Juvenile Probation Professionals’ Perceptions of Community-Based Probation Practices

Recent budget restraints and heightened concerns for juvenile offenders’ safety and well-being have compelled juvenile justice policymakers and practitioners to implement community-based approaches for reducing juvenile recidivism.  This paper explores whether individual, organizational, and attitudinal factors influence juvenile probation professionals’ perceptions of the community-based probation (CBP) model, a supervision strategy that emphasizes establishing community partnerships to rehabilitate youths.  Seventy-one juvenile probation professionals working in probation agencies across Texas completed questionnaires asking them about their perceptions of CBP and its impact on current juvenile offending trends.  Results of regression analyses revealed that rehabilitation-oriented juvenile probation professionals were more likely to attribute current decreases in juvenile offending to CBP and more likely to believe that CBP does not endanger public safety.  Interestingly, the age of juvenile probation professionals was correlated with an increased probability that professionals believed that CBP poses no threat to public safety. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for supervision strategies and directions for future research.