Cynicism among juvenile probation officers: A study of subverted ideals

Journal of Criminal Justice Vol. 18, pp. 501-517 (1990)

0047-2352/90 $3,00 + .00 Copyright @1990 Pergamon Press plc

All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.

CYNICISM A M O N G JUVENILE P R O B A T I O N OFFICERS: A S T U D Y OF S U B V E R T E D IDEALS

RUSSELL L . CURTIS JR.

W I L L I A M A . REESE, II

Department of Sociology University of Houston-University Park Houston, Texas 77204-3474

Department of Sociology Augusta College Augusta, Georgia 30910

M I C H A E L PATRICK CONE

Department of Adult Probation Harris County, Houston, Texas 77002

ABSTRACT Since Niederhoffer's pioneering work with police, much attention has been paid to cynicism in several criminal justice settings. This research has led to a concept of cynicism as multidimensional. Based on these research findings, this study investigated cynicism in a new setting--juvenile probation. The specific focus was cynicism toward the rehabilitative ideal in juvenile justice. The study found that professionalism and longevity had effects that were opposite to what has been found in other settings. Moreover, this study found that idealistic cynicism is independent of perceptions o f procedural efficacy, delinquency etiology, and, importantly, JPO role performance. We take these results to be in keeping with a general conclusion that cynicism is a judgment that varies within and across settings, audiences, and philosophical ideals, which calls for continued research refined by greater appreciation of situational specificity.

This case study focused upon an unsystematically researched issue, cynicism among juvenile probation officers (JPOs). Cynicism was measured as the subversion of situationally specific philosophical ideals, which is distinct from the failure of ideals, or "organizational cynicism," in a large probation department. The study assessed the association of cynicism with the personal, positional, and attitudinal profiles of the officers (particularly their professionalism or commitment to the rehabilitative ideal) and with their per501

ceptions of delinquency causation and attitudes toward juvenile justice reform and their dispositional recommendations for a juvenile. The study design and designation of potentially relevant correlates of cynicism were informed by other research. The literature review included studies of cynicism among priests (Denhardt and Salomone, 1972; Goldner et al., 1977), law students (Katz and Denbeaux, 1976), medical students (Becker et al., 1961; Gray and Newman, 1962), dental students (Morris and Sherlock, 1971), and

502

RUSSELL CURTIS, JR, WILLIAM REESE, II and MICHAEL CONE

pharmacy students (Shuval and Gilbert, 1978). While these studies employed unique measures designed for their specific settings, as did this study, the general conception and associational investigations were consistent with those identified for criminal justice settings, These include, for example, a positive association between cynicism and years of membership and an inverse, but inconsistent, association with professionalism and education (Becker et al., 1961:421). The conception and operationalization of cynicism in the present study, while situationally specific, paralleled those in other studies. The fundamental concept of cynicism centered on the perception that ideals have been subverted. Ancillary dimensions were the perception of organizational actions as serving individuals rather than the collectire good and, relatedly, distrust of organizational agents and their stated purposes. To test the empirical construct, measures focused on attributions ranging from perceptions of altruism (noncynical) on the one hand to subversive, self-serving (or cynical) perceptions on the other. As noted by Goldner et al. (1977), cynicism in a criminal justice agency setting differs from the usual notions of a lack of "effectiveness," or the failure of idealism, This research also benefited indirectly from an accumulation of studies on cynicism among criminal justice personnel including police (Hou et al., 1983; Lotz and Regoli, 1977; Rafky, 1975; Regoli, 1976; Poole and Regoli, 1979), correctional workers (Farmer, 1977; Regoli et al., 1979; 1981b), and police chiefs (Crank et al., 1987). Langworthy's (1987a) review of police studies employing the Niederhoffer (1967) scale summarizes the bulk of the most frequently cited studies of cynicism in these settings. This study was guided especially by the growing conception of cynicism as a multifaceted concept which contains several dimensions (Lester, 1980; Rafky, 1975; Regoli, 1977; Regoli et al., 1987a; Regoli and Poole, 1979). Cynicism surrounding abstract ideals, for example, has been found to be independent of cynicism specific to organizational procedures (Holzman and O'Connell, 1981). Also, studies have

indicated that professionalism has a more complex association with cynicism than Niederhoffer (1967) originally presumed (e.g., Regoli, 1977). The present research also was informed by studies of adult probation and parole officers that have identified cynicism as common where an ideal of client service dominates (Clear and O'Leary, 1983; Stanley, 1976; Studt, 1973; Whitehead, 1985; 1986). This growing literature provided an interpretive framework for this investigation of JPOs, who have not been a focus of cynicism research despite recognition that contradictions exist in probation (Ohlin et al., 1956) which may generate cynicism (e.g., Csapo and Clarke, 1976). Conditions particularly relevant to the practice of juvenile justice, which can foment cynicism, are the bifurcated charges of ~childsaving" and community protection. It has been noted that the dual purposes of probation produce "idealistic" dilemmas (Clear, 1979), in which commitment to one ideal can be, and often is, antithetical to the other (Reese et al., 1989). t In view of the extensive field documentation, the present study assumed rehabilitation as the preemptive ideal of juvenile probation, at least since the Uniform Juvenile Court Act of 1968 (see Section 6 on JPOs, as reprinted in Davis, 1983:A-9-A-10). It focused, therefore, on commitment to client service by examining background and demographic variables that have been found to align with client-centered professionalism. Doing so entailed acceptance of the situational conceptualization of cynicism as not inherent to any act or attitude (Becker et al. 1961), and the study extended the reasoning of these reseachers to include specification of the ideal to be served as rehabilitation. This specification of "idealistic cynicism" and the assessment of its association with professionalism were further informed by documentation of the multidimensionality of both constructs and the apparent overlap between latent subscales of both. Specifically, Lotz and Regoli (1977) concluded that their factors CYNDED (cynicism about police dedication to duty) and "calling" (professionalism about a calling to the field of police work) are positively related because they both

