EXPLAINING DEVIANT-BEHAVIOR - SOCIAL-CONTEXT OF ACTION AND INFRACTION ACCOUNTS IN THE PROBATION SERVICE

The most familiar sociological image of the probation officer sees him firmly committed to some variant of a psycho-pathological view of deviancy in which both society and volition are disregarded. It was from this assumption that the research sprang, the purpose being to examine the treatment ideologies held by probation officers. But from focussed interviews, it was clear that explanations of deviancy offered by the probation officers were wider than anticipated, encompassing both determinist and voluntarist accounts of behaviour. It is suggested that the structural context of probation work - utilitarian justice and casework treatment notions - creates more space for offering a greater variety of explanations than has often been appreciated. And, in offering these explanations probation officers do not necessarily reinterpret their clients accounts which were sometimes accepted and at other times rejected. How the cases were explained appears to depend on the circumstances of the case. The more serious the offender's criminal history or his personal or social problems, the more likely it was that the probation officer thought in determinist terms offering an action account. But equally, the respondents recognised the sometimes voluntary nature.4 delinquency, though this was generally in less serious cases. © 1979, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.