The Professionalization of Victim Assistance by Thomas Underwood PhD, Research, The Joint Center on Violence and Victim Studies (JCVVS)

JCVVS
Home

Professional
Development
and Consultation

Higher
Education

Research and
Analysis

Partnership
with JCVVS

Courses

The Professionalization of Victim Assistance:

An Exploratory Study of Attitudinal Dimensions and Factors

by

Thomas Underwood, PhD

Copyright 2001
Joint Center on Violence and Victim Studies

No part of this report may be replicated without permission by the author.

This article is an abridged version of a comprehensive research report.
Contact the author for information on the complete report.

This research was funded in part by a grant from the
Association for Higher Continuing Education.

Introduction

          It has only been in the recent past that society has formally recognized victims of crime as a group deserving of social rights and services. As such, victim assistance has emerged as an occupational field that functions to implement these rights and services. While this occupational field may operate within the areas of criminal justice, mental health, social services, health care and others, it is an area that serves a unique purpose.

          Victims of crime interact with an array of service systems: criminal justice, mental health, social services, health care, and others. Though still attitudinally, programmatically, and fiscally marginal in many areas, awareness and recognition of crime victims has infiltrated the social consciousness and its service institutions to the extent that there are practitioners dedicated primarily or exclusively to serve victims of crime. The individual characteristics of these practitioners are as diverse as the organizations which employ them.

          This diversity makes it difficult to provide an exact context of victim services. Young (1990) provides a defining characteristic as the "understanding of the trauma of victimization" (p. 186). The U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime provides a degree of occupational description of victim assistance as "a full-fledged advocacy and service field dedicated to meeting the physical, financial, and psychological needs of victims and their families" (New Directions, 1998, p. 153). These broad descriptions provide a generalized definition of purpose and activities that are addressed by a diverse body of practitioners and organizations. Further, it is an occupational area that is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing upon the foundations of psychology, sociology, law, and medicine to understand and provide service to victims of crime. The diverse and interdisciplinary nature of this occupational area provides a challenge to the field in its potential as a profession.

          The status of profession is both a social and an individual phenomenon. The social aspect refers to the occupation or the structure; the individual aspect refers to ideologies or attitudes (Vollmer and Mills, 1966, Hall, 1968). Vollmer and Mills (1966) suggest that the concept be considered a "dynamic process whereby many occupations can be observed to change certain crucial characteristics in the direction of a 'profession,' even though some of these may not move very far in this direction … [also, the] ideology may induce some members of many occupational groups to strive to become professional, but at the same time we can see many occupational groups … may not be very advanced in regard to professionalization" (pp. vii - viii). These dimensions vary; the professionalization of an occupation and its members is not necessarily congruent (Hall, 1968; Vollmer and Mills, 1966; Rifkin, 1997) though they are reciprocally influential (Clearfield, 1977; Rifkin, 1997).

          Over time, the study of professionalization has occurred in a variety of occupations though there has not been any formal research to study the professionalization of victim assistance. Criminal justice and human service systems have increasingly recognized and formalized the occupations of victim assistance. From a structural consideration, the field has made some strides towards professionalization. What is not known, however, is the individual attitudes of victim assistance practitioners towards professionalization. Accordingly then, the purpose of this study was to identify the extent in which victim assistance practitioners have attitudes that support professional attributes.

          The study of professionalization of victim assistance is both timely and pertinent. At both the organizational and individual levels, victim assistance is an occupational area of increased focus. The U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime, for example, has supported the development of victim service program standards, preservice and continuing education for practitioners, has supported the development of standards in order "for the victim assistance field to become a recognized profession" (New Directions, 1998, p. 183), and has recommended the development of a code of ethics.

Theoretical Foundations

          The early study of professions, based on the functional-structural approach, considered a set of criteria that could be commonly applied to the occupation being studied. In a time when society was served by relatively few professions -- medicine, law, and divinity most noted (Carr-Saunders, 1966; Wilensky, 1964) -- the identification of a cluster of traits or stages was appropriate. As society became more economically and socially complex through industrialization, urbanization, and bureaucratization, the study of professions shifted from the "identification of existing essentials" (Houle, 1980, p. 26) toward recognizing professionalization as a dynamic process in which an occupation could strive towards the ideal of a profession. Instead of asking "whether or not any particular group is 'really a profession,' or not … it is much more fruitful to ask 'how professionalized,' or more specifically 'how professionalized in certain identifiable respects' a given occupation may be" (Vollmer and Mills, 1966, p. vii).

          The concept of professionalization, then, can be considered as a continuum. "At one end of this continuum are bunched the well recognized and undisputed professions; at the other end are bunched the least skilled and least attractive occupations. The remaining occupations, less skilled and less prestigious than the former, but more so than the latter, are distributed between these two poles" (Greenwood, 1966, pp. 10-11). Barber (1963) notes that there is "a constant push both on and from within certain nonprofessional and quasiprofessional occupational groups to become more professional and to claim public recognition as such. Hence arises the phenomenon of the emerging or marginal profession" (p. 676). The essence of the emerging or marginal profession, or the various other labels of similar descriptions offered in the literature (Goode, 1966; Reiss, 1966, Ritzer, 1986; Forsyth and Danisiewicz, 1985) is that the occupation is in a transitional state between non-professional and professional.

