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Frivårdens lekmannaövervakare - en kvalitativ studie om frivården och lekmannaövervakare

Frankner, Anneli LU (2010) SOPA63 20092
School of Social Work
Abstract
The aim of this study was to look into the discretion that the probation officer executes in
cooperating with lay supervisors. In Sweden about fifty percent of the offenders sentenced to
probation or on parole have lay supervisors and these supervisors are appointed by the
probation officers. I asked the officers what they were looking for in a lay supervisor, certain
qualifications or personalities, and if they were aware of their own values and convictions in
the process of appointing or rejecting a lay supervisor. I also aimed to find out the lay
supervisors’ and the probation officers’ view on the assignment, and to find out how they
valued their freedom of work with offenders. The Swedish system with lay supervisors is
unique... (More)
The aim of this study was to look into the discretion that the probation officer executes in
cooperating with lay supervisors. In Sweden about fifty percent of the offenders sentenced to
probation or on parole have lay supervisors and these supervisors are appointed by the
probation officers. I asked the officers what they were looking for in a lay supervisor, certain
qualifications or personalities, and if they were aware of their own values and convictions in
the process of appointing or rejecting a lay supervisor. I also aimed to find out the lay
supervisors’ and the probation officers’ view on the assignment, and to find out how they
valued their freedom of work with offenders. The Swedish system with lay supervisors is
unique and I also wanted to find out the officers’ and the lay supervisors’ view on the system
in all, and their opinion on the financial compensation. Finally I found it very interesting that
the educated probation officers leave the important contact and relationship with the offender
during most of the year of probation into the arms of an often uneducated or unskilled lay
supervisor, when they themselves are taught how to motivate and have conversations in order
to “change” the offender. I used open thematic interview in my qualitative study since I
wanted to look into values, views and reflections, which are hard to express in a survey or to
embrace in a questionnaire. I chose to use Street – level bureaucracy and discretion as my
perspective in the analysis of the results and I found that the discretion that the probation
officer executes is rather high, and that the lay supervisors also evaluate their freedom to work
as they wish with offenders to be large. The officers were reluctant to express any certain
personality or qualification that they were looking for in a lay supervisor, but emphasized that
the offender always is in the focus of attention and that the lay supervisor must be a match to
the offender and his needs, not their own values or beliefs.
Key words: Probation officer, lay supervisor, Street – level bureaucracy, discretion, values. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Frankner, Anneli LU
supervisor
organization
course
SOPA63 20092
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Key words: Probation officer, Street – level bureaucracy, discretion, values., lay supervisor
language
Swedish
id
1614211
date added to LUP
2010-06-11 12:37:27
date last changed
2010-06-11 12:37:27
@misc{1614211,
  abstract     = {{The aim of this study was to look into the discretion that the probation officer executes in
cooperating with lay supervisors. In Sweden about fifty percent of the offenders sentenced to
probation or on parole have lay supervisors and these supervisors are appointed by the
probation officers. I asked the officers what they were looking for in a lay supervisor, certain
qualifications or personalities, and if they were aware of their own values and convictions in
the process of appointing or rejecting a lay supervisor. I also aimed to find out the lay
supervisors’ and the probation officers’ view on the assignment, and to find out how they
valued their freedom of work with offenders. The Swedish system with lay supervisors is
unique and I also wanted to find out the officers’ and the lay supervisors’ view on the system
in all, and their opinion on the financial compensation. Finally I found it very interesting that
the educated probation officers leave the important contact and relationship with the offender
during most of the year of probation into the arms of an often uneducated or unskilled lay
supervisor, when they themselves are taught how to motivate and have conversations in order
to “change” the offender. I used open thematic interview in my qualitative study since I
wanted to look into values, views and reflections, which are hard to express in a survey or to
embrace in a questionnaire. I chose to use Street – level bureaucracy and discretion as my
perspective in the analysis of the results and I found that the discretion that the probation
officer executes is rather high, and that the lay supervisors also evaluate their freedom to work
as they wish with offenders to be large. The officers were reluctant to express any certain
personality or qualification that they were looking for in a lay supervisor, but emphasized that
the offender always is in the focus of attention and that the lay supervisor must be a match to
the offender and his needs, not their own values or beliefs.
Key words: Probation officer, lay supervisor, Street – level bureaucracy, discretion, values.}},
  author       = {{Frankner, Anneli}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Frivårdens lekmannaövervakare - en kvalitativ studie om frivården och lekmannaövervakare}},
  year         = {{2010}},
}