Camping and Sailing with our Probationers

Abstract

DOLICE court missionaries, in old times, tried to resolve the 1 problem of minor delinquencies by an evangelistic manipulation of the client and his environment, by making use of a friendly relationship founded on religious dedication on the one part and necessity on the other. They had proved their point, but as probation became accepted, training for probation officers slowly moved away from its earlier traditions to integrate Freudian concepts and techniques. Casework both as a method and a theory replaced the earlier personal approach, and subjectivity gave way to objectivity in relationships. More recently, however, secure in the accepted framework of casework, probation officers began empirically to experiment with other ways of working. Though it still remains the cornerstone of probation work, as the limitations of the one to one relationship as a panacea for the complex range of persons now included in the average caseload became increasingly apparent, new ways are being tried. Indeed, the English Probation Service is in a state of professional fermentation, development or metamorphosis, depending on one's viewpoint. Of particular impact are the influence of welfare work in prisons and after-care, the great stress on the environmental causes of crime, the concepts and practices of role playing and group dynamics. With this latter factor in mind the Hampshire Probation Service has been developing activity groups with primarily adolescent offenders. The 'one to one' discussion aimed at giving insight and strengthening the ego seems not altogether appropriate for a group of young offenders who, while verbally inarticulate, express themselves most articulately through their behaviour.In 1963, therefore, we decided to experiment with a camp for boys on probation. The early probationers' camps were meant to provide a relevant experience for the boys and staff alike. Relevant, that is, to their needs and to our knowledge of delinquency and its treatment. We were specially interested to apply group dynamics to the situation, and were inspired by the work of people like Aichhorn, Wills and Lyward. We hoped that in a situation made secure by the staff and given a large degree of freedom of action, the children would behave sociably, asserting their own restraints and discover the need for social organisation, and law and order. This would be facilitated if we could provide a 'one-community' without the customary division into 'us' and 'them' where authority would be nurturing and enabling, and whatever at UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS on April 5, 2015 ijo.sagepub.com Downloaded from