■ The Purpose and methods of the Study
○ The Purpose of the Study
- The purpose of the study is to analyze the operation of ‘the Honorary
Probation Officers’ and ‘the Probation Members’ (the main focus of the
study is on the latter), both of which have been newly established in 2017
and 2019, respectively, in order to present policy alternatives by which
community resources can be actively utilized in the Probation System.
○ Methods of the Study
- To review official records and examine the relevant theories concerning
the Probation System
- To conduct surveys and in-depth interviews regarding volunteer
- To analyze domestic and international cases regarding the Study

■ The Current status of the Probation System and the theoretical
frameworks
○ The Current status of the Probation System
- The number of probation case started from 8,3890 in 1989 and has
dramatically increased to 100,988 in 1997 and to 212,940 in 2019, almost
25.4-fold rise in number in thirty years when compared to the number
in 1989.
- The prescribed number of probation officers was 230 in 1989. Since then,
such prescribed number has been gradually increased every year and
skyrocketed to 250 at the year of 2007. Nevertheless, the accumulated
number of probation officers is 1,592 as of the end of 2019. The current
practice shows that, on average, every probation officer is assigned with
112 people on probation, exceptionally higher than that of the OECD’s
average of 27.3.
- The Guiding Member System was introduced by the Probation Act that
became effective on July 1, 1989. Around that time, there were nearly
3,300 Guiding Members. Since 1990, a number of celebrities have been
made as an honorary Guiding Member. And, the number of Guiding
Members exceeded 10,000 in 1995 after the Guidance Committee was
merged with the College Chapter of the Rehabilitation and Protection
Committee in 1994.
- As the [Regulation Concerning Crime Prevention Volunteers] Reg. No. 363
was established by the Ministry of Justice on June 12, 1996, the existing
Rehabilitation Committee, Juvenile-Guidance Committee and Protection
Committee were all merged into ‘the Crime-Prevention Volunteer Committee’.
In accordance with the establishment of [Act on Probation and Etc.] (Act
No. 5178) in 1997, the new name ‘the Crime-Prevention Volunteer’ was
replaced with the old one ‘the Protection Member’.
- The ‘Regulation Concerning Crime Prevention Volunteers’ (Reg. No. 934,
the Ministry of Justice) was amended in February, 2014 in order to promote
the active participation of the Crime-Prevention Members. The existing
names for ‘the member of the Crime Prevention Volunteer Committee’,
‘the Guidance Committee’ and ‘the Local Community Association’ were
respectively replaced with ‘the Law-Loving Committee’, ‘the Policy
Committee’, and ‘the Organization for Promotion of Regional Collaboration’;
and, the following councils have been newly established: ‘the Youth Justice
Advisory Council’, ‘the Probation Member Council’, and ‘the Protection
and Welfare Council’.
- As the Korean society pays a great deal of attention to a series of juvenile
crimes such as a battery case involving ‘a blooded female middle school
student in Busan’ which happened in September, 2017, the ‘Honorary
Probation Officer’ System has been instituted to prepare continuous and
effective countermeasures against juvenile crimes. A group of the following
members were appointed as the Honorary Probation Officers: (i)
professional juvenile counselors; (ii) Psychologists/Addiction Counselors;
and (iii) learning advisors/vocational-training advisors (A total of 1,246 as
of December, 2018).
- The Crime Prevention Policy Bureau adopted [the Guidelines for the
Probation Members] in February, 2019 and replaced the name ‘the Crime
Prevention Volunteer’ of the Probation and Parole Office’ with ‘the
Probation Member’. In March, 2019, 4,393 new members were appointed
as the Probation Members.
○ Theoretical discussion
- While volunteers in the Probation System can be viewed as an individual,
these volunteers may be grouped as a type of Nongovernmental Organization
(NGO) or Nonprofitable Organization (NPO) from a macroscopic point of
view. Given that changing from the conventional concept of NGO, which
receives government fund or subsidy, it needs to expand the volunteer
operation and strengthen the support of the said volunteers in the
Probation System based upon the independence and self-motivation of the
civil society, the Study found its theoretical basis in theories concerning
NGO.