Structural and Attitudinal Aspects of Professionalization

          There are traits and features that indicate the occupation as a profession and others that indicate the professionalism of an individual. Volmer and Mills (1966) make the distinction in defining "the concept of 'profession' be applied to an abstract model of occupational organization …[and] 'professionalism' to refer to an ideology and associated activities" (pp. vii-viii). Hall's (1968) study of the professions considered these two dimensions of the occupational or structural aspects and the individual or attitudinal aspects.

Structural

Wilensky (1964) is cited throughout the literature in the description of the five structural attributes of professions. These include:

1.	Creation of a full time occupation. "This involves performance of functions that may have been performed previously, as well as new functions, and can be viewed as a reaction to the needs in the social structure" (p. 92)

2.	Establishment of a training school. This stage reflects both the knowledge and the efforts of early leaders to improve the occupation. Wilensky notes that in the more established professions university affiliation occurs before national professional associations.

3.	Formation of a professional association. Associations serve to develop professional definition and tasks. Along with this, the association may change the occupational title as a way to reduce identification with the previous, less professional occupation.

4.	Support of law. The profession will lobby for legal recognition of title and/or work activities.

5.	Formation of a code of ethics. Ethical code concerned with both internal and external relationships.

Attitudinal

The attitudinal aspects of professionalization are the ways in which individual members of an occupation view their work and, assuming a correspondence between attitudes and behavior, "then attitudes comprise an important part of the work of the professional" (Hall, 1968, p. 93).
Hall identified five attitudinal attributes:

1.	The use of the professional organization as a major referent. This refers to the practitioner's identification with the role-set (Merton, 1982) that is associated with the occupation, which includes the formal organization role-relationships and the informal associations colleagues. As such, membership in the status and the subsequent associations provide the major source of reference for ideas, judgments and values.

2.	Belief in service to the public. The service orientation means that the professional decisions are based not "on the self-interest of the professional, but on the need of the client" (Goode, 1966, p. 36) and that the work of the profession is essential to the community interest (Barber, 1963).

3.	Belief in self-regulation. This is based on the premise that the profession has a unique body of knowledge and skills and the belief that the professional peers are best qualified to judge the work of another.

4.	Sense of calling to the field. This reflects the commitment and dedication one has to the profession and that one functions as a professional out of ideals beyond personal gain. Professional tasks are not viewed as work as a means to an end, but as an end in itself.

5.	Autonomy. This "involves the feeling that the practitioner ought to be able to make his own decisions without external pressures from clients, those who are not members of his profession, or from his employing organization" (Hall, 1968).

Schack and Hepler (1979) added another factor to Hall's original five:

6.	Belief in continuing competence. This refers to the personal commitment and responsibility to continual professional learning in order to maintain competence.

These two dimensions of professionalization, structural and attitudinal, are conceptually distinct. While it is assumed that both dimensions are present to a significant degree in highly professionalized fields, structural and attitudinal attributes do not necessarily vary together. A field that is generally recognized as high on the structural dimension, such as medicine or law, may well have individuals who are low on the attitudinal dimension. Conversely, an emerging profession, which would likely be low structurally, may have high professional ideals out of a sense of anticipatory socialization.

Factors that May Affect Attitudes

There are various organizational and individual factors that may influence attitudes towards professionalization. The following is a discussion of some of the factors commonly cited.

Type of organization

Hall (1968) found that there is generally an inverse relationship between levels of bureaucracy and professionalization. Victim services generally fall within two types of organizations: systems-based or government agencies and community-based or non-profit. It may be presumed that victim services that are a part of government agencies, such as police departments and prosecutor offices, can be characterized by a bureaucratic structure. However, it may be that operation in structures associated with other professions, such as police and lawyers, may enhance attitudes of professionalization.

Age

Research (Aslett, 1983; Hart, 1994) has found that older practitioners held stronger professional attitudes. Age is typically associated with length of service in an occupation, but this is difficult to determine in the victim assistance field for at least two reasons. One reason is that many practitioners merge into the field from other closely related fields, such as mental health or law enforcement. Length of service may be associated with the work experience of the related field. Another factor is that there are many in the field who entered due to their own victimization, not as a part of an intended life plan. Therefore, there are those who enter the field later in life than is common in many other occupations.

Education Level

A function of formal preservice education is to, in part, socialize the individual to the profession. The more advanced the degree, the higher the expectations for contribution to the field. It is presumed, then, that the higher the level of education the stronger the professional identity. In newer professions like victim assistance, though, age and years of experience may mitigate the effect of education since, in general, older members of the profession have less education than the younger members (Moore, 1970). Research of adult educators (Aslett, 1981), police chiefs (Regoli, et al, 1988), teachers (Jackson, 1991), and training professionals (Childers, 1993), and physical therapists (Hart, 1994) provides mixed findings, though generally the studies have shown only a minimal relationship between educational level and professional identity.

Role in Agency

Administrative persons in an agency should have greater awareness of the larger issues facing an occupational field than direct service or line staff. Childers (1993) found that administrators were more likely to identify with attitudes of professionalization than direct service line staff. Considering that many victim assistance agencies are comprised of few employees and that the work functions are generalist in nature, the distinction between administration and direct service staff may be blurred. Many administrators in human service agencies also provide direct services. Likewise, direct care staff may have some administrative functions, such as grant management, supervision of volunteers, or serving as a community liaison.

