high-risk environment where resources are limited and where managerial reforms can interfere with their work ethos. This thesis proposes two empirical studies exploring the nature and conditions of officer-offender interactions during public service delivery in Belgium. First, I implemented a thematic analysis of interviews conducted with Belgian POs to examine how they adapt offender supervision in response to multiple work constraints. Second, I used a structural equation modelling of survey data to examine how individual and organizational factors affect the importance officers attach to their trustworthiness assessments when opting for a given course of action with their supervisees. A synthesis of the results reveals that, despite multiple constraints, POs maintain benevolent practices with some offenders. POs assess offenders in two successive steps that are each associated with a specific set of organizational (first step) and individual (second step) conditions that affect their preferences for specific offender traits. Ultimately, POs' benevolent practices are mostly oriented towards the probationers who are considered the most deserving: individuals who are simultaneously in urgent need for help and care, who are regarded as trustworthy, but who do not seem to present any major risk for the community. These results should be applicable to other probation systems as well as many other street-level organizations where frontline workers manage caseloads and operate a guidance of citizen-clients. 02 00 Probation officers (POs) supervise citizens serving a sanction within the community under conditions restricting their liberty. This thesis proposes two empirical studies exploring the nature and conditions of officer-offender interactions during public service delivery in Belgium. 04 00 General introduction ____________________________________ 21 Framework of the research ______________________________________ 25 Structure of the manuscript ______________________________________ 26 Chapter 1 – Street-level bureaucrats supervising offenders in probation services ______________________________________ 29 Introduction ______________________________________________ 29 Section I – Street-level bureaucracy: an overview ________________ 30 A – Street-level bureaucrats: who are they, and why do they matter? ____ 30 B – Discretion at the frontlines ___________________________________ 35 C – The nature and conditions of frontline workers' coping mechanisms __ 40 D – SLB research in probation services _____________________________ 46 Section II – Probation practice: a criminological perspective _______ 49 A – Probation? Definition and related concepts ______________________ 49 1 – Probation, restorative justice, and the notion of rehabilitation ____ 49 2 – Risk management and the rise of the new penology _____________ 55 B – What is effective practice in offender supervision? ________________ 58 1 – Explaining and predicting desistance _________________________ 58 2 – Effective practice in promoting rehabilitation and preventing reoffense___ 61 C – Officers’ actual practices of supervision _________________________ 64 1 – Evidence-based tools and technologies in offender supervision ____ 65 2 – POs’ professional identities, role orientations, and attitudes ______ 68 3 – The delivery and practice of offender supervision _______________ 72 Conclusion of the first chapter _______________________________ 76 Chapter 2 – Officer-offender interactions in the correctional sector: a systematic literature review ____________________________ 79 Introduction ______________________________________________ 79 Section I – Dealing with conflicting agencies at the frontline _______ 82 Section II – Method and scope of the review ____________________ 84 Section III – Results of the review _____________________________ 89 A – Discretion and frontline agency ________________________________ 89 B – Coping mechanisms and frontline agency ________________________ 93 Conclusion of the second chapter _____________________________ 97 A – Discretion, coping, and agency logics at the frontlines of the correctional sector ___ 97 B – Empirical, methodological, and practical considerations ___________ 100 C – Final thoughts on officer-offender interactions __________________ 101 Chapter 3 – Analytical framework and context of the research _ 105 Introduction _____________________________________________ 105 Section I – Research question and analytical framework _________ 106 A – Trust and trustworthiness ___________________________________ 107 B – Uncertainties about frontline workers’ reliance on trustworthiness assessments _ 109 C – The need for more PA research on officer-offender interactions in probation services_ 111 D – Research question and analytical framework: two studies to fill the gaps _ 113 1 – First empirical study: how do POs cope during public service delivery? _ 114 2 – Second empirical study: the assessment of offenders’ trustworthiness _ 115 3 – Bringing the two studies together ___________________________ 116 Section II – Context: the Belgian Houses of Justice ______________ 119 A – A short history of the Belgian Houses of Justice __________________ 120 B – What is probation and how is it performed in Belgium? ___________ 122 C – The managerialization of probation work (and the rise of punitiveness?) _ 126 D – A critical and atypical case ___________________________________ 129 Conclusion of the third chapter _____________________________ 131 Chapter 4 – Approach and methods _______________________ 133 Introduction _____________________________________________ 133 Section I – Epistemological and ontological approach ____________ 134 Section II – First study: data collection through semi-structured interviews _ 136 A – Semi-structured interviews __________________________________ 137 B – With whom and where? _____________________________________ 138 1 – With whom? French-speaking judicial assistants _______________ 139 2 – Where? The Houses of Justice of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation 140 C – Empirical objective _________________________________________ 144 Section III – Second study: an online survey questionnaire to collect the data_ 149 A – An online survey questionnaire _______________________________ 149 B – Construction of the questionnaire _____________________________ 151 C – The implementation of the survey _____________________________ 154 D – Managing the collected data _________________________________ 157 Section IV – Data analysis __________________________________ 159 A – First study: analyzing the qualitative data _______________________ 160 1 – A thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews _____________ 160 2 – In practice ______________________________________________ 161 B – Second study: analyzing the quantitative data ___________________ 165 1 – Structural equation modeling of the collected data _____________ 165 2 – In practice ______________________________________________ 167 Conclusion of the fourth chapter ____________________________ 168 Chapter 5 – Frontline practices in probation: how do Belgian probation officers cope during public service delivery? ________ 171 Introduction _____________________________________________ 171 Section I – Conceptual framework and hypotheses ______________ 173 A – The nature and conditions of coping ___________________________ 174 B – Picturing the nature and conditions of POs’ coping behaviors _______ 177 1 – Organizational factors: a lack of organizational resources ________ 177 2 – Individual factors: a lack of personal resources ________________ 180 Section II – Thematization process report _____________________ 182 A – Characteristics of the participants _____________________________ 183 B – Organizational conditions ___________________________________ 183 C – Implementing offender supervision ___________________________ 188 D – Offender profiles and supervision dynamics _____________________ 195 E – Administrative tools and instruments __________________________ 201 F – Changes in institutional philosophy ____________________________ 203 Section III – Analysis results: overcoming the challenges of offender supervision _ 205 A – A coping florilegium ________________________________________ 205 1 – Rationing: privileging quantity over quality ___________________ 205 2 – Prioritization: picking the most demanding cases ______________ 206 3 – Routinization and simplification: narrowing supervision efforts to monitoring _ 208 4 – Instrumental actions: long-lasting solutions to ease supervision __ 209 5 – Rule breaking: non-compliance with work instructions __________ 212 B – A matter of survival ________________________________________ 214 1 – The common denominator: increasing workloads and time scarcity 214 2 – Walking on thin ice: the weight of accountability ______________ 221 3 – The (muffled) virtues of circumstantial professionalism _________ 224 Main findings and conclusion of the fifth chapter _______________ 227 1 – Supervising offenders amidst time shortages and managerialism _ 227 2 – Weighty responsibilities and the swan song of professionalism ___ 232 3 – Under severe pressure, yet still benevolent? __________________ 233 4 – Conclusive note _________________________________________ 235 Chapter 6 – Accounting for officers’ benevolent practices: the role of individual and organizational factors in the assessment of offenders’ trustworthiness ______________________________ 239 Introduction _____________________________________________ 239 Section I - Conceptual framework and hypotheses ______________ 241 A – POs’ reliance on trustworthiness assessments when using their discretion _ 241 B – Organizational factors and the importance given to trustworthiness assessments _ 243 1 – The amount of perceived workload _________________________ 243 2 – Perceived managerial support _____________________________ 