William A. Reese

Cynicism among juvenile probation officers: A study of subverted ideals

Abstract Since Niederhoffers pioneering work with police, much attention has been paid to cynicism in several criminal justice settings. This research has led to a concept of cynicism as multidimensional. Based on these research findings, this study investigated cynicism in a new setting—juvenile probation. The specific focus was cynicism toward the rehabilitative ideal in juvenile justice. The study found that professionalism and longevity had effects that were opposite to what has been found in other settings. Moreover, this study found that idealistic cynicism is independent of perceptions of procedural efficacy, delinquency etiology, and, importantly, JPO role performance. We take these results to be in keeping with a general conclusion that cynicism is a judgment that varies within and across settings, audiences, and philosophical ideals, which calls for continued research refined by greater appreciation of situational specificity.

Framed Attributions and Shaped Accounts: A Study of Dispositional Process in Juvenile Justice

Drawing from an actual case that was set for a revocation-of-probation hearing, and using an interactionist conception, this article analyzes how juvenile probation officers (JPOs) impute attributes, advocate dispositions, and offer justifying accounts for their recommendations. Controlling for case and context effects, it examines how these officers frame their attributions and shape the justifications of their recommendations to accomplish their dispositions. It was found that delinquent attributions, although they are negotiated with language appropriate to the ideals of individualized juvenile justice and rehabilitation, often parallel the decision-making process in the adult parole system. Although the proposed dispositions and their accompanying remedial intentions vary among the individual officers, it is demonstrated that once an officer is committed to a preferred disposition for a marginal case he or she will expend considerable and judicious effort in attempts to secure that disposition from the court. It is proposed that this individual JPO commitnent may represent the key to more successful juvenile justice intervention.

Paternalism and the female status offender: Remanding the juvenile justice double standard for desexualization

Abstract Using an interactionist conception of delinquency construction, this article empirically examines the commonly assumed, male dominance explanation of the existence of paternalistic punity meted out to female status offenders by juvenile justice officials. To the contrary, these analyses lead to a conclusion of no gender effect across juvenile probation officers in their dispositional recommendations for one female offender. Given the conceptualization of juvenile justice as a people-modulating system, it is suggested that routine referrals, such as female status offenders, elicit normatively prescribed dispositions. Moreover, these sanctions, which impose relatively punitive protection for female adolescents, appear to be institutionalized into the practice of juvenile justice which no longer directly depends on male dominance for its perpetration.