- In this paper, after reviewing the overview of the concept of NGO, it will
discuss a total of 7 theories, including ‘Public-Goods theory’ or
‘Entrepreneurship theory’, regarding the advent and the development of
NGO. Given that the Study finds the noteworthy role of NGO in the
policy-making process, it aims to (i) investigate the role of NGO in the
following policy-making process in order: agenda setting - policy-making
- implementation and assessment, (ii) to conclude prior discussions
regarding donation and volunteering, and (iii) to introduce the so-called
“NGO failure theory” made by Salamon (1987). While the previous studies
have discussed the positive aspects of NGOs playing a role in crime
prevention and criminal justice, the study briefly mentions such aspect
of NGOs.
■ Survey on Perspectives of the Probation Officers and the
Probation Members
□ Survey Method
○ A survey was taken of 51 Probation Office and local Probation Offices (total
number) to see respondents’ perspective of the Probation Officers and the
Probation Members. In specific, there are two types of survey questionnaire:
1. the Survey type ‘For Probation Office Employees Only’ designed for Chief
Officer (or Director of Administrative Support) and each government
employees who are respectively in charge of juvenile delinquency,
probation, attendance order, social service order and electronic monitoring;
and 2. ‘For Probation Members Only’ with the target number of 15 responses
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from 2 or more respondents who are in charge of aid support, counseling,
social service, attendance order.
○ The survey questionnaire includes a set of questions to examine perspectives
of the Probation Members in terms of their recruitment, job training,
activities, assessment, the Probation System and compensation - 74
questions for the survey type ‘For Probation Members Only’ and 48 questions
for the survey type ‘For Probation Office Employees Only’.
□ Sample
○ Sample Size: 294 survey questionnaires are finally collected for the type
‘For Probation Office Employees Only’; and, 714 for the type ‘For Probation
Members Only’.
- For Probation Office Employees, 14% of the respondents are public officials
of Class 5 and above; and, 20% are public officials of Class 6 through
Class 9. In case of the ‘For Probation Members Only’, small business owners
(entrepreneurs) take up a largest percentage of 23% (166 respondents),
followed by counselors (159 respondents, 22.3%), social workers (social
welfare services) (79 respondents, 11.0%) and housewives (49 respondents,
6.9%).
□ Analysis
○ Recruitment
- Mostly, the Probation Members came to learn about the Probation Member
Service though the Crime Prevention Volunteering Service and decided to
join the Probation Members because they want to help in crime prevention
and criminal justice for the local community (44.0%) or use their knowledge
and experience in practice (19.5%).
○ Education
- Most of the Probation Members (84.9%) have been given training program(s)
once or more than once and agreed to the necessity of such training at
work (45.0% for ‘Very Needed’; 49.3% for ‘Generally Needed’). It shows
that the following two programs are most necessary education for the
Probation Members: “professional education on psychological and correctional
counseling for the probation subject” and “guidelines concerning attitudes
and roles of the Probation Members”. It also shows that regarding the
training methods, the Probation Members most prefers the off-line
education (47.5%) as compared to online education (17.9%), and a
combination of offline and online classes (28.6%). And, most of the
Probation Member Respondents prefers to have such training once per
quarter.
○ Activities
- It shows that the Probation Members are in charge of counseling is assigned
with 1.18 probationers on average (Min. = 1) and mostly conduct counseling
session once a month (less than once a week). However, it shows that
at the stage of assigning a probationer, work experience or personal
opinion of the Probation Member is not given much weight much taken
into consideration (60.1%). It also shows that nearly 26% of the Probation
Members in charge of aid support spends expenditure added up to 100,000
won per month relating to their aid support service whereas those in charge
of attendance order were most likely to provide their probation service
once or more than once a month (less than once per week) (30%) for less
than 2 hours per service. Likewise, it shows that the Probation Officers
in the social service sector serve once or more than once per month (less
than once a week) (39.7%) and that the average service time is less than
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an hour per session (28.1%).
- Most of the Probation Member respondents answered that they would like
to continue their service (“Very Likely” 47.5%, “Somewhat Likely” 40.1%)
on a continuous basis and that they were generally satisfied with their
probation service (“Very Likely” 31.5%, “Somewhat Likely” 47.6%)
- In case of public officials, more than half of the total respondents, nearly
54%, answered that the Probation Members lacked basic knowledge (“Very
Lacking” 47.9%, “Extremely Lacking” 5.78%) whereas only 23% of the
respondents answered that the Probation Members showed a lack of
proficiency in their service.
○ The Probation System
- 37.4% of the public official respondents chose the answer “difficulty of
management of the Probation Members” to the question of what is most
difficult in utilizing the Probation Member System. And the public official
respondents were likely to perceive that utilization of the Probation
Member System did not have an impact on the workload reduction (58%).
Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that such respondents (40.1%) answered it
necessary to use the volunteers from the local community for the probation
work.
- Regarding the compensation of the Probation Members, only about 21%
(average 2.84) of the public official respondents chose the answer that
it has been sufficient to provide full reimbursement for the actual expenses
incurred by the Probation Members in doing their probation service;
however, nearly 59% respondents answered that it would be necessary to
actively develop a plan for the Probation Members such as anticrime
reward program to increase their engagement in the probation service.
■ A Case Study on the effective use by private organizations of
volunteers (domestic) and implications
○ Background and Reasons for the Case Study
- Although continuous efforts have been made to improve the Probation
System, it still needs to be improved in terms of the use of volunteers
in the Probation System.
- For the purpose of enhancing the effectiveness of the Probation System,
it is necessary to examine the private organization cases where it was
successful to procure human and material resources for nonprofit activities
and to focus on the implications for policy.
○ Mobilization and use by domestic, private organizations of human resources
- The private organizations with the limited resources have accumulated
experiences and know-how as to fund-raising and use/management of
volunteers to accomplish their goals.
- As an effort to strengthen the managerial capacity and to secure sustainable
development and expertise of the volunteers, [they private organizations]
have the operating system for volunteers concerning volunteer recruitment,
operation, HR management, performance management, appraisal, and
others, which is centered on the motivation and needs of such volunteers.
- Several studies and papers have described that there is a correlation among
the sustainability of volunteering, motivation, satisfaction and fulfillment
of the volunteers, the standard deviation result of which may vary
depending on how much effort an individual organization exerts on its
operation and management.
○ Example of the active use of volunteers in the private sector
- Based on the level of proactivity, there are two types of volunteer
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recruitment and operation: 1. Recruitment led by organizations and 2.
Volunteering initiated by volunteers who actively searched out organizations
or institutions to serve as volunteers. In this Study, the former type will
be only discussed.
- The following cases are examined as a general example of volunteering
service: 1. Community service activities which have been carried out by
the Korean Red Cross to provide relief activities for the victims of
unexpected disasters and customized service for the underprivileged people
; 2. the so-called ‘Vision Maker’ by which the World Vision provides
translation service for children in need to send their letters to sponsors
; and, 3. The Beautiful Store’s Volunteers, so-called “Angels”, who are
involved in the recycle of donated items at the shops and circulation
centers of the Beautiful Store.
- The organization ‘Youth Embracing the World’ is another successful case
whose contents are similar to the Probation System. It has shown a creative
approach to reflect counseling, social service, class attendance, community
service in the operation system and, in fact, has successfully facilitated
juvenile offenders back into the society by changing intrinsic and external
environmental factors which cause recidivism of juvenile offenders.
○ According to the case studies shown above, successful volunteer program
has the following characteristics:
- The organizations have an original and elaborate operation system for
volunteers centered on their values and philosophies.
- There are guidelines for reference in terms of (i) definition of volunteering,
(ii) the scope of service, (iii) required qualifications of volunteers, (iv) task
instructions, (v) detailed R&R, and (vi) management plan.
- It increases the levels of motivation and satisfaction of volunteers by
explaining them the meaningfulness of volunteer work through customized
volunteer engagement plan for each individual volunteer.
- It has a long-term plan to elicit continuous support and attention from
volunteers in order to turn such volunteers into sponsors.
○ Implications
- It needs to differentiate long-term goals from short-term approach in
making plans to invigorate volunteer activities.
- In the long-term, it needs to take a philosophical, innovative approach
to revoke fundamental changes to the criminal environment. It seems also
necessary to unite perspectives and goals of stakeholders by presenting
roadmaps and procedures as a strategic tool for guiding the development
and improvement of the Probation System.
- In the short term, the Probation System needs to get improved in the
following aspects:
1) development and application of the standard volunteer operation system
2) development of integrated volunteer education system and curriculum
3) professional training and education for volunteer managers
4) operation of 2-tier volunteer opportunities in the Probation System
depending on a prospective volunteer’s proficiency
5) expansion of incentives for volunteers in the Probation System such
as compensation, reward, or others.
■ Suggestion
○ In general, two problems have been identified with the current Probation
Member System.
- First, it is difficult to manage the Probation Members. It shows that the
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biggest challenge facing the probation staffs in utilizing the Probation
Member System is the “probation member management” (37.41%) whereas
the Probation Members pointed out frequent rotation of probations staffs
at the Probation Office.