Cynicism Among Juvenile Probation Officers measure police dedication. Relatedly, Regoli et al. (1987a) concluded that commitment (identical to CYNDED except for minor wording changes) and calling are essentially identical factors. 2 In an extension of these interpretations, this study investigated, as seemingly analogous, the empirical relationship between idealistic cynicism and professional dedication to an ideal of rehabilitation among juvenile justice officials,

CYNICISM PATTERNS AND RESEARCH PROCEDURES

The Setting From 1974 to 1980, the present authors engaged in a field observational and consultational relationship with a juvenile probation department in a southwestern state. The department serves a large metropolitan county with a population in excess of three million people. Approximately 30,000 referrals are processed annually. Some 7,700 are held in detention; approximately 1,500 petitions for court are filed each year; average annual state and county commitments vary, with the average being around 450. Our focus was on the major, central facility housing all of the officers who were caseworkers and administrative line personnel, A supportive and informative rapport was achieved with the entire department, ranging from the chief to entry-level caseworkers. The first standardized research effort was a survey of juvenile files, achieved through departmental and court permissions. This proved futile because of the notational variations created by the accountability functions of such files (cf. Needleman, 1981). Case files, as "accounts," introduce different dispositions evoked for ostensibly similar reasons (Reese et al., 1989). Therefore, with departmental advice and support, we constructed a self-administered questionnaire, which was distributed and collected by departmental administrators. 3 These events and interpretations are described in Reese et al. (1988). Among the observed attitudes of the per-

503

sonnel, including dedication and commitment, on the one hand, and despair and anger, on the other, cynicism was a patterned expression. As a high-ranking administrator volunteered, "this place doesn't help any kid, it just exists to give people a job." While a condemnation of the department, the statement also expresses an ideal of child saving. It is where there are standards (e.g., "larger" causes, such as client service) beyond the rewards and control of the member that cynicism as ideal subversion has been hypothesized to exist. Given the settings which have served as the foci of cynicism research and their attendant ideals, this subversion is apparently especially characteristic of peopie-serving, professional, and religious organizations.

Variables and Hypotheses Cynicism, as conceptualized above, was expected to be associated with education and "professional orientation" as self-defined by the officers. Professional rote orientation was measured by the officers' responses indicating such role definitions as in: law entorcement agent, youth counselor, social caseworker, and combinations of the three. The effects of education and role orientation were highlighted in the path-breaking work by Niederhoffer (1967). Previous research, combined with our observations, produced hypotheses of an inverse association between cynicism and education (Crank et al., 1987) and a positive relationship between cynicism and professional orientation to an ideal of child saving (Lotz and Regoli, 1977; Regoli et al., 1979; 1981a; 1987a; Tournier, 1978). 4 Our field experiences supported this. We heard expressions of cynicism more often from officers with intrinsic c o m m i t m e n t s - - t h o s e whose primary commitments were perceived by us as directed toward other persons or programs rather than to themselves as beneficiaries. Personnel expressing ideological frustrations typically were those officers who were in process or had recently completed professional degree programs related to juvenile services. In essence, these JPOs maintained the greater rehabilitation commitment and were

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RUSSELL CURTIS, JR, WILLIAM REESE, II and MICHAEL CONE

more likely to indicate that the realities, if not the practices, of juvenile services contradicted their purposes. From these comments, variables of education and kinds of self-defined professional orientations were built into the questionnaire, Years of service has been a central variable in other cynicism studies, and this study tested for its association. While some have suggested a positive, nonlinear association, Langworthy (1987) concluded that the most prudent interpretation was no relationship in his review of police studies and the claims of curvilinearity by Niederhoffer (1967) and by Regoli (1977) and a rapid shift in cynicism in police academies by Rafky et al. (1976). Our field observations, however, suggested a problem in measuring the shape of association between cynicism and longevity among degreed professionals--the "selective attrition" factor. 5 The more cynical perceive their ideals as misapplied or even sabotaged, and it was these personnel, we observed, who were more likely to terminate their employment in resentment, disenchantment, and alienation. Take the case of an ex-priest (among at least four in the department). He entered juvenile justice services with the goal of "making a difference" in the lives of troubled youth and came to believe that the policies and events of juvenile probation not only subverted their own purposes but were actually harmful to their juvenile clientele. He quit, citing estrangement, before the administration of our questionnaire. Our research, then, enjoyed the methodological advantages (e.g., controlling for extraneous history) of a cross-sectional design but introduced the limitations of such a design, which characterize most studies of cynicism in criminal justice settings (Langworthy, 1987a; 1987b). Rank has exhibited an inconsistent association with cynicism in other studies, and our observations indicated a curvilinear pattern in this department. Many level III personnel, committed to a professional career in juvenile justice, were pursuing or had recently cornpleted career-facilitating degrees. In their critiques of juvenile justice, these personnel employed the language of revisionary perspectives, such as "deinstitutionalization" and

"decriminalization," and spontaneously volunteered criticisms of department operations as departures from these ideals. Moreover, new departmental personnel often exhibited the demeanor of "novitiates" who were high on ideals and unrealistic about practical impact. Those at the mid-level, level II, appeared to expect less of themselves and the department. By reputation, many were there because they lacked other, more attractive options. The age, type of environment in which they spent their adolescence (urban, rural, etc.), and self-reported delinquency of the JPOs were included in the analysis. The age of the ofricers, a proxy cohort effect, was expected to be inversely related to cynicism. Younger JPOs were expected to be more cynical due to their proportionally greater exposure to, and, as a consequence, commitment to, contemporary ideals expressed variously as "reintegration." There is also research support for the notion that the environment in which a probation officer spent his or her own adolescence could be a salient factor. Urban environments during adolescence can shape commitment to service and client-centered philosophies (Hou et al., 1983). Reed and King (1966) and Dembo (1972) observed parole officers of rural backgrounds to be less orientated toward "unofficial" interventions and reintegration postures, findings which Dembo (1972:209) explained as urban culture fostering " . . . reintegrative concern for the antisocial products of indigenous slums . . . . " in contrast to " . . . rural culture [which] does not stimulate concern and involvement in antisocial persons, making it conducive to punishment orientations." Implications for the juvenile justice ideal of rehabilitation and associated themes of cynicism are anticipated from these findings and their interpretations. This study included examination of the prior delinquency of the officers themselves (to our knowledge, these data are unique to this study) because of the comments of the officers to the effect that their own adolescent experiences impacted on their attitudes toward delinquents and their correctional strategies. Specifically, JPOs who reported delinquency

