The social worker and the delinquent : a study of the role of the social worker in the treatment and rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents serviced through the Halifax regional office of the Department of Public Welfare on March 31, 1960

Abstract

This thesis is based on a group study undertaken by the second year students of the Maritime School of Social Work. Individual theses were written on different aspects of the total project, each from a social work approach. This study is concerned with the role of the social worker in the lives of one hundred and seventy-six juvenile delinquents who were known to the Halifax Regional Office of the Department of Public Welfare on March 31, 1960. It was assessed weather social work could function effectively in the correctional setting, and what the role of the social worker should be in the varying phases of treatment. Primary data concerning the children and their families were collected by means of a schedule from the case records of the Department of Public Welfare and the Nova Scotia School for Boys. Secondary data were obtained from interviews with prominent members of the community who are concerned with the problem of juvenile delinquency, lectures by experts in the field, and bibliographical data. Statistical and case study methods were used in analyzing and presenting the data. It was concluded that social work can function effectively in a correctional setting with juvenile delinquents, and that the skills of social workers could be used more efficaciously than the present study indicates. More complete and more diagnostically oriented records would result in better service to clients. Greater community awareness of the problem of juvenile delinquency and more public responsibility is needed. Furthermore it is recommended that professionally educated social workers, with particular adaptive qualifications for correctional work, be utilized.