245 C – Individual factors and the importance given to trustworthiness assessments _________________________________________________ 247 1 – POs’ subjective role perceptions ____________________________ 247 2 – POs’ general propensity to trust others ______________________ 250 D – Operationalization and measurement synthesis__________________ 252 Section II – Descriptive statistics _____________________________ 256 A – Age, gender, and educational level ____________________________ 256 B – General propensity to trust, subjective role, workload perceptions, and perceived managerial support ___________________________________ 260 C – Dependent variable: importance POs attach to their trustworthiness assessments _ 270 D – Synthesis and brief discussion: one job, contrasting profiles ________ 273 1 – Control variables ________________________________________ 274 2 – Independent variables ____________________________________ 275 Section III – Conducting the SEM analysis______________________ 278 A – Confirmatory factor analysis _________________________________ 278 B – Descriptives and correlations _________________________________ 282 C – Structural model ___________________________________________ 286 Main findings and conclusion of the sixth chapter_______________ 290 A – Mixed evidence supporting the hypotheses _____________________ 291 B – Predominance of individual factors ____________________________ 295 Chapter 7 – Results, discussion, and implications ____________ 297 Section I – Main results ____________________________________ 297 A – Altruistic caseworkers and the two-step assessment of offenders ___ 297 B – Discussion of the results _____________________________________ 303 1 – Finding the deserving offender: balancing risks, social urgency, and trustworthiness ____________________________________________ 304 2 – Assessing probationers’ trustworthiness: different officer profiles 306 3 – Managerialism and frontline practices _______________________ 309 Section II – Theoretical implications __________________________ 311 A – Citizen-agency at the frontlines of probation ____________________ 311 B – Articulating self-interests and a selfless desire to help others _______ 314 C – Multiple accountabilities ____________________________________ 316 D – From client’s trustworthiness to clients’ deservingness ____________ 318 E – The managerial revision of the Belgian correctional system ________ 321 F – The digitalization of probation work ___________________________ 323 Section III –Practical implications ____________________________ 325 A – Handling a variety of PO profiles ______________________________ 326 1 – Recruitment ____________________________________________ 327 2 – Trainings _______________________________________________ 328 3 – Taking advantage of profile diversity ________________________ 330 B – Officers’ need for transparency and the key role of managers ______ 331 General conclusion ____________________________________ 335 A – Research problem, question, and approach ________________ 337 B – Synthesis of the results _________________________________ 343 1 – Results of the first study: still benevolent under pressure __________ 343 2 – Results of the second study: the predominance of individual factors _ 346 3 – General results of the research _______________________________ 348 A two-step assessment of offenders ____________________________ 348 An assessment process geared in favor of deserving individuals _____ 351 Frontline probation officers and trustworthiness: a typology ________ 352 C – Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications _______ 353 Theoretical implications _____________________________________ 353 Methodological implications __________________________________ 355 Practical implications ________________________________________ 357 References ___________________________________________ 359 Appendices ___________________________________________ 439 Appendix 1 – Results of the literature review __________________ 440 Appendix 2 – Data collection methods in the reviewed articles ____ 446 Appendix 3 – Full thematic tree _____________________________ 448 Appendix 4 – Invitation and follow-up emails __________________ 452 Appendix 5 – Survey questions and items _____________________ 455 Appendix 6 – Case summaries _______________________________ 461 Appendix 7 – Non-parametric tests reports (Kruskal-Wallis) ______ 467 Appendix 8 – One-way ANOVA test reports ____________________ 472 Appendix 9 – CFA and measurement model reports _____________ 478 Appendix 10 – SEM reports _________________________________ 485 01 00 03 02 01 D502 02 2843 03 1961 06 1f23cf6d4dde749510fd045c8bfd0876 07 516324 https://pul.uclouvain.be/resources/titles/29303100958770/images/74e1ed8b55ea44fd7dbb685c412568a4/HIGHQ/9782390610069.jpg 17 20201126T1047Z 02 01 D502 02 181 03 125 06 e76bcdaad13f093bdd3c1a884a91303c 07 24230 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