Cynicism Among Juvenile Probation Officers of their own tended to be client- and serviceorientated, rather than retributive in their philosophies of and orientations to juvenile justice. Beliefs about the causes of delinquency and cynical perceptions about juvenile justice solutions also were examined. Cullen et al. (1985) have demonstrated effectively that social attributions of crime are associated with allegiance to rehabilitation, and we wished to test for the possibility of a related association between perceptions of social etiology and cynicism. In particular, we wished to examine empirically if the officers' attitudes toward diverting youth from official interventions were associated with their perceptions of idealistic cynicism. Finally, we included a consideration which has not been highlighted in the literature: the consequences of cynicism for job performance. The officers were presented with a file for disposition and were requested to make "recommendations" to the courts for this standard case, described below. Our interest was whether cynicism is associated with dispositional responses. The importance is evident, given the professional implications of Niederhoffer's (1967) and subsequent studies of cynicism. Specifically, we wanted to know if profiles of cynicism among JPOs impact on their day-to-day treatment of clients,

Questionnaire, Cynicism Measure, and Standard Juvenile File The 73-percent return rate (87 of 120 members), considered acceptable in conventional organizational research and perceived as ~excellent" in the department, was achieved because of official administrative support, Information was obtained on background characteristics, careers in working with juveniles, and attitudes and perspectives toward juveniles in general, toward delinquency and its etiology (attribution, prevention, and efficacy of solutions), toward the department as an organization (effectiveness, authority structures, and relations), and toward intervention strategies, Cynicism was measured with a factored scale (unrotated principal-components anal-

505

ysis) constructed from responses (Likert scale) to the following general items: (1) Youth labeled delinquent are no different than the majority of other youth. (2) Official systems create delinquent identities and behaviors. (3) The unnecessary legal processing contributes to the creation of juvenile delinquents.6 Note that none of the items question departmental efficacy; they identify a subversion of the rehabilitative i d e a l - - a perception of official intervention, in general, as counterproductive to a philosophical ideal of child saving. High scores, perhaps eventually predictive of sympathy for the interactionist perspective and critique, directly indicated that the officers perceived that juvenile justice and probation services labeled youth and existed for system-serving purposes, not for the treatment of troubled youth. Apart from the cynicism focusing on the subversion of the rehabilitative ideal (designated "idealistic" below), organizational cynicism, or perception of procedural ineffectiveness specific to this department, was expected to be distinct from idealistic cynicism, as noted above. A profile of organizational cynicism specified the pro bono meanings of departmental arrangements (three items) with regard to utilization of employee ideas, the "real ~ direction of information flow, and whether there was "covert resistance" (as labeled in the item) to departmental goals. This research distinguished, therefore, between cynicism revolving around rehabilitation ideals (idealistic cynicism) and procedural ideals (organizational cynicism) and tested for their independence (apparently analogous in part to the test for the independence of "commitment" and "autonomy" by Regoli et al., 1987a. Beliefs about the causes of d e l i n q u e n c y - media, bad families, poverty, and bad s c h o o l s - - w e r e examined for their relationship with officer cynicism. In addition, cynicism was tested for its relationship to attitudes toward juvenile justice reform. If idealistic cynicism is a reflection of dissatisfaction with the practice of juvenile justice, then beliefs about socially aggravating

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RUSSELL CURTIS, JR, WILLIAM REESE, II and MICHAEL CONE

factors in delinquency (e.g., poverty), however related to sanctioning, should be unrelated to cynicism. By contrast, cynicism should be reflected in the JPOs' perceptions of the failure of institutional rehabilitative ideals and, therefore, should correspond to diversion advocacy, as noted above. Finally, the study examined the relationship of cynicism with dispositional recommendations for a 15-year-old female with an accumulation of nonsevere (no felonies, one misdemeanor) offenses. Her file was chosen as a midrange, "high nuisance" value case, which had escalated between appearances from a return-to-home-with-counseling to active probation and a foster home placement. The full, complete, 40-page file (with all identifying information altered) contained all school records, psychological and intelligence tests, and communications with the department, Most referrals involved running way and sexual precocity, including the last trouble, requiring JPO recommendations at revocation, To maximize authenticity, JPO dispositions followed all departmental and jurisdictional procedures, including ordered, multiple remedies,

JUVENILE P R O B A T I O N OFFICER CYNICISM The results parallel the general findings for other criminal justice settings and support our field observations: many of these JPOs were cynical (Table 1). Scores ranged from a low of 6 to a high of 13 (the possible range was 3 to 15, with only a score of 3 indicating a total lack of cynicism). 7 The average cynicism score was 8.92 ("some" delinquents harmed by juvenile justice), with fully onethird of the officers perceiving that "most" clients were harmed by juvenile justice, in sum, there was a main effect indicating that officers felt juvenile justice subverted the ideals of child saving or rehabilitation in many, if not most, officially processed delinquency cases. Table 2 presents results of the one-way analyses of variance for the six demographic variables hypothesized to be related to ideal-

TABLE 1 FREQUENCYDISTRIBUTIONOF CYNICISM SCALE SCORES OF JUVENILE PROBATION OFFICERS

Frequency

6 7

8 10

9.2 11.5

9.2 20.7

16 24 13 9 6 1 87

18.4 27.6 14.9 10.3 6.9 1.1 100.0

39.1 66.7 81.6 92.0 98.9 100.0 --

8 9 10 11 12 13 Total

Percent

Cummulative Percent

Value

istic cynicism. The JPOs' mean levels of idealistic cynicism across the variables of prior delinquency, adolescent environment, professional role orientation, and age were significantly different and in the predicted direction. However, while the differences by position and educational attainment approached significance, they cannot be assumed to have exceeded differences attributable to chance. JPOs who grew up in urban environments and those reporting they had committed delinquent acts as adolescents were significantly more cynical than their nonurban, nondelinquent colleagues. This is consistent with the hypothesis that those officers would demonstrate relatively greater commitment to the ideals of rehabilitation and client serving. TABLE 2 SUMMARYSTATISTICS FROM ONE-WAY

