The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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The areas of trust and respect towards probation officers is examined in the
following section. The self reports dealt with the area of trust and the open ended
interviews looked more closely at respect. Most of the youth in the self reports felt
probation officers could always be trusted (77 percent of the whites, 50 percent of the
blacks). However, more whites trusted their probation officers than blacks. Fourteen
percent of the whites and 22 percent of the blacks said they never trust their probation
officer. The rest said their probation officer can be trusted sometimes (Tables 5, 6).
The open ended interviews asked the question, “What do you think of your P0”
The overall perception of youth in Woodbury is positive. They respect their probation
officers. There appears to be a level of open communication and a certain amount of
concern on the part of the officers. Some quotes that support the more positive feelings
towards probation officers are as follows:
White youth
I think he does his job good. You don’t just go down there and say, “I’m
on home visit. Hi. I’m doing good,” and leave. You talk to him about it.
He really gets into things when you talk to him about it. It ain’t over real
quick. He talks about it, sorts out all the details and stuff and you talk
about those, too. I just think he talks really good. He know a lot.
He does a good job at what he’s doing. He does a very good job. But
sometimes he extends that too far. He goes out of his way to make sure
that this kid stays on probation.
The idea is my probation officer is my friend and he’s never going to do
anything to me. And they might like you but they’re going to do their job
to do a good job.
I think he’s a pretty nice guy. He does his job. Sometimes he forgets to do
something because he kind of gets too busy.
He’s nice. He does a good job.