Membership in Professional Association

Wilensky (1964) identified professional associations as a structural element of professions. An association serves to "build solidarity to construct a 'community' pattern differentiating the occupation from others" (Millerson, 1964). Brockett (1989) emphasizes that professionalization is a critical issue for associations. In a study of recreation practitioners, Enyart (1982) found a positive relationship between active involvement in professional associations and degree of professionalism.

While there are several associations in victim assistance, none of the associations have predominance over the field, especially in terms of professional standards. Further, as previously discussed, practitioners from various other areas, such as social work and nursing, contribute to victim assistance. Practitioners from these other disciplines may be members of an association from that area and not victim assistance.

Extent of Continuing Education Activity

          Testing Houle's (1980) typology of professional practitioners, Cervero and Yang, 1994) found that the innovators and pacesetters showed the "most favorable attitude and personal obligation to acquire new professional knowledge and skills, and they have participated in continuing professional education extensively" (pp. 7-8). Thus, participation in continuing education activities and professionalism are found to be positively related.

Methodology

          Two broad questions guided the research. First, what is the extent in which victim assistance practitioners hold attitudes of professionalization? Second, what are the characteristics associated with differences in these attitudinal dimensions?

          In order to address these questions, the setting for this study included organizations from the two largest types of victim assistance agencies that receive VOCA funds: prosecutor-based agencies and domestic violence shelters. The sample was drawn from those organizations within a geographic area of the United States referred to in an U.S. Department of Justice (Fox and Zawitz, 1999) report as the west north central region. This region includes the states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

          The Office for Victims of Crime provided labels of all agencies in the United States that received VOCA funding in 1998. In the region specified, a total of 172 agencies met the organizational criterion for this study: 57 were prosecutor-based programs and 115 were domestic violence shelter programs. Proportional stratified sampling of this population of organizations in the region was conducted to obtain the planned sample size of half the population of the stratification per each organizational type. Approximately half of the prosecutor-based programs (n=28) and approximately half of the domestic violence shelters (n=57) resulted in a total sample of eighty-five (n=85) organizations. Further, the sample was selected through systematic sampling method of every other label as presented on the zip code ordered list per organizational type. The number of surveys distributed to each organization was based on the number of reported full-time, paid practitioners.

          Attitudinal dimensions were measured using a modified version of Hall's Professionalization Scale. The scale consisted of questions that reflect the following attributes: use of the professional organization as a major referent, belief in service to the public, belief in self-regulation, sense of calling, belief in autonomy, and belief in continuing competence. The survey is a Likert-like scale format. Responses to each question are scored using a one to five point Likert scale, with one given to the reply most supportive of a positive attitude toward the professionalism indicator and five to the least supportive. Reverse scoring is necessary for half of the statements. For each of the attribute areas, the lower the cumulative score the more strongly the individual holds the attitude of that area. Questions were evenly spaced in sequence so that every sixth question refers to the same attribute.

          The instrument and/or modified versions of it have been used to study professional attitudes in a variety of occupational areas. Hall (1968) developed the instrument with subjects representing eleven different occupational groups: physicians, nurses, accountants, teachers, social workers, stock brokers, librarians, engineers, personnel managers and advertising executives. Snizek (1972) revised the instrument with subjects from aeronautical, nuclear and chemical engineers, physicists and chemists. Schack and Hepler (1979) applied the instrument, along with the addition of the continuing competence attribute, to pharmacists. Other applications have included prison guards (Poole and Regoli, 1980), police chiefs (Regoli, et al, 1988) and adult educators and trainers (Aslett, 1981; Childers, 1993).

          In addition to the instrument, a researcher-generated questionnaire was developed for inclusion in the survey package. The questionnaire sought information about the respondent gender, age, education level, role in agency, membership in a professional association, and extent of continuing education activity. These variables were specifically selected because literature review suggested possible relevance (Hall, 1968; Aslett, 1983; Hart, 1994; Moore, 1970, Regoli, et al, 1988; Jackson, 1991; Childres, 1993; Brockett, 1989; Enyart, 1982, Cevero and Yang, 1994).

          Directors of the victim assistance organizations, as identified in the pre-survey phone call, were sent an envelope that included a general letter asking for assistance and surveys for each full-time, paid victim assistance practitioner employed by the organization. The survey included a cover letter explaining the purpose of the research and provided general instructions of the survey. Along with each survey was a postage paid return envelope. The instruments were coded according to organization type. The final return rate, after several follow-up mailings, was 38%, (n = 179).

Results

Mean Scale Scores

          The mean score for each attitudinal dimension was determined by taking scores for an entire scale, ranging from five to twenty-five, and dividing it by five. An overall scale score for the entire sample was determined by averaging the mean scores for each dimension. The average sample score for each of the six attitudinal dimensions is in the range of two on the scale of one to five, with the lower number indicating stronger association with the dimension. The average scale scores are:

Organization as a Major Referent

2.12

Belief in Service to the Public

2.43

Belief in Self Regulation

2.37

Sense of Calling to the Field

2.43

Autonomy

2.8

Belief in Continuing Competence

2.01

Descriptive and Statistical Data

The sample consisted of 179 victim assistance practitioners from a seven state region. The data presented does not always equal 179 since some respondents chose not to answer some of the items and percentages do not always equal 100 due to rounding. In addition to descriptive analysis of sample characteristics data, each of the variables were analyzed per each of six professionalization attitudinal scales as well as for a comprehensive measure.