ANALYSESOF VARIANCEOF CYNICISM ON Six FACTORS Factor

Position Delinquent Environment Orientation Education Age

Sum of Mean

Squares Square df

17.71 27.82 12.83 12.74 6.71 25.99

5.90 27.82 12.83 12.74 6.71 13.00

F

p

3 2.14 . 101 1 10.48 .002 1 4.67 .034 1 4.29 .039 1 2.38 .127 2 4.95 .009

Cynicism Among Juvenile Probation Officers Moreover, officers under age 26 were more cynical than the older JPOs. Finally, JPOs who had not completed college or had not completed graduate school tended to be more cynical than those who had completed their education, although not significantly so. The inverse education effect, while not significant, still points to a reversal of many previous findings and, therefore, warrants brief elaboration. As noted above, many of these officers were currently pursuing career-related educations. Therefore, we interpret this inverse effect as reflecting a career and professional orientation and commitment toward rehabilitive juvenile justice. Moreover, and as elaborated by Goldner et al. (1977) tor priests, this represents a proxy to a cohort education effect, especially in an agency such as this, which requires a college degree of all personnel, and recent curricula heighten allegiance to "professionalism" as defined herein, The professional orientation scores of the officers indicate that officers who conceived of their roles as youth counselors or social workers were more "idealistically" cynical than those who saw their task as law enforcement or some combination of law enforcement and client service. This had been predicted, based on the operationalization of cynicism toward service ideals. Position in the organization was related to cynicism in a nonlinear way, as expected. Entry-level JPOs and level IlI JPOs were more cynical than either administrators or less idealistic level II JPOs. The level I pattern may indicate the idealistic novitiate effect noted in other research, while the findings for supervisors may reflect their relative isolation from the dayto-day frustrations of line work (cf. Whitehead, 1986). Whatever the explanation, it is imperative to note that the differences in levels of idealistic cynicism by position failed to achieve statistical significance. Further analyses were conducted, in which the factors and the covariate, experience, were simultaneously introduced; interactions were tested for significance; and the independent main effects were analyzed. Summarized in Table 3 are the results of multivariate analysis of variance and multiple

507

classification analysis to refine the specification of the background and organizational characteristics associated with cynicism. ~ Apparent from this analysis is that urban environment and reported prior delinquency maintained statistical significance while JPO age and professional role orientation lost significance when all the other model effects were introduced. In addition, position and education remained nonsignificant. Lastly, the covariate, years working in the department or experience, was significantly, but inversely, associated with cynicism. Our interpretation, based on our field experiences and on the kinds of credentials required for the job, is that these findings provide evidence of the selective attrition identified above: the more idealistic personnel, who were more prone to cynicism, were more likely to opt for alternative careers. In summary, the background and organizational variables specified in other research on cynicism among criminal justice professionals (with the noted exception of prior delinquency) appear to "explain" idealistic cynicism among these juvenile probation officers, as the overall explained variance was 38.1 percent. 9 These findings indicate that idealistic cynicism is exacerbated among those professionally committed to the rehabilitative ideal. The independence of cynicism as the subversion of idealism from procedural effectiveness or organizational cynicism as the failure of idealism is illustrated in Table 4. "~ Frustrations emanating from ineffective intraorganization relations are clearly distinct from idealistic cynicism, as suggested by the research of Goldner et al. (1977), Holzman and O'Connell (1981), and Regoli et al. (1987a). The JPOs' perceptions of a lack of input of ideas, of downward directives, and of covert resistance to goals ("organizational" cynicism) were unrelated to idealistic cynicism. ~ A T T I T U D I N A L CORRELATES OF CYNICISM Presented in Table 5 are the relationships between idealistic cynicism and attitudes

508

R U S S E L L CURTIS, JR, W I L L I A M REESE, II and M I C H A E L C O N E

TABLE 3 SUMMARY STATISTICS FROM A MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE AND MULTIPLE CLASSIFICATION ANALYSIS OF J P O CYNICISM

Variable Category

Mean

Experience Position Level I Level II Level III Supervisor/Administrator Delinquent Yes No Environment Nonurban Urban Orientation Social Worker/Youth Counselor Law Enforcement Education Incomplete Degree Age <26 26-31 >31 Grand Explained Residual

- .082"

Sum of Squares

Mean Square

df

F

p

14.10 8.39

14.10 2.80

1 3

6.43 1.28

.014 .290

26.54

26.54

1

12.10

.001

8.46

8.46

1

3.86

.054

4.41

4.41

1

2.01

.161

7.04

7.04

1

3.21

.078

7.48

3.74

2

1.71

.190

91.72 149.16

9.17 2.19

10 68

4.18 2.19

.000

9.62 8.45 9.46 8.80 9.53 8.26 8.70 9.79 9.75 8.76 9.75 8.69 10.40 9.00 8.34 8.96

aUnstandardized regression coefficient N = 79 due to missing data R 2 = .381

related to the etiology of juvenile delinquency. Cynicism was unrelated to attributions of delinquency to media influences, bad parents or parenting, poverty, or bad schools.12 The absence of association between these explanations of delinquency and JPO cynicism is significant, especially given the importance of social variables in predicting sanction advocacy (Cullen et al., 1985). These four items were chosen because they reflect detrimental influences on youth beyond the control of individual agents as well as juvenile justice. The lack of association does not support a consideration of cynicism emanating

from external, social conditions. By implication, it is the subversion of service ideals by the very practice of juvenile justice that apparently underlies these JPOs' cynicism, as addressed below. In contrast to the lack of association between cynicism and causal explanations of delinquency, the cross-tabulations in Table 6 address perceptions of the impact of juvenile justice intervention on processed youth and on the county's delinquency rate. Here the level of the individual JPO's cynicism is highly salient. Officers who perceived the subversion of the rehabilitative ideal in general judged

