Attitudes Toward Punishment, Organizational Commitment, and Cynicism: A Multilevel Analysis of Staff Responses in a Juvenile Justice Agency

Abstract

Staff commitment to agency goals is important in juvenile justice settings, where the mission oscillates between the often-competing goals of rehabilitating youth and punishing them. Although prior research considers how staff characteristics relate to commitment to, and/or cynicism about, criminal justice organizations, less work examines these relationships in juvenile justice settings, and even less examines the effects of staff attitudes toward punishment. The current study assesses the influence of rehabilitative and punitive attitudes on organizational commitment and cynicism in a juvenile justice agency ( n = 204). Multilevel analyses evaluating staff members within organizational units reveal that staff holding more traditional (punitive) attitudes are significantly and positively associated with cynicism, whereas staff holding rehabilitative values demonstrate greater commitment to the agency. Findings suggest attitudes toward punishment play an important role in staff commitment to, and cynicism about, justice organizations, which may affect workers’ adherence to organizational policies and goals.

Individual and Organizational Correlates of Morale Among Workers in a Youth and Family Court Agency

“…That is, Probation, Detention, and Residential employees experience stronger negative relationships between cynicism and morale, while Administrative employees have, on average, the lowest levels of cynicism toward the organization. While previous research found that type of staff did not significantly impact an employee's cynicism toward the organization (Kras et al, 2019), the current finding suggests that cynicism's broader impact on employee morale is stratified by staff setting. However, this interaction effect drops from significance in the full model (Model 4) when considering an interaction between preference for traditional sanctions and type of staff (see Figure 1).…”

“…Similar findings have also been established in juvenile corrections settings. Kras et al (2019) assessed the association between juvenile justice workers' preferences for rehabilitation or traditional sanctions and organizational commitment and cynicism. Participants with a greater rehabilitative orientation demonstrated greater commitment to the organization and its goals, whereas participants with a preference for traditional sanctions showed higher cynicism about the organization's ability to meet those goals.…”

Fundamentos educativos básicos de la intervención con menores infractores. Revisión crítica a través de un caso “exitoso” en Andalucía, España

“…In some cases, these principles are understood more from a sanctioning perspective than from a pedagogical one. And this predominating punitive spirit may, in practice, influence the evolution of the whole process (Kras, Dmello, Meyer, Butterfield & Rudes, 2018).…”

Partners or adversaries? The relation between juvenile diversion supervision and parenting practices.

“…While JPOs often blend both care and control orientations into their work, studies routinely suggest that probation officers continue to believe that a large part of their role is to control and regulate youth (Schwalbe & Maschi, 2010; Ward & Kupchik, 2010). Guided by parens patriae , officers provide close monitoring and surveillance (Bolin & Applegate, 2018; Campbell et al, 2019; Kras et al, 2019), often focusing on control and supervision as they step into the role of a surrogate parent for the youth (Harvell et al, 2018). The juvenile justice system’s focus on supervision and parenting is certainly not without merit.…”