Organizational Type

A total of 32 prosecutor-based victim assistance practitioners responded to the survey (18% of the sample) and 147 domestic violence shelter victim assistance practitioners responded (72% of the sample). Overall, the prosecutor-based respondents and the shelter-based respondents were very similar in their responses. By definition of the scale, though, shelter-based respondents more strongly identified with four of the six scales: Belief in Service to the Public, Belief in Self-Regulation, Sense of Calling to the Field, and Belief in Continuing Competence. ANOVA results, however, were not significant for any of the scale items though the dimension Autonomy had a significance of .051, just slightly higher than the chosen level. Prosecutor-based respondents identified with this attitudinal dimension more than shelter-based respondents did, thus suggesting that victim assistance practitioners employed in these organizations believe, more so than shelter-based practitioners, that they are able to make decisions independent of external pressures.

This quasi-significance must be considered cautiously as the dimension of autonomy was the weakest of all the scales. Regardless, the identification of prosecutor-based practitioners with autonomy is contrary to what was anticipated. Assuming that the systems-based prosecutor offices are more likely to be bureaucratic in nature than the community-based domestic violence shelters, it was suspected that there would be less identification with professional attitudes (Hall, 1968). While the scale scores suggest that generally this is true, the characteristic of independence in decision making is inconsistent with the expected results.

Gender

Females are the predominant gender in victim services. Females comprised 171 respondents or 97% of the sample. Only 6 males, that is 3% of the sample, responded to the survey. One respondent did not indicate gender on the survey. While females consistently identified more strongly with all of the attitudinal scales, the extremely small number of males in the sample negates any suggestion of trends. Further, an ANOVA did not reveal any level of significance.

Age

A total of 175 respondents indicated age on the survey. There was a 47 year range in the age of the respondents with the youngest reported age of 20 and oldest reported age of 67. The mean age was 35; the mode age was 24. The age data can be divided into five categories of ten years each: 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69. Percent distribution reveals that 40% of the respondents were in the 20-29 year category; 21% were in the 30-39 year category; 23% were in the 40-49 year category; 12% were in the 50-59 year category; and 3% percent were in the 60-69 year category. The data does not suggest any trends of the attitudinal scales for this variable and ANOVA results were not significant.

Education Level

          Six categories of education were offered for selection: high school (or equivalent), associate degree, bachelors degree, masters degree, law degree, and doctorate. One respondent did not offer education level on the survey. None of the respondents had a law degree and only one had a doctorate. Percentage distribution revealed that 20% of the respondents had a high school level education; 13% had an associate degree; 47% had a bachelor degree; and 20% had a masters degree.

          The data are inconsistent among the various scales; those with a high school education hold the strongest attitude identification, as defined by the instrument, on Belief in Self-Regulation and Sense of Calling to the Field. On the other hand, masters level respondents had the strongest identification on three of the scales: Belief in Public Service, Autonomy, and Belief in Continuing Competence. Bachelor level respondents hold the highest scores, that is the least association with the attitude, on half of the scales. This extreme inconsistency may suggest, on the surface, that education is not a reliable predictor of professionalization attitudes though respondents with graduate level education generally hold stronger professionalization attitudes, both per individual scales and comprehensively. However, ANOVA results reveal significance for three of the six scales: Sense of Calling to the Field, Autonomy, and Belief in Continuing Competence.

          Post-hoc comparisons (Table 1) were done on the three scales of significance. Results demonstrate that for the dimension of Sense of Calling to the Field there was significance between the scale scores of those respondents with high school level education as compared to those with bachelor level and masters level education. However, the scores were not significant between those with associate level education and the others. The post-hoc comparison of mean differences for Autonomy revealed significance between the scale scores of those respondents with high school education and those with bachelors and masters level education though there was not significance between the scale scores of high school level and associate degree education. There was not a significant difference between associate, bachelors, and masters degree education for this scale. In essence, masters level respondents have a stronger sense of autonomy than those with only a high school education. The strongest association, as indicated by the lowest scale score, was masters level practitioners and the attitudinal dimension of Belief in Continuing Competence with a mean score of 8.43 and a scale score of 1.7.

Table 1
Post-Hoc Comparisons for Education
Significant differences indicated with an asterisk and levels of significance in parenthesis.

Sense of Calling to the Field

	High School	Associates	Bachelors	Masters

High School	---	6.91	-.245* (.024)	-.310* (.016)
Associates	6.91	---	-.176	-.241
Bachelors	.245*	.176	---	-6.51
Masters	.310* (.016)	.241	6.51	---

Autonomy

	High School	Associates	Bachelors	Masters

High School	---	.268	.275* (.023)	.462* (.001)
Associates	.268	---	7.00	.194
Bachelors	.275* (.023)	7.00	---	.187
Masters	.462* (.001)	.194	.187	---

Belief in Continuing Competence

	High School	Associates	Bachelors	Masters

High School	---	4.59	7.14	.382* (.019)
Associates	4.59	---	1.17	.378* (.039)
Bachelors	7.14	1.17	---	.390* (.005)
Masters	.382* (.019)	.378* (.039)	.390* (.005)	---

Role in Agency

Administration as a role in the agency was differentiated from direct care service as a primary employment role by the amount of time spent on management tasks. The status of administration was assigned to respondents who reported at least half of their time spent on financial management and/or employee supervision. A total of 141 respondents, 82%, identified themselves as direct care staff; 31 respondents, 18%, met the criteria for administration; 7 respondents did not address this area.