509

Cynicism Among Juvenile Probation Officers

TABLE 4 JPO

CYNICISM AND PERCEPTIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL

Survey Item Q. 70: Ideas sought and used by supervisors Low cynicism High cynicism Q. 71 : Direction of information flow Low cynicism High cynicism Q. 77: How much covert resistance to department goals Low cynicism High cynicism Q 70: x 2 = 5 . 0 7 ; Q 71: x 2 = 6 . 2 7 , Q 77:x 2 = 1.79,

df = df= df=

PROCEDURES

Response Options Seldom 26.2% 33.3

Usually 23.8% 6.7 Down and up 22.0 4.4

Always 2.4% 2.2

(42) (45)

Downward 39.0 51.1

Sometimes 47.6% 57.8 Mostly Downward 26.8 26.7

All ways 12.2 17.8

(42) (45)

Strong 7.1 13.6

Moderate 31.0 34.1

Some 42.9 40.9

Little/No 19.0 11.4

(42) (44)

3, p = . 1 6 7 , h = - . 2 8 5 3, p = . 0 9 9 , k = - . 1 7 0 3, p = . 6 1 7 , h = - . 2 0 9

(N) See A p p e n d i x B f o r e x a c t w o r d i n g o f the items.

their department's impact relatively unfavorably as well. This finding suggests that idealistic cynicism in general is highly correlated with the officer's perceptions and judgments of the practices of this department in regard to its impact on rehabilitating youth, In addition, the more cynical JPOs generally advocated the reform of greater diversion of juveniles. The strength of the latter association, combined with the fact that 69 percent of the cynical officers felt strongly about the advisability of diversion, touches the heart of idealistic juvenile justice cynicism.13 In these officers' judgments, juvenile justice not only has failed as a solution to delinquency, it is part of the problem, Finally, presented in Table 7 is evidence that cynicism toward juvenile justice ideals manifested by the officers was unrelated to their dispositional recommendations for the standardized case. 14 Cynicism is a manifestation of their sentiments about juvenile justice, not about youth, delinquency, or a particular delinquent's prognosis. Idealistic cynicism, however pervasive, was not influential on occupational performance (cf. Tournier, 1978, on police cynicism),

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

The results of this study illustrate how the dilemmas and frustrations in juvenile probation promoted cynicism among these JPOs similar to the cynicism observed in other peopie-serving professions. Specifically, these JPOs' perceptions that child-oaving ideals had been subverted were at the root of their beliefs that juvenile justice obstructed rehabilitation in general and negatively impacted on youth processed by their department as well. However, this cynicism was found to be independent of perceptions of procedural ineffectiveness of the agency, or organizational cynicism. In addition, attention was directed to the impacts of cynicism on the official actions of these juvenile justice officers. Cynicism was found to be unrelated to disposition of the standard case but relevant to these officers' perceptions of their success in rehabilitating delinquents and their prescriptive judgments of an ideal juvenile justice. These judgments also coincided with, even if they were not yet

510

R U S S E L L C U R T I S , JR, W I L L I A M R E E S E , II and M I C H A E L C O N E

TABLE 5 JPO

C Y N I C I S M BY P E R C E P T I O N S OF S O M E C A U S E S OF D E L I N Q U E N C Y

Response Options Survey Item Q. 27: Television, radio and/or movies contribute to delinquency of delinquents Low cynicism High cynicism Q. 28: _ _ delinquents are victims of parental rejection, inconsistency, conflicts or neglect Low cynicism High cynicism Q. 33: Poverty causes _ _ delinquents. Low cynicism High cynicism Q. 37: Schools generate delinquents. Low cynicism High cynicism _

Q Q Q Q

All

Most

Some

Few

None

2.4% 2.2

9.5% 11.1

42.9% 53.3

42.9% 33.3

2.4% 0.0

(42) (45)

7.3 8.9

63.4 51.1

24.4 40.0

4.9 0.0

0.0 0.0

(41) (45)

0.0 0.0

16.7 13.3

59.5 60.0

19.0 24.4

4.8 2.2

(42) (45)

2.4 6.7

45.2 42.2

35.7 40.0

14.3 11.1

2.4 0.0

(42) (45)

_

27: 28: 33: 37:

x2 X2 xz X2

= = = -

2.14, 4.44, 0.86, 2.26,

df df df df

= 4, p = = 3, p = = 3, p = = 4, p =

.710, .218, .835, .483,

h h h h

= = = =

-.195 .120 .073 -.096

(N) See A p p e n d i x B for e x a c t w o r d i n g o f items.

identical to, the "newer ideals" of diversion from juvenile justice and reintegration into the larger society. Finally, the results of this research are not inconsistent with the findings of other studies in other criminal justice settings pertaining to relevant background, demographic, and organizational effects on cynicism among personnel. Specifically, cause was found to identify professional orientation and age (at the bivariate level) and years of experience as important correlates of cynicism even if educational attainment and organizational position did not apply significantly. Moreover, we demonstrated that the adolescent experiences of delinquent involvement and urban environment are unrecognized factors in the production of professional idealism and cynicism. Of particular significance, these variables were found to be relevant to juvenile

probation officer cynicism, a heretofore uninvestigated topic. Two variables associated with cynicism, however, had effects opposite to those sometimes discovered in other criminal justice settings. Longevity had an inverse effect overall, and professional commitment to the rehabilitative ideal was positively associated with JPO cynicism. As noted above, these findings were not unanticipated, given our field observations of attrition patterns, our operational construct of cynicism, and our interpretation of recent empirical work on the multidimensionality of cynicism and professionalism (e.g., Regoli et al., 1987a). Thus, these results parallel an increasingly common conclusion: cynicism, as manifested by criminal justice personnel, varies in its particulars, if not its global properties, across settings differentiated by type, function, size,

