Browsing by Author "Howes, M. F. (Marina Francina)"

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    Die bydrae van maatskaplike werk ten opsigte van gemeenskapstrawwe
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1991) Howes, M. F. (Marina Francina); Botha, N. J.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Social Work.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates the contribution of social work in regard to community sentences. In spite of the statutory availability of community sentence options and a realization of the detrimental effect that imprisonment might have on transgressors, the overcrowding of prisons remains a serious problem. The most important motivation for the study was to investigate the potential contribution of probation officers to the advancement of community sentences. The goal of the study was to evaluate the services rendered by probation officers at criminal courts, in order to assess whether it could contribute to the advancement of community sentences. Evaluative research was accepted as the most appropriate research paradigm. Because the research results should be used to develop and improve existing service programmes, formative evaluative research was used for this study. A mainly qualitative work method was followed. The rationale behind this was that a service programme must be assessed within the total context of the criminal administration of justice; that information had to be extracted from the actors in the program and that new dimensions generated during field work could be verified. Information was collected by way of interviews according to an interview schedule and by way of focus group discussions. Two components are needed in the advancement of community sentences, namely sentencers to sentence and probation officers to render the necessary supportive services to the court. The investigation group consisted therefore of magistrates and probation officers composed through maximal variation sampling. The information that had been collected, was processed as a whole around specific subjects.