| Discovering the relationship between the occupational stress of community supervision officers (CSO), their supervision orientation and community supervision outcomes will improve the field of community corrections with respect to CSO job satisfaction, work performance, turn-over rates, workload distribution and training officers in evidence based practices. It also expands already rich research on offender recidivism. An ex post facto non-experimental quantitative design was used to describe the relationship between the independent variables (IV) under observation: the occupational stress level and supervision orientation of CSOs, and the dependent variables (DV): the number of client arrests on the caseloads of CSOs, the offenders' successful completion of community supervision, the offenders' unsuccessful completion of community supervision, and the number of violation reports a CSO sends to the releasing authorities for offenders on their caseloads. Two survey instruments called the Job Stress Survey (JSS) and the Revised Community Corrections Officer Orientation Scale (RCC) were used to collect data from CSOs. Multiple regression analyses of the IVs and DVs concluded that there was no statistically predictive relationship between the occupational stress and supervision orientation of CSOs. Additionally, there was no statistically predictive relationship between the occupational stress of CSOs, their supervision orientation, or community supervision outcomes. This research began a valuable discussion about the influence of stress on CSO interactions with their offenders, which may influence offender noncompliance with community supervision. Further research should include a larger representation of CSOs, so that more variables can be incorporated into a study for a more robust analysis. |