Cynicism Among Juvenile Probation Officers

5 11

TABLE 6 J P O CYNICISM BY DEPARTMENTAL IMPACT AND DIVERSION

Survey Item Q. 82: Impact of department on processed juveniles Low cynicism High cynicism Q. 83: Impact of department on county delinquency rate Low cynicism High cynicism Q. 44: The negative effect of the justice-correctional system is such that greater diversion is needed Low cynicism High cynicism

Response Options Highly Favorable 12.2% 0.0

Slightly Favorable 75.6% 60.0

None 7.3% 17.8

Slightly Negative 2.4% 22.2

2.4% 0.0

(41) (45)

Highly Favorable 25.0 8.9

Slightly Favorable 62.5 51.1

None 12.5 33.3

Slightly Negative 0.0 6.7

0.0 0.0

(40) (45)

D 19.5 2.2

SD 9.8 0.0

SA 34.1 68.9

A 36.6 28.9

(41) (45)

Q 82:X 2 = 15.76, d f = 4, p = .003, h = .669 Q 8 3 : x 2 = 10.40, d f = 3, p = .016, h = .577 Q 4 4 : x 2 = 15.86, d f = 3, p = .001, h = - . 6 5 1

(N) See Appendix B for exact wording of items.

cultural climate, and, we add, philosophical ideal. This interpretation, however, has produced a view of cynicism as a highly variegated condition, leading some researchers to question the merits of continued attention to it (e.g., Anson, 1983; Anson et al., 1986; Wilt and Bannon, 1976) and others to suggest replacing cynicism with burnout (e.g., Langworthy, 1987a; 1987b; but see Karger, 1981)• Recently Langworthy (1987b:278), citing cynicism scales derived from the Niederhoffer (1967) instrument as nonunitary and nonreplicable, called for " . . . driving the final nail into the coffin of the measure•" Regoli et al• (1987b:284) rejoined with, "[t]he power of a theory is related directly to the number of hypotheses which can be deduced, and the number of empirical observations it explains, ." through " . . . construction, extension, or clarification . . . . " By extension, we have constructed a scale of cynicism that is clarified by the situational and philosophical ideal of client-centered juvenile justice re•

.

habilitation. Therefore, our efforts represent another piece of empirical work on cynicism that cannot be integrated easily with other studies. However, we tend to concur with Regoli et al. (1987b:285) when they viewed such " . . . variation as a strength of the concept . . . . " Building on studies conducted at a variety of research sites with diverse respondents, we were able to extrapolate relevant variables and hypotheses to test for juvenile probation officer cynicism. More specifically, we were able to demonstrate that cynicism was specific to institutional ideals and related to organizational constraints-ideas that effectively reversed the predicted effects of professional commitment to law enforcement and experience. Such predictions support a conception of the current knowledge of cynicism and professionalism as more a glass half full than a glass half empty and call for more clarification efforts. The solution, however, may not lie simply in conceptual refinement. The concept of

2.4 0.0 4.8 6.7 19.0 33.3

9.5 6.7

38.1 28.9

0.0 0.0

2.4 6.7

2.4 2.2

CHOICE

FOR THE RESEARCH

4.8 4.4

7.1 4.4

7.1 4.4

Foster Home

11.9 6.7

42.9 40.0

59.5 75.6

Placement

Dispositional Options Home with Contingencies

BY DISPOSITIONAL

Home

0.0 0.0

Nothing

CYNICISM

D i s p o s i t i o n 1: X z = 3 . 7 2 , df = 5, p = . 5 9 0 , h = - . 0 9 8 D i s p o s i t i o n 2: X 2 = 2 . 7 8 , df = 6 , p = . 8 3 6 , h = . 0 4 7 D i s p o s i t i o n 3: X 2 = 3 . 1 7 , d f = 5, p = . 6 7 3 , h = . 0 3 8

One Low cynicism High cynicism Two Low cynicism High cynicism Three Low cynicism High cynicism

Disposition

JPO

TABLE 7

2.4 4.4

9.5 4.4

7. ! 2.2

County Commitment

CASE

23.8 (42) 22.2 (45)

23.8 (42) 31.! (45)

21.4 (42) 15.6 (45)

State Commitment

t" ~3

e-~

=

r~ r~

tt"

b~

Cynicism Among Juvenile Probation Officers "cynicism" remains one of the more clearly and consistently applied constructs in the study of social action. Differences in measurements may present a problem, but inferential difficulties appear to emanate more from noncomparable organizational factors--primarily, we contend, the allegiance and cornmitment to varied philosophical ideals. Furthermore, it is the theoretical capture of such organizational variables, we submit, which could produce fruitful resolutions and extensions of cynicism research. Such research, we believe, must recognize, as perhaps only Becker and his associates (1961) have done adequately heretofore, that cynicism and idealism are perceptions and judgments about attitudes and activities specific to definitions of the situation and/or judgmental audiences, They are not general attributes of the actor that can be disengaged somehow from the situationally specific sense-making activities of the interactants, Among many considerations, the following three organizational elements are important, if not necessary, for comparative research on cynicism. First, scales of organizational idealism should be addressed, One approach would be a content analysis of service ideals in contrast to comparative occupational ranks of pay. Where service idealism is high and pay corresponding to training is low, norms of idealism have been observed to be high. Priests in the Catholic Church tend to epitomize high "idealism" conditions; public school teachers are similarly cited. More highly ranked settings of service idealism would tend to exhibit more judgments of subversion. In essence, idealism should correspond to the production of cynicism, and highly "idealistic" settings would contain the greatest stimuli for cynicism, Organizational complexity is a second element. In large criminal justice departments, there tend to be more sub-specialties and divisions, and proximity to the philosophical core would be buffered by stratification and "layers of value." From this view, previous findings of cynicism progression curves may represent corresponding differences in com-