In all but one of the scales, Autonomy, direct care staff identified more strongly with the professionalization attitude. In comparing the two types of organizations considered in the sample, of the 30 prosecutor-based respondents who responded to this variable, only 7% (n=2) met the management criteria whereas 20% (n=29) of the shelter-based respondents met the criteria. ANOVA results revealed that the only dimension data that was significant was Belief in Self-Regulation.

Membership in Professional Association

Professional association membership referred to whether the individual was a member of a national, state, or local association that provides representation of occupational interests and/or provides guidelines for practice. About a third of all respondents are not members of a professional organization whereas 119 or 68% of respondents did report membership. There was also room to write in the names of the organizations in which they belonged. Most of the respondents reported membership in one or more organizations. The range of the types of organizations was quite diverse with most reporting membership in a state or local organization. ANOVA revealed that the dimension of Autonomy was the only one of significance even though it was the weakest association of all the dimensions for this variable.

Continuing Education

          Four choices were available for estimated hours of formal continuing education in which the respondent participated in a year. These choices were 12 hours or less, 13-36 hours, 37-48 hours, and 49 or more hours for the year. Almost a third (31%) of the respondents only participated in an average of twelve hours or less a year, that is, two hours or less per month. On the other hand, more than a third participated in continuing education of more than 37 hours a year, that is, more than three hours per month. Specifically, 35% participated in 13-36 hours a year; 22% in 37-48 hours per year; and 12% in more than 49 hours per year.

          While the scale scores are generally very close across all spectrums of continuing education participation, the trends observed from the data support the findings of Cervero and Yang (1994). Those who participate in the most hours per year generally have the strongest identification across all the attitudinal dimensions. Further, those with the least continuing education participation have the least identification on all six of the attitudinal scales.

          ANOVA revealed that, comprehensively, continuing education participation is significant though the only scale that met the threshold of significance was Professional Organization as a Major Referent. Post-hoc comparisons (Table 2) of mean differences for this attitudinal dimension indicate that the significance between the levels of participation is inconsistent. The analysis indicated that the mean difference of those who attend continuing education of 12 hours or less is significant compared to those who attend continuing education of 13 to 36 hours and 49 hours or more, but the difference is not significant compared to those who attend 37 to 48 hours. Thus, while the data suggests that extensive participation in continuing education is associated with the attitude of referencing the formal and informal professional associations as a source of identity, the association is not predictable. The mean difference between the first level, 12 hours or less, is significant with all the other levels though the differences between the other levels is not significant. Thus, while the scores suggest support for the hypothesis that continuing education participation has a positive effect on professionalization attitudes and the ANOVA results indicate a statistical significance, analysis of the four levels of participation does not support significance differences beyond the first level.

Table 2
Post-Hoc Comparisons for Continuing Education
Significant differences indicated with an asterisk and levels of significance in parenthesis.

Organization as a Major Referent

	< 12 hours	13 - 36 hours	37 - 48 hours	49 > hours

< 12 hours	---	252* (.009)	.155	.302* (.022)
13 - 16 hours	.252* (.009)	---	.966	5.08
37 - 48 hours	.155	9.66	---	.147
49 > hours	.302* (.022)	5.08	.147	---

Comprehensive

	< 12 hours	13 - 36 hours	37 - 48 hours	49 > hours

< 12 hours	---	.153* (.003)	.158* (.006)	.196* (.005)
13 - 16 hours	.153* (.003)	---	5.19	4.33
37 - 48 hours	.158* (.006)	5.19	---	3.81
49 > hours	.196* (.005)	4.33	3.81	---

Summary and Discussion

An overview of the attitudinal scales that were significantly affected by the variables is presented in Table 3. The findings of this study have implications for occupations engaged in the professionalization process, specifically the field of victim assistance. The findings also have implications for the education of professionals.

Table 3
Professional Attitude Dimensions and Associated Variables of Significance

Dimension		Variables
Professional Organization as a Major Referent		- Continuing Education
Belief in Self-Regulation		- Role in Organization
Sense of Calling to the Field		- Education
Autonomy		- Education - Organization Membership
Belief in Continuing Competence		- Education
Professionalization Attitude - Comprehensive		- Continuing Education

Overall the survey results suggest that victim assistance practitioners, as measured by the Professionalization Scale, possess attitudes that reflect professionalization as evidenced by mean scores closer to the strongest association than to the weakest association. Statistical analysis revealed that four of the variables had significant impact on differences for certain attitudinal scales. The results merit discussion of possible explanation, implications to the field, and recommendations for future research.

Type of Organization

          Assuming that the systems-based prosecutor offices are more likely to be bureaucratic in nature than the community-based domestic violence shelters, it was suspected that there would be less identification with professional attitudes (Hall, 1968). Prosecutor-based victim assistance programs operate within the context of a government office and may operate in a more bureaucratic than shelter-based organizations. Hall (1968) suggested that the more bureaucratic the organization the less professional identity. However, the type of organization was not shown to have a significant impact on the strength of professional attitudes.

          There may be several reasons for this finding. As a component of the justice system, prosecutor offices reflect one of the most established and recognized professions, law. As such, there exists an environment of professional protocol including the use of formal titles, such as 'judge,' business attire, and formal interactions based on clearly defined roles. Domestic violence shelters, on the other hand, typically are not considered as a component of the justice system but more of the human services system. Much less formal, in both interactions and attire, shelters operate more on personal relationships and services than on legal profession protocols. Thus, the very environment of working in a prosecutor-based organization may endorse professional attitudes more than in domestic violence shelters.