- Second, there are operational issues with the Probation Member Council
and the Organization for Promotion of Regional Collaboration. The survey
indicates that there is no big problem in general, but that on the interview
with public officials who served as probation staffs and the Probation
Members, a number of probation staffs and the Probation Members raised
such issues relating to operation of the Probation Member System. In
specific, the fact that each service sector of the Probation Member System
(aid support, counseling, social service and attendance order) has different
function and membership makes it difficult to form a united association
of the Probation Members. And, it was mentioned that the Organization
for Promotion of Regional Collaboration was rushed out before the regional
councils of the Probation Members had a chance to settle down.
○ Policy alternatives based on the results of case study
- (Direction) Regarding forms of service, it needs to change from (i) individual
basis to group-centered basis and from (ii) government initiative model
to community initiative model. To that end, it is necessary to make use
of the Probation Member Council as a center axis for collaboration between
the Probation and the local community. Although it should ultimately aim
at leading private local organizations and individuals to get involved in
community correction, it first needs to break down the ‘“walls” between
different departments of the office under the value of community justice
and to make police, prosecution’s office, and courts all together collaborate
with one another.
- (Recruitment and marketing) It needs to draw more attention from the
public. Given that probation is “social treatment” to promote correction
and rehabilitation of criminals, the Probation System should welcome
community participation in its service. To that end, it is necessary to
provide people as well as private and public organizations (i.e., school,
NGO and religious institution) in the local community with education
regarding the role of the Probation System in the society and conduct
marketing activities to request for their support and participation.
Furthermore, for the purpose of deterrence, it is also necessary to promote
donation among people so that it can timely support juveniles on
probation, who are not given sufficient aid supports from its local
Probation Office.
- (Education) It shows that the followings are necessary: (i) promotion of
online education; (ii) systematization and reinforcement of education, (iii)
staff training on the Probation Member System. Most of the Probation
Members who were surveyed answered that systematic and comprehensive
education would be necessary for the probation service. And it shows that
the Probation Members generally prefers the offline class; however, a
considerable amount of respondents answered that they would like to have
online learning or a combination of on-line and offline learning. On the
other hand, the probation staffs in charge of the Probation Members
answered on the FGI interview that education of the Probation Member
System seems necessary because they are not seriously aware of the
importance of the Probation Member System and even do not fully know
how such system has been implemented
- (Compensation) The followings are necessary: (i) to register as a volunteer
with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (1365); (ii) to improve the
donation process; (iii) to render the better treatment for the Probation
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Members; and others. Support in Volunteer registration and issuance of
donation receipt do not require a late amount of budget. In addition, it
is necessary to provide a better compensation to those of the Probation
Members who served on a continuous basis or made a significant
contribution to the Probation Member System.
- (The Probation Member Council and the Organization for Promotion of
Regional Collaboration) It needs to promote active communication through
national conventions, which accordingly requires financial support for
effective operation. Opening a national convention is not only an
opportunity to promote bonding between members but also a chance to
share the best practices of each probation service sector such as aid
support, counseling, social service order, and attendance, which in fact
may benefit the Probation Members. Furthermore, financial support is
required in order for the Probation Member Council to play an active role
in compensation as well as connection with the subject matter on probation
- for example, it needs to assign a staff in charge of administration (an
employee or the Probation Member) of the Probation Service only and
give some office space to such staff.
○ Reflection on the Probation Member System and Prospects for the future
- It was public officials’ sacrifice and endeavors that made possible the
successful operation of the Probation Member System. Beyond secure
management of criminal offenders on probation, the current goal of the
Korean Probation System, we should move forward with the new target
to re-integrate criminal offenders completely back into society. To that
end, the Probation Member System may therefore play a key role since
it requires active participation from local community for advancement of
the Probation Member System.
- Although there exist various problems concerning the Probation Member
Council and the Organization for Promotion of Regional Collaboration,
as discussed earlier in this paper, it is confirmed that the Probation
Members have accomplished their missions to protect juvenile criminals
on probation and prevent crimes amid many difficulties facing them. Also,
it needs to turn the current Probation System into group-centered,
community-initiative system from the individual-basis and government
initiative model for the purpose of successful rehabilitation and
reintegration of criminals on probation back into community, which can
be supported by various case studies of how these organizations, whether
international or domestic, reinforced efficiency and social responsibilities,
as previously discussed in the paper.