513

plexity rather than, or in combination with, longevity effects, p e r se. Thirdly, interorganizational and environmental factors must be recognized. Currently, at least two police depa~nents in large southwestern cities contain not one but two union organizations and maintain the legal option of direct contact and lobbying with the state legislature for pay and benefit scales a p a r t from the determinations of the local city government. In essence, city officials and police representatives pursue a third party, the state legislature, for conflict resolution. Comparisons of these departments with others assuredly must include these conditions for their potential effects on views of service ideals and, ultimately, on perceptions of the subversion of idealism. Finally, cynicism is a central dimension of social character and organizational ideologies and, as such, has been included in the fundamental explorations of postmodernism. Sloterdijk (1987) has offered an engaging and provocative case that cynicism is a dominant form of social action and normative order in contemporary culture. As an operational implication, we argue as follows. Alienation and anomie present people with conditions of organizational and normative linkage. Self-image and affective concepts such as self-esteem, self-confidence, and happiness present them with individual response. Cynicism, we contend, cuts across these levels to present people with the integration of the individual, the organizational structure, and the ideological setting of their environment. Consequently, it is necessary to construct a much neglected, but much needed theory of cynic i s m - - a theory which must ultimately address the inherently alienating economic and political (i.e., structural) constraints which can subvert the very ideals of the peopleserving professionals.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This article is a revision of a paper presented at the Western Social Science Association meetings, Fort Worth,April, 1985. The data collection was funded by the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, project number

514

RUSSELL CURTIS, JR, W I L L I A M REESE, II and M I C H A E L CONE

799. O f the University of Houston, Helen Ebaugh supplied invaluable early references and encouragement, and Joseph Kotarba made important editorial contributions, We also gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments and guidance of William B. Head, Robert L. Johnston, Michael A. Katovich, Jerry L. L. Miller, Andrew W. Miracle, and Ernestine T h o m p s o n on earlier drafts. A n o n y m o u s reviewers for the Journal of Criminal Justice also made important contributions. We are, of course, responsible for all conclusions and implications presented in the article,

juvenile justice and only came later, if ever, to appreciate the interactionist critique. Their cynicism seemed to have fostered this appreciation. They were not, in our experience, first proponents of labeling theory who subsequently became cynical. The factor analysis is available upon request. Appendix A provides the exact wording of the items and reliability measures of the cynicism scale. The realiability is adequate for research applications but suggests a need for more items in future research efforts.

NOTES

7. The data in Tables 1-3 reflect the JPOs' summated raw scores over the items included in the factored cynicism scale. In all subsequent analyses, factor scores were employed.

1. Implicit in our conceptualization is an important corollary: commitment to an ideal of community protection by JPOs seemingly would entail its own issues of subversion and cynicism. However, this cynicism cannot be systematically addressed with these data. Nevertheless, we appreciate an a n o n y m o u s reviewer of the Journal for drawing our attention to the likelihood

8. In preliminary analyses, all the included background, demographic, and organizational factors were examined independently for significant category effects on cynicism by partitioning. Therefore, the final tabulated categories implied in Table 2 and presented in Table 3 reflect collapsing over categories where possible without significant loss of explained variance.

of its existence. 2. Regoli (1989) informs us that the standardized regression coefficient between commitment and calling was a positive .977, as reported in the text, not - . 9 7 7 , as erroneously indicated in the tabular form in Regoli et al. (1987a).

9. In addition to the effects presented in Table 3, three interactions (of 57 two- to six-way) were found to be statistically significant: the officers' ages and orientations had a significant joint effect on cynicism (SS = 12.88; df = 1; F = 6.98; p = .013), as did position and education (SS = 21.93; df = I; F = 3.96; p - .017) and the three-way interaction of position, education, and age (SS = 9.54; df = 1; F = 5.17; p = .030). Specifically, young officers who are client orientated and entry-level officers with incomplete educations both were significantly more cynical than other combinations (cell means = 11.00; 10.10, respectively). The three-way interaction suggested that it was young officers, often enrolled in degree programs, who accounted tbr the high cynicism observed at the entry-level position (cell mean = 10.43). In contrast, educational attainment had no appreciable effect on the high level of cynicism observed at level III, which was experienced primarily by officers in the 26-to-31-year age group (cell mean 10.60), despite the main effect of age. While three interactions could be expected to reach statistical signficance by chance alone (57 x .05 - 2.85), the variables' significant effects (in Table 2 and in others' research), especially given that the simple additive effects noted above were substantively meaningful, suggested to us that they should not be discounted completely until further, more definitive, tests could be run. At the suggestion of a Journal reviewer, we pursued the possibility of systematically determining the significance of any of the interactions using the Automatic Interaction Detector (Morgan and Sonquist, 1963; Sonquist, 1969). However, our N precluded reliably eraploying this statistical routine (Morgan, 1989). Nevertheless, following the logic of the AID procedure, which identifies and then enters significant interactions into the M C A model, we did enter the three identified interactions, coded as joint variables, into the model presented in Table 3. These analyses resulted in conclusions that none of the three joint variables accounted for significant increases in explained variance, given the main effects. Therefore, we feel reasonably confident in interpreting the interactions as statistical artifacts in these data, but we suggest that other researchers should be alerted to the possibility of these joint effects.

3. The questionnaire a n d / o r the research case will be provided upon request, 4. Our operationalization implies an important conceptual interpretation. By hypothesizing that cynicism among JPOs revolves around their commitment to an ideal of client service, we are, as a corollary, positing that officers committed to community protection are likely to be less idealistically cynical as defined herein. This entails two important considerations, to which we return by way of concluding. First, idealistic cynicism is likely to center on frustrations emanating from the institution's professed ideal (if by no other means than through selective recruitment and attrition of personnel.) Second, and by extrapolation primarily from police studies, we are hypothesizing that identical forces produce cynicism among rehabilitation professionals in rehabilitation settings (e.g., JPOs) as have been found to operate among law enforcement professionals in community protection settings (e.g., police), 5. We are implying, by our emphasis on selective attrition, an important organizationally specific effect, The department requires all personnel to have a college degree, which provides, perhaps ironically, the cynical officer with educational credentials necessary for job mobility. This effectively should reverse the effect of experience, we hypothesize, from that found among, say, prison guards, who m a y become progressively more cynical over time but who lack, relatively speaking, careef alternatives. Moreover, this situation lends itself to our interpretation of education as more of a cohort effect, 6. The scaled items intimate the labeling or interactionist perspective and are thereby not alien to reintegrationist reforms. However, given field observations, we posited that JPOs were first committed to rehabilitation but became cynical because of its subversion in

Cynicism Among Juvenile Probation Officers

515

10. The cynicism scores were dichotomized at the mean of 0.0. Other analyses with trichotomized cynicism scores did not alter any conclusion significantly.

