Research On The Role Dilemma Of Juvenile Justice Social Worker

In June 2021,the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors and the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency came into force,establishing the legal status of juvenile justice social work services.As an important part of the social help and education system for minors involved in crime,judicial social work is of great significance in preventing juvenile delinquency and helping minors involved in crime to reintegrate into society.What are the professional roles and positioning of juvenile justice social workers in the current judicial administration-led social help and education system,and how to better fulfil their professional roles and play a greater role are topics that need to be studied in both theory and practice.This paper uses social role theory as the analytical framework,adopts participant observation method and semi-structured interviews as data collection methods,and takes the juvenile justice social workers’ service process and role practice in social reintegration in Taiyuan Z Institution as the research sample,so as to sort out the role positioning and role application of juvenile justice social workers in the social reintegration system and explore the obstacles to The study finds that the role of juvenile justice social workers in the juvenile justice system is not only difficult but also difficult.The study finds that juvenile justice social workers play many professional roles in the social support system,including direct service roles such as managers who supervise clients,educators who provide professional services,and empowerers who help empower clients,as well as indirect service roles such as advocates who promote policies,linkers who integrate resources,and coordinators who mediate conflicts.All parties involved in the social care system have different expectations of juvenile justice social workers,with national policies stipulating the content of their work and the fulfilment of their duties and responsibilities;the judiciary expecting them to assist in administrative assessments;the social work profession believing that juvenile justice social workers need to play the role of providers of professional services;and clients believing that juvenile justice social workers exist in the capacity of managers.In the eyes of the social workers themselves,they need to perform the dual tasks of professional help and management of the clients.However,in practice,the role of the juvenile justice social worker is plagued by the following four dimensions: the pressure of limited time and energy and the high expectations of the clients,the contradiction between the ambiguous positioning in the system and the need to play an "all-round" role in practice,and the conflict between the values-based and the task-based conflicts in helping the clients.The conflict dimension is based on the conflict between the values and the tasks of the helper;the failure dimension,which is seriously dysfunctional,is based on the choice to quit when the lack of capacity and the demands of the service cannot be reconciled.The reasons for this are mainly endogenous: the role-players’ cognitive abilities and skills do not meet the expectations of the participants;the external causes are mainly the tension between high role expectations and role practice,as well as the lack of a human resources training system and the poor external environment.Finally,the following strategies are proposed for the development of juvenile justice social work at three levels: juvenile justice social workers should release their negative emotions in many ways,build up their role identity,improve their cognitive level and practical skills,and strengthen their own skills;participating subjects should identify the characteristics of juveniles involved in crime and reach a consensus with them,and administrative agencies should strengthen their contact to improve mutual understanding.A professional training mechanism should be established and regular supervision should be carried out;at the policy level,the formulation of professional norms should be improved and the assessment mechanism sound.The dilemma of the role of juvenile justice social workers in social reintegration is more a microcosm of the problem of the depth of embedding that exists when professional social work is embedded in administrative-type social work.Although clarifying the role of juvenile justice social workers can help role-players to better fulfil their professional roles and further improve the integration of social work and juvenile justice,how to root juvenile justice social work in the system and establish a professional status is still an issue that needs to be studied.