SOCIAL WORKER AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Social worker and the Criminal Justice System

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Opportunities for Social Workers4

Type of Crime5

How social work can aid in the betterment of the crime9

Theories of Crime Causation10

Delinquency Prevention12

The Harsh Beginnings12

The Modernization of Juvenile Delinquency12

Industrialization12

Urbanization13

Salvage Attempts13

Trends in Juvenile Delinquency: Author's Note14

Alternative Treatment Methods for Juvenile Delinquents15

Youth Centers for Serious Offenders15

References17

Social worker and the Criminal Justice System

Introduction

Innovations in criminal justice such as incarceration alternatives, prevention programs, and restorative justice are creating new professional roles for social workers.

Sarah was only 14 years old when her father was killed. Two years ago, more than two decades later, she made a momentous journey, entering the steel gates of a maximum-security prison to spend five hours with the man who had brutally murdered him.

One year earlier, consumed with anger, vulnerability, and uncertainty, Sarah had spoken before a parole board, begging them not to release Jeff, her father's killer (Sampson, 1993). But after the meeting with him, Sarah spoke of how the encounter had been like going through a fire that burned away her pain and allowed the seeds of healing to take root in her life. The meeting had an equally powerful effect on Jeff.

Hundreds of similar meetings between victims and offenders involved in violent crimes have taken place in recent years, according to social worker Mark Umbreit, PhD, who spent nearly one year helping both Sarah and Jeff prepare for the event, and who sat with them while they talked. The dialogues, says Umbreit, a professor of social work at the University of Minnesota, are an outgrowth of the rapidly expanding field of restorative justice, a victim-centered approach to working with those who violate the law. It tries to directly involve those most affected by crime—the victim, the offender, their families, and the community—in the process of holding the offender accountable and serving the needs of victims. The interest in restorative justice is providing a growing number of opportunities for social workers, according to those involved in the field.

Opportunities for Social Workers

While social workers have worked in prisons since the early days of the profession, recent innovations in the criminal justice arena have opened up new opportunities for social workers in court systems: in agencies dealing with offenders' reentry into society after being released and even in a surprising number of police departments.

Helping to create these opportunities, in part, is a growing recognition of the enormous costs of incarceration and of the role mental health problems play in criminal activity (Laub, 1993). More than one half of the inmates in the country's prisons and jails reported mental health problems within the last year, according to a recent Justice Department survey.

What's more, a “staggering percentage” of prisoners are serving time for something drug- or alcohol-related, according to Frederic G. Reamer, PhD, a professor of social work at Rhode Island College who serves as a member of the Rhode Island State parole board. Reamer puts the figure in Rhode Island at approximately 85% and says that's typical of prisons and jails ...