Investigation of employment and vocational needs of offenders under probation as an alternative for imprisonment: Yalova sample

Unemployment is an important risk factor for disadvantaged groups as well as it is a community problem. While ex-offenders, who are among those disadvantaged groups, can have motivation for crime due to economical reasons; in literature it is also seen that employment can be a protective factor for offending. In this study, it is aimed to determine employment and vocational needs of ex-offenders under probation and to evaluate several variables that can be related to their work and vocational status. The study is performed by investigation of data about 200 probationers that are chosen by random sampling method. After the face to face interviews with individuals, ARDEF forms including related needs of those who are volunteers are investigated. Data is analized by SPSS programme, frequency analysis and crosstabs are performed. 10 of the participants were women, 190 of them were men. Avarage age was 40.03±11.269. 106 of participants were married, 52 were single, 21 were divorced, 21 were widow. 33 of participants had an illness which can partially affect the probation process. 60 of them had a tattoo, 7 had a suicide history. 15 of them were under 18 when they had their first sentence. When reasons/motivation for curent crime are examined, 90 people committed a crime due to economic reasons, 5 for sexual and 67 had a alcohol/drug use related crime. 80 of participants were graduated from primary school, number of university graduates were 12 .As 176 people said that they had a vocation, the number of people who had a regular job were 72, number of unemployed people were 78. 66 people stated that they lived on by family support. Number of people who stated that they lived on by their legal job were 89. About economic level, 20 people defined themselves in good condition, 146 people defined in moderate condition and 30 people in bad condition. Evaluation results with 137 people who could be accessed after 6 months showed that the number of people having a regular job increased from 47 to 81 within probation period of 6 months. It is seen that employment needs of offenders under probation is a priority. Within probation process, it is seen that employment opportunities for offenders increase, the number of people who are emloyed gets higher. Regarding basic needs and high necessity for employment after being released from prison, importance of employment work can be more easily seen. Although individuals state that they have a profession, regarding low educational level, it is evaluated that activities for increasing educational level are important in terms of crime prevention.