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Title
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The working alliance in community supervision practice : a mixed-methods approach
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Author
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Abstract
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| How society deals with people who commit criminal acts has been an issue since ancient times. In Belgium and other Western countries, there seems to be an increasing trend to submit people who commit offences to forms of community supervision, a field of practice that in Belgium is referred to as “social work under a judicial mandate” (Devos, 2009, p. 18; Bauwens and Devos, 2015, p. 12). However, the growing popularity of alternative measures and sanctions stands in stark contrast to the research attention it has attained, certainly amongst social work researchers. Particularly regarding the everyday reality of community supervision practice, research is scarce. Moreover, existing studies tend to be small scale and predominantly using interviews and surveys as methods of data collection (Robinson and Svensson, 2013). Due to this research gap, scholars have identified community supervision practice as a ‘black box’ (Farrall, 2002; Bonta et al., 2008). In my PhD study, I focus on what is considered to be a cornerstone of social work practice in general and community supervision practice in particular: the complex professional relationship between practitioners and clients. Drawing on theory and research from the fields of psychology, criminology and social work, I conceptualize this professional relationship as a working alliance in a mandated context (Menger, 2018). The general objective of my study is to contribute to uncovering the black box of community supervision practice by applying a mixed-methods research framework to gain more insight on the working alliance in a mandated context. This doctoral dissertation encompasses four different research projects, all conducted within the Flemish Houses of Justice and each contributing to the aforementioned general objective. A first study regards practitioners’ reflections on the constant state of reform that characterizes the Flemish context of community supervision (Boxstaens, 2016). This research captures the reflections of important stakeholders on recent legislative and organizational reforms of the Flemish Houses of Justice and helps to contextualize community supervision practice in Flanders as “social work under a judicial mandate” (Devos, 2009, p. 18; Bauwens and Devos, 2015, p. 12). It therefore sets the scene for the other studies in this PhD research. Three other research projects form a triad which is designed to provide insight on (1) how the working alliance in community supervision is established; (2) how the quality of the working alliance in a mandated context can be measured; and (3) how the quality of the working alliance in a mandated context can be influenced. The first issue is addressed by exploring the added value of a combination of unstructured and structured observations of initial practitioner-client meetings and semi-structured interviews with practitioners. This led to development of a structured observation schedule that can be used to directly research first meetings between clients and practitioners and can provide a detailed account of what actually happens in these first meetings where a working alliance should be established (Boxstaens, Blay, Melendez Pereto and Décarpes, 2015). The aforementioned observation schedule was used and complemented with semistructured interviews in a comparative study of professional skills and practice in Flanders and Catalonia (Blay and Boxstaens, 2018). The findings of this study paint an image of how practitioners try to establish a working alliance with clients in an effort to balance their supportive and controlling role in the context of community supervision practice. An answer to the second question comprises focus group research and multivariate statistical analyses (Principal Component Analyses and Exploratory Factor Analysis) to study the validity of the recently developed Working Alliance in a Mandated Context Inventory (WAMC-I) (Menger, 2018) in the Flemish context of community supervision. Based on statistical analyses, the WAMC-I seems a suitable instrument to measure the working alliance from a practitioners point of view. However, attempts to validate the client version of the WAMC-I have proven to be difficult. Our findings show that adaptations to the WAMC-I are necessary in order for the measuring instrument to be used in Flemish community supervision practice (Boxstaens and Depauw, forthcoming). With regards to the third issue, the use of the WAMC-I as a tool for practitionerclient reflection and feedback on the quality of the working alliance in community supervision practice was explored through a combination of semi-structured faceto-face interviews and semi-structured phone interviews. This qualitative study has led to findings that are supportive of the hypothesis that the WAMC-I can be used as an instrument for practitioner-client reflection on different aspects of the working alliance and suggests positive effects on its quality, although further research remains necessary (Boxstaens, forthcoming). |
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Language
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English
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Publication
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Antwerpen
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Universiteit Antwerpen, Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen, Departement Sociologie
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2019
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Volume/pages
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393 p.
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Note
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Raeymaeckers, Peter [Supervisor]
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Full text (open access)
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