          The comparison of organization types in this study did not differentiate between size. By virtue of operating around the clock, domestic violence shelters typically employ more people than prosecutor-based agencies, even in rural areas. Of the domestic violence shelters in the sample, the mean size was 8.4 whereas the mean size of prosecutor-based agencies in the sample was 2.4. More than half of the prosecutor-based agencies in the sample only had one employee. Possibly the small size of the prosecutor-based organizations made it less bureaucratic, thus stronger professional attitudes than expected, whereas the larger size of the shelters made it more bureaucratic, thus weaker professional attitudes than expected. An area of future study could be to compare practitioner attitudes based on size of organization.

Gender

Gender was not found to be a significant factor in professionalization attitudes. The extreme imbalance between the respondents for the variable of age would make any positive findings suspect. The overwhelming number of female respondents does reflect the characteristic of the field. Considering the female dominance, from a critical perspective it may be questioned whether the field of victim assistance will ever truly become a profession in a patriarchal society (Hearne, 1982).

Age

Although prior research (Aslett, 1983; Hart, 1994) suggested that older practitioners, thus those in the field longer, tended to have stronger professional attitudes, age was not found to be a significant factor. Victim assistance is unique as a field in that many who are employed in this somewhat ill-defined, relatively new area have a history and possibly even a current association with another occupational area, such as law enforcement or social work. Unlike other occupational areas, then, age may not necessarily be associated with length of time in the field of victim assistance. With this in mind, an interesting area of research would be to gather information about age and reported length of time in victim services to determine if there is a correlation.

Education Level

          Over two-thirds of the respondents reported an education level of a bachelors degree or above. Considering the grass-roots nature of the field and that many of the jobs do not require education of that level, this high standard of educational attainment is surprising. Comparing the two types of organizations, 90% of prosecutor-based practitioners have a bachelors degree or above as compared to 62% of domestic violence shelter practitioners. Regardless, this seems to be a relatively high educational attainment for a field that lacks consistent educational and employment standards. It needs to be emphasized, however, that this report reflects reported education, as well as information on all the other variables, for 38% of the sample. It is possible that the other 62% of the sample that did not respond to the survey do not reflect the characteristics reported. That is, possibly those who chose not to complete the survey generally have less education than the respondents.

          Education was found to be related to three of the six attitudinal scales, though not necessarily in a consistent manner. A significant relationship was indicated between education and the Sense of Calling to the Field, but the relationship was inverted from what was expected, that is, the less the education the greater the association with that attitude. A sense of calling to the field reflects a passion and commitment to the job that is influenced by something stronger than education, possibly from a personal experience of victimization. Recalling the grass roots characteristic of the field, it is not unusual, especially in domestic violence shelters, for employees to have started their association with the agency first as a volunteer. For some, their first association with programs may have even been their own victimization. Considering this common feature, this relationship between education and the attitude that reflects passion for the work is not surprising.

          The history of the practitioner, in terms of both prior community work and prior victimization, would prove useful as the field continues to emerge. If sense of calling is related to prior volunteer experience, then the value of community service in pre-service education is supported. If prior victimization is related to the sense of calling, then how can that dynamic be shared with new practitioners and students?

          Generally, higher levels of education were found to be significant to the attitudes of Autonomy and Belief in Continuing Competence. Possibly those with higher levels of education have positions within the organization that allows them to exercise a greater degree of autonomy, such as therapeutic counseling. Also, it is more likely that graduate level practitioners serve in administrative roles. Both of these functions are typically characterized by a degree of autonomy. Regarding the Belief in Continuing Competence, possibly those with higher levels of education may have a greater level of comfort, appreciation of learning for learning sake, or simply identify the value of higher education in their everyday practice. The post-hoc comparisons for this attitude scale clearly demonstrates the significance of masters level education.

          An area of study needed regarding education and professional attitudes is the academic area of education. There are very few pre-service education programs that are specifically targeted to victim assistance. Practitioners represent an array of disciplines. As victim assistance practitioners, are there differences in professional attitudes based on the academic emphasis, such as a degree in mental health, a degree in criminal justice, or a degree in victim assistance?

Role in Agency

Whether a person was a direct care staff or a manager had little impact on the attitudes. The attitudinal scale that was more strongly identified by management respondents was Autonomy. This makes sense considering that it is more likely that activities of direct care employees may be more proscribed than that of management.

The only scale that was significant was Belief in Self-Regulation. This refers to the value of collegial control in the assessment of practice. Prior research (Childers, 1993) suggests that administrators in the organization are more likely to identify more with professional attitudes than line staff. That was not the case, however, in this study for that particular scale. Possibly direct care practitioners interpreted self-regulation scale items as meaning independent and fluid assessment not reflective of standards of competencies. The field does not currently have accepted standards of competence that would guide managers in their assessment of employee performance. As standards evolve, will they influence the extent of professional identification in the field and will there be a difference between direct care and management practitioners? Furthermore, the field of victim assistance is one where the distinctions between management and direct care may be blurred, with practitioners who are administrative providing direct care or at least continuing to identify themselves in that manner. Similarly, it is not uncommon for direct care staff to have certain administrative responsibilities, such as the coordination of a grant or a community project. Finally, it should be recognized that many of the victim assistance services in prosecutor-based offices are very small, often consisting of only one person. In this context, it is difficult to define one's role as management.

