Role Socialization of Juvenile Court Probation Officers

Abstract

Operating from a theory of role socialization in organizations (Katz and Kahn, 1978), predictions of the degree of association between probation officers' sent and received roles and role behavior were tested in four juvenile courts. Probation officers' rehabilitative and control oriented role prescriptions, as communicated by judges, administrators, and supervisors and perceived by probation officers were measured, as were interactions between officers and juvenile probationers. The role communicated to probation officers by their superiors was found to be predictive of the role the probation officers perceived, but not of the role as enacted with juveniles.