Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Proposal to Study the Discretionary Decision-Making and Occupational Socialization of California Parole Agents in an Era of Organizational Change

博士论文研究：组织变革时代加州假释代理人的自由决策和职业社会化研究提案

• 批准号: 0518713
• 负责人: Calvin Morrill
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of California-Irvine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-09-01 至 2008-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0518713&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Proposal; Study

Parole agents make discretionary decisions regarding the fate of the parolees they supervise, while being influenced and bounded by the people and environments around them, as well as by their own prior and ongoing experiences, trainings, and philosophies.States and policy makers have repeatedly tried to limit the discretionary decision making power of parole agents by employing risk assessment instruments and requiring increasingly detailed paperwork that demands high-levels of individual accountability. Yet, while parole agents appear to be losing some power due to these imposed limitations, the power they maintain over the lives of the parolees they supervise is substantial. Despite the increased prominence of parole in the last decade in criminal justice circles, researchers have not systematically examined the role(s) played by parole agents. This project uses an ethnographic approach to explore the dynamics of discretionary decision-making and the occupational socialization of California parole agents. The PI will complement participant observation with informal, conversational interviews, life-history interviews, an organizational survey and analysis of institutional data collected at parole units and training facilities throughout California. This rich triangulated data will provide a detailed look at the daily activities, occupational socialization, and personal characteristics of parole agents as they encounter rapid changes in correctional practices. At the broader policy level, the study may suggest some potential problems and/or issues with parole agent recruitment, hiring, training and evaluation. The work will also open doors to future sociological and criminological studies of parole in California and beyond. This is increasingly important as states cut their criminal justice budgets and send prisoners to parole in greater numbers than ever before.

假释代理人对他们监督的假释犯的命运作出自由裁量权的决定，同时受到周围的人和环境的影响和约束，以及他们自己以前和正在进行的经验，培训，国家和政策制定者一再试图限制假释代理人的自由裁量权，通过使用风险评估工具，并要求越来越详细的文书工作，要求高度的个人责任感。然而，虽然假释代理人似乎正在失去一些权力，由于这些强加的限制，他们保持的权力，他们监督假释的生活是巨大的。尽管假释在过去十年中在刑事司法界越来越突出，研究人员还没有系统地研究假释代理人所扮演的角色。本研究以民族志的方法探讨加州假释代理人的自由裁量决策与职业社会化的动态。PI将通过非正式的对话式访谈、生活史访谈、组织调查和分析在整个加州的假释单位和培训设施收集的机构数据来补充参与者的观察。这丰富的三角数据将提供一个详细的日常活动，职业社会化，假释代理人的个人特征，因为他们遇到了在惩教实践中的快速变化。 在更广泛的政策层面上，这项研究可能会提出一些潜在的问题和/或假释代理人的招聘问题，雇用，培训和评估。这项工作也将打开大门，未来的社会学和犯罪学研究假释在加州和超越。这一点越来越重要，因为各州削减了刑事司法预算，比以往任何时候都更多地将囚犯假释。