Membership in Professional Association

The literature (Wilensky, 1964; Millerson, 1964; Brockett, 1989: and Enyart, 1982) supports the importance of professional associations and the degree of professionalism. The data from this sample, however, was evenly split in terms of whether respondents who claimed membership held stronger professionalization attitudes. Two of the strongest scores for this variable were, however, associated with members. These include Professional Organization as a Major Referent and Belief in Continuing Competence, two aspects that are typically considered paramount of any professional association. Regardless, membership was not found to be significant regarding these attitudes. The only attitude scale found to be significant was Autonomy, which had the weakest scores compared to all other scales for this variable. Possibly the significance is due to the value of professional identity, and thus independence, commonly emphasized by associations.

This study only asked whether the respondent was a member of a professional association, not the extent of involvement. Future research could assess professional attitudes to the extent of involvement in a victim assistance professional association. Also, the survey questionnaire did not specify whether the organization was national, state, or local in scope. Future research should differentiate between these levels.

Participation in Continuing Education

          The extent of participation in continuing education was the only variable found to be significant overall to all the attitudes when considered comprehensively. This significance was for all participation beyond the minimal level offered as a survey choice. Further, though not all categories applied, this variable was also significant for the dimension, Use of Professional Organization as a Major Referent. Though the scale scores for the dimension Belief in Continuing Competence were the lowest, that is the strongest association, of all other scales, it was not found to be statistically significant for this variable.

          The operationalization of this variable possibly needs to be refined for future research. The number of hours allocated to the four levels of participation were possibly too broad to really differentiate the affect of continuing education.

          Possibly the time categories should be reduced to smaller windows. Further, the very aspect of time categories measures quantity, not quality, of continuing education. The category that reflected the least amount of hours, twelve or less per year, can be interpreted as two full program days a year. Two full days of advanced education may be more beneficial than four hours a month of inservice training or four days of a conference that is mediocre. Possibly future research could compare types of professional education in the assessment of attitudes.

          Other aspects of adult and continuing education warrant further study as they affect professional attitudes. For example, are attitudes affected by mandatory continuing education? Do practitioners employed in agencies that embrace a learning organization (Senge, 1992) mentality and practice have stronger professional attitudes than do others? What of other aspects of participation motivation, such Boshier's Congruency Model that "posits that people are either primarily growth-oriented or deficiency-oriented" (Merriam and Caffarella, 1991, p. 230)? Referencing Mezirow (1994) does the type of learning, instrumental or communicative, influence attitudes?

          There are other possible variables that may influence attitudes that could be studied. As previously discussed, the size of the agency may be a factor of attitudes. Related to size, whether the agency is located in an urban or rural area may affect attitudes as the challenges, clientele, and resources are often quite different.

          This study focused on the geographic location of the west north central part of the United States. Are there regional differences of practitioner attitudes? According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2000), the western part of the United States had the highest rate of violent and property crime. Could these crime rate differences affect practitioner attitudes? More likely, it would seem, would be to compare differences between certain states based on factors such as the strength of victim rights legislation, funding support of services and professional training by state VOCA administration, and the existence and strength of a state victim assistance organization.

          Another area of study is to compare professionalization attitudes of victim assistance to other professions. Comparison to other social service fields should include the relatively new area of drug and alcohol services which shares a similar history of evolvement as victim assistance though it started about two decades sooner. Comparison to occupational areas in criminal justice, such as community corrections practitioners, would also be appropriate.

          The results of this study have far reaching implications for both victim assistance and adult education that extend beyond the need for further research. The field of victim assistance, through the support and leadership of the Office for Victims of Crime and various national organizations, is engaged in activities that will help define itself as a profession through the development of practitioner and program standards. Recognizing the importance, as reflected in this study, of education, providers of adult education at both the pre-service and the continuing professional education levels have an opportunity to serve, and be a partner with, the field of victim assistance as it strives to obtain the status of profession. In this process it will be critical to consider the attitudinal aspects researched in this study, as well as the structural aspects identified in the literature (Wilensky, 1964).

          Recognizing the value of this relationship between the fields, leaders in the victim assistance must reach out for the development and enhancement of education in victim assistance. This includes supporting academic concentrations and professional education in victim assistance. This support is realized by encouraging academic obtainment of victim assistance undergraduate and graduate programs through hiring preferences and through educational support and reimbursement policies. Further, the field of victim assistance must collaborate with academic institutions in service and research opportunities. Collaboration means that victim assistance policy administration and service organizations invite academic institutions to be actively involved in defining and addressing issues; that meaningful practice opportunities for university volunteers and interns are available; and to provide or secure necessary funding. Support of academic-based professional continuing education programs is realized by encouraging practitioners, through granting release time and funding, to attend programs that are beyond instrumental or technical training characteristic at the agency and professional association level, and by collaborating with academic institutions to develop professional education programs.

          Academic institutions, in turn, have an opportunity to the field in terms of these areas of pre-service education, research, and professional continuing education. Universities should develop pre-service academic programs at the associate, bachelors, and graduate levels that reflect the competencies of practice, including requiring volunteer or internship placements. Academic-based research must be meaningful to the advancement of practice and policy. And professional continuing education should reflect a high quality of content and delivery that is theoretically grounded, supported by research, and, regardless of whether it is instrumental or communicative in nature, embraces the value of critical reflection.

