The professional experiences and training needs of probation officers in Turkey

The impact of a brief RNR‐based training on Turkish juvenile probation officers' punitive and rehabilitative attitudes and recidivism risk perceptions

“…Therefore, officers stated they were primarily focused on short‐term practical solutions to youth's needs, rather than coordinating rehabilitative services. Our current findings align with and expand on those of Erdem et al (), suggesting that a brief RNR‐based training has promising effects on reducing punitive attitudes, but not on promoting rehabilitative attitudes among JPOs. Unexpectedly, there was a decrease in JPOs' rehabilitative attitudes from pre‐ to posttest in both conditions.…”

“…A previous study with Turkish POs (some JPOs at the same time) found that officers struggled to implement a rehabilitative approach within the probation service due to barriers in coordination with other governmental agencies in referrals and limited availability of learning and rehabilitative programs for justice‐involved youth (Erdem et al, ). Therefore, officers stated they were primarily focused on short‐term practical solutions to youth's needs, rather than coordinating rehabilitative services.…”

“…The principles of the training conformed with Bonta's et al () and Vincent et al's () recommendations. The training exercises, cases, and other materials were tailored to match the needs of Turkish POs, based on the findings of a prior qualitative study conducted by the first and second authors (Erdem et al, ). A series of focus groups with a separate sample of POs and administrative staff in Istanbul revealed primary needs for training in interviewing skills and risk assessment as well as preference for brief interventions.…”

“…A Stage I design was preferred over a Stage II design because there were no Turkish training materials available for an RNR‐based intervention program nor any empirical studies examining the effects of RNR‐based training in the Turkish criminal justice system. The needs assessment and program development phases of the study are available elsewhere (Erdem et al, ) while the current paper focuses on the quantitative aspects of the quasi‐experimental study.…”

“…The training exercises, cases, and other materials were tailored to match the needs of Turkish POs, based on the findings of a prior qualitative study conducted by the first and second authors (Erdem et al, 2019). The first module comprised a review of the rationale for the training and an introduction to empirical research on rehabilitative versus punitive approaches to probation.…”