Probation/Parole Officer Interactions with Women Offenders: Do Relationship Style and Communication Pattern Predict Outcomes?

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This research will identify the types of relationships and communications that probation and parole officers use to promote desired outcomes for women offenders. It focuses on the two-thirds of women offenders who are drug-involved. This group is under-researched, even though their outcomes have spill-over effects on children and other individuals under their care. Theories about the effect of different relationship styles of people who both control and help clients (dual role relationship theory) and about the effects of authoritarian vs. a conversational communication pattern provide a framework for anticipating the predictors of positive outcomes including following rules, engaging in drug treatment, avoiding arrest. The researchers will gather data from 50 supervising officers and 400 of their clients as well as official records. Two months into supervision, they will assess the types of women's needs known to lead to recidivism. After three additional months, they will measure the nature of the relationship and communication between officers and clients. After another three months, they will obtain a final measure of needs. Official records will reveal whether women violate supervision rules or are rearrested within the 18 months after supervision begins. A statistical technique called multi-level modeling will show how communication and relationship, as well as other influences, explain outcomes. An additional and important part of the research is the collection of qualitative data on memorable messages, including those from the supervising officer, that affected the women and on other ways that officers promoted both negative and positive results. Identified positive qualities of officer-client interaction and actions taken by supervising officers will inform development of training curriculum to increase the effectiveness of probation and parole officers, and to set the stage for research that evaluates the effects of such training.