29. O f f i c i a l s y s t e m s ( c o u r t s , p r o b a t i o n d e -

11. Two questions regarding the existence of an "informal ~ organization that resists goals or obstructive "cliques ~ were also insignificant,

partments, police, schools, etc.) create delinquent identities and thus delinquent behaviors. T h i s is t r u e of:

12. Two other questions about bad parenting were also insignificant. 13. In fact, diversion is such a ~logical" extension of our construction of idealistic cynicism that such resuits may seem deceptively obvious. However, for us, two factors would seem to call such an interpretation into question. First, the responses to the diversion item could not be factored with the cynicism items in these data. Second, and importantly, being cynical about juvenile justice's ability to effect rehabilitation would not, by definition, imply a policy of diversion. Theoretically, cynical JPOs could endorse, given popular opinion, retribution, or, more likely, given their commitment to child-saving, greater priority to treatment programs. However, when asked about greater priority for treatment, cynical JPOs were not more, but less likely, to endorse this reform (chi sq = 2.88; df = 3;p = .410; gamma = .159). Idealistic cynicism related to diversion, not more treatment, a position that suggests a cynical judgment about institutional reform as well. On the contrary, as a Journal reviewer pointed out, if attitudes toward diversion simply tap a related latent factor common to both cynicism and diversion (and therefore resemble in effect the "differential bias" that Lotz and Regoli [1977] alluded to for their association between CYNDED and calling), one cannot interpret such an association unambiguously, and therefore this analysis should be eliminated. We have retained the analysis as substantively meaningful due to our field perception that cynicism precedes and may even promote receptiveness to reintegration reforms such as diversion. Nevertheless, since we are sympathetic to the issue of our potentially fallible operationalizations, we emphasize that future research should either word attitude items about diversion with less face validity and conceptual correspondence to items designed to tap idealistic cynicism and/or be cognizant of a need to test for diversion as factorable with cynicism, 14. Combining the three dispositional recommendations, weighted by their order of preference, and testing for significant association with cynicism also led to the acceptance of the null hypothesis,

H i g h X -- 3 . 3 6

Low X = 2.67

High X = 3.33

Low X = 2.45

35. T h e u n n e c e s s a r y l e g a l p r o c e s s i n g o f " m i n o r " d e l i n q u e n t acts c o n t r i b u t e s to t h e ~creation" o f j u v e n i l e d e l i n q u e n t s . T h i s is true of: High X = 3.36

INTERITEM

26 29 35

Low X = 2.39

CORRELATIONS

26

29

1.00

.35 1.00

35

Cynicism

.24 .38

.530 .703

1.00

.727

S p l i t - h a l f reliability c o e f f i c i e n t (after Horst, 1 9 5 1 ) ---- . 5 8 8

APPENDIX B SURVEY ITEMS 27. T e l e v i s i o n , r a d i o a n d / o r m o v i e s c o n t r i b u t e to t h e d e l i n q u e n c y o f m a n y v u l n e r a b l e youth by presenting models of deviant beh a v i o r . T h i s is t r u e of: 28. D e l i n q u e n t y o u t h are t h e v i c t i m s o f parental rejection, inconsistency, conflicts or n e g l e c t . T h i s is t r u e of: 33. P o v e r t y c a u s e s d e l i n q u e n t

behavior.

T h i s is t r u e of: 37. S c h o o l s g e n e r a t e d e l i n q u e n c y b y g r a d ually excluding and alienating some youth. S c h o o l s i n c r e a s e t h e l i k e l i h o o d that y o u t h will

APPENDIX CYNICISM

A

SCALE

R e s p o n d e n t s w e r e a s k e d to i n d i c a t e w h e t h e r t h e f o l l o w i n g w e r e t r u e of: all (5), m o s t (4), s o m e (3), f e w (2), o r n o (1) d e l i n q u e n t s , 26. Y o u t h w h o a r e l a b e l e d " j u v e n i l e d e l i n q u e n t s " are n o d i f f e r e n t t h a n t h e m a j o r i t y of other youth--they simply had the misfort u n e o f n o t h a v i n g l u c k o r l e g a l r e s o u r c e s at t h e i r d i s p o s a l . T h i s is t r u e of:

p u r s u e d e v i a n t r o u t e s t o status. T h i s is t r u e of: 44. The generally negative effect of the j u s t i c e - c o r r e c t i o n a l s y s t e m is s u c h t h a t s t r o n g e f f o r t m u s t b e m a d e to d i v e r t g r e a t e r n u m b e r s o f o f f e n d e r s a w a y f r o m it a n d i n t o i m p r o v e d community resources. 70. A r e P r o b a t i o n P e r s o n n e l i d e a s s o u g h t and used, if worthy, by the supervisors here? 71. W h a t is t h e d i r e c t i o n o f i n f o r m a t i o n flow in the Probation Department?

516

RUSSELL CURTIS, JR, WILLIAM REESE, II and MICHAEL CONE

77. H o w m u c h c o v e r t r e s i s t a n c e to t h e goals o f t h e d e p a r t m e n t is p r e s e n t a m o n g t h o s e Probation Personnel whom you know? 82. O v e r a l l , t h e i m p a c t o f t h e P r o b a t i o n Department on the juveniles who are proc e s s e d h e r e c a n b e s t b e c h a r a c t e r i z e d as:

83. Overall, the impact of the Probation D e p a r t m e n t o n t h e r a t e o f d e l i n q u e n c y in t h i s c o u n t y c a n b e s t b e c h a r a c t e r i z e d as:

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Cynicism Among Juvenile Probation Officers

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