The Client-Network Audit: Assessing Shared Knowledge among Juvenile Probation Officers in Ireland

• In Event: Network Criminology II: Social Networks, Policing, and Corrections

Abstract

Probation officers develop specialized knowledge about their clients’ social connections, which play a critical role in shaping behavior. When multiple officers supervise the same client, their perspectives on the client’s network may overlap or diverge. Despite its potential value to agencies, this experiential asset is rarely collected or analyzed systematically. This presentation describes a pilot project that adapted the “group audit” methodology used by gang violence researchers to conduct a “client network audit” among juvenile probation officers to address the question: to what extent do officers’ views of a client’s social network overlap or diverge? I provide a descriptive overview of probation officers’ cognitive social structures and then address the question inferentially using multi-layer exponential random graph models. I discuss how knowledge gleaned from the analysis can inform network interventions.

Author

• Jacob Young, Arizona State University