Abstract
This research aims at identifying the treatment difficulties in probationary and parole supervision, the main forms of non-institutional treatment of offenders. The research method is as follows. We collected data from 586 probation officers who answered questions about the degrees of difficulty in treating offenders. There were 72 indexes. Then we analyzed the data using factor analysis. Four factors showing a high degree of difficulty were extracted. They are: Cases in which a probationer has a problem in his or her character or family environment (factor 1), cases in which there is a risk of committing a new crime (factor 2), cases in which professional knowledge and skills of the probation officer are required (factor 3), and cases in which a probationer defies supervision (factor 4). The followings are important relations we discovered between each factor and attributes of probation officers. 1. Comparing the mean of factor 4 scores by sex, the mean of scores for male officers is higher than that for female officers. 2. As for the mean by age group, for both factor 3 and factor 4 the mean of factor scores for those in their thirties is the highest of all age groups. 3. Length of experience as a probation officer does not have any significant relationship with any of the factors. By learning the nature of the difficulties in treatment, probation officers will be able to take measures against the causes of difficulty corresponding to the four factors and will be able to reduce those difficulties. Thus, the results of this research will help to conduct more effective probationary and parole supervision.