          The professional associations serve a vital role in the professionalization of an occupation. In the field of victim services there are several national associations. While these associations may serve a distinct niche, agreement and endorsement by these associations of some of the structural aspects of a profession, such as practice and program standards and a code of ethics, could enhance the professional identification of the field. Further, professional associations also serve an important function of education. In addition to embracing academia at the pre-service and professional continuing education level, professional associations are also providers of continuing education. As providers, professional associations that do not reflect practice standards of adult education, such as peer review of conference presentations or workshops that do not consider the needs of adult professional learners, may prove to be a disservice to the professionalization of the field. Professional associations that provide continuing professional education programs or materials should employ the resources of not only content experts but also adult education experts.

          As an emerging profession, the occupational area of victim assistance is experiencing a time of tremendous change. And change, even if it is growth oriented, is characterized by uncertainty and anxiety as new roles, relationships, and responsibilities are defined. Structural and attitudinal aspects of professionalization do not exist independent from each other: structural components influence attitudes and vice versa. The results of this study suggest that victim assistance practitioners have relatively strong attitudes toward professionalization. Adult education, as both a structure and an application, should serve a vital role in the process of professionalization.

References

          Aslett, L.S. (1981) Attitudes toward professionalism among adult educators. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University.

          Barber, B. (1963). Some problems in the sociology of the professions. Daedalus, 92, 669-679.

          Brockett, R. (1989). Professional associations for adult and continuing education. In S. Merriam and P. Cunningham (Eds.) Handbook of adult and continuing education (pp. 112-123). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

          Cervero, R. and Yang, B. (1994) Can Houle's typology of professionals predict participation in continuing education? Journal of Continuing Higher Education, 42, 2-9.

          Childers, J. (1993). Assessing the reasons for participation in continuing professional education: A study of the relationship between attitudes, work setting and structure of a professionalizing occupation. Doctoral dissertation, University of Missouri - Columbia.

          Clearfield, S. (1977). Professional self-image of the social worker: Implications for social work education. Journal of Education for Social Work, 13, 23-30.

          Enyart, J. (1982). Individual professionalism: An analysis of attitudes and role perceptions of recreation practitioners. Doctoral dissertation, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

          Forsyth, P. and Danisiewicz, T. (1985). Toward a theory of professionalization. Work and Occupations, 12, 59-76.

          Fox, J.A. and Zawitz, J.S. (1999). Homicide trends in the United States. Washington, D.C: Bureau of Justice Statistics. U.S. Department of Justice.

          Greenwood, E. (1966). The elements of professionalization. In H. Vollmer and D. Mills (Eds.) Professionalization (pp. 9-18). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

          Goode, W. (1966). Professions and non-professions. In H. Vollmer and D. Mills (Eds.) Professionalization (pp. 33-45). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

          Hall, R.H. (1968). Professionalization and bureaucratization. American Sociological Review, 33, 92-104.

          Hart, A. (1994). Professionalization of physical therapists: Relationships between individual professionalization and selected factors. Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

          Houle, C. (1980). Continuing learning in the professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

          Jackson, J. K. (1991). The professionalization of the teaching field: The role of continuing education. Doctoral dissertation. The Claremont Graduate School.

          Merriam, S. and Caffarella, R. (1991). Learning in adulthood. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

          Merton, R. (1982). The role-set: Problems in sociological theory. In L. Closer and B. Rosenberg (Eds.). Sociological theory (5th ed.) (pp. 264 269). New York, NY: MacMillan Publishing Company.

          Mezirow, J. (1994). Understanding transformation theory. Adult Education Quarterly, 44, 222-235.

          Moore, W. (1970). The professions: Roles and rules. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

          Office for Victims of Crime (1998). New directions from the field: Victims' rights and services for the 21st century. C. Edmunds (Ed). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.

          Poole, E and Regoli, R. (1980). Examining the impact of professionalism on cynicism, role conflict, and work alienation among prison guards. Criminal Justice Review, 5, 57-65.

          Regoli, R., Crank, J., Culbertson, R., and Poole, E. (1988). Linkages between professionalization and professionalism among police chiefs. Journal of Criminal Justice, 16, 89-98.

          Reiss, A. (1966). Individual background and professional careers. In H. Vollmer and D. Mills (Eds.) Professionalization (pp. 73-80). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

          Rifkin, T. (1997). The profession and the person: Occupational and individual dimensions of community college faculty professionalism. Doctoral dissertation, University of California - Los Angeles.

          Ritzer, G. and Walczak, D (1986). Working, conflict and change (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc.

          Senge, P. (1992). Building learning organziations. Journal of Quality and Participation.

          Schack, D. and Hepler, C. (1979). Modification of Hall's professionalism scale for use with pharmacists. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 43, 98-104.

          Snizek, W. (1972). Hall's professionalization scale: An empirical reassessment. American Sociological Review, 37, 109-114.

          U.S. Department of Justice (2000). Criminal victimization 1999: Changes 1998-1999 with trends 1993-1999.

          Vollmer, H. and Mills, D. (1966). Editor's introduction. In H. Vollmer and D. Mills (Eds.) Professionalization (pp. v-ix). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

          Wilensky, H. (1964). The professionalization of everyone? The American Journal of Sociology, 70, 137-158.

          Young, M. (1990). Victim assistance in the United States: The end of the beginning. International Review of Victimology, 1, 181-199.