In March 2020 the first lockdown due to COVID-19 was imposed in Austria, forcing NEUSTART, the organisation providing probationary services, to adapt the way of interacting with their clients. An online survey was conducted examining how these changes affected the everyday work of the probation officers. Results indicated that they managed to stay in contact with their clients, although difficulties could be observed concerning specific groups. Further questions concerned areas such as domestic violence, strains due to the restrictions experienced as well as coping strategies used by the clients. Concerning the well-being of the probation officers, differences were found between residents of urban and rural areas respectively as well as between people living with or without children. The lack of personal contact with clients and colleagues proved to be the most important source of discomfort, while at the same time working from home entailed certain advantages.

Policework involves a high level of risk, and police officers are frequently victimized while on duty. However, victimization rates differ considerably within the police corps and depend on a number of personal and situational variables. This research is based on a survey of police officers in the canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland (N = 478). It follows two research paths to investigate the link between punitive attitudes and victimization experiences: punitiveness as a factor in higher victimization rates, and victimization experiences causing an increase in punitive attitudes. The results showed no significant difference between male and female officers in terms of punitiveness, and that punitiveness significantly increased with age. Also, punitiveness was found to decrease as the hours spent on street patrol duty increased. Examining the link between victimization and punitiveness, this study also found a surprising effect that officers without victimization experiences in the three years prior to the survey showed significantly higher levels of punitiveness than their victimized colleagues. Futhermore, officers who experienced victimization were found to become less punitive as the time they spent on the street increased, while the opposite was true for their non-victimized counterparts. These a priori counterintuitive results could possibly be explained by a 'professionalization' or a 'familiarization' effect and serve as a basis for further research as well as for police practice and training.

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