Guidelines for the Probation Volunteers’ Competence Development for Remediation and Rehabilitation of Offenders in the Community, Probation Office of Phitsanulok

Abstract

          The objectives of this research were: 1) to investigate the competence development levels of the probation volunteers; 2) to compare them for rehabilitating the community-based offenders, classified by their personal factors; and 3) to propose guidelines for developing the competence of the probation volunteers. officers in rehabilitating community-based offenders. It was a mixed-method research conducted through quantitative and qualitative methods. The population A sample consisted of 134 probation volunteers and the five key informants were the probation volunteer in Phitsanulok.

           The findings indicated the following. 1) The overall competence development level of the probation volunteer was at a high level. When individual aspects were considered, the aspect with the highest mean of competence was position followed by functional and core respectively. 2) When the competence development levels of probation volunteers were compared by their personal factors, the key informants with varieties of genders, ages, education levels, occupations, incomes, and length of service had no differences of opinions on the competence development of the probation volunteers. Thus, an hypothesis was rejected.