Male Probation Officer Stereotypes

Male Probation Officers Stereotypes have been around for decades, and are still prominent today. In today’s society, everybody stereotypes one another, but will not admit that they do. Stereotypes can either be positive or negative. Usually stereotypes are used in a negative approach and can be degrading to an individual. Misconceptions are also used by individuals and can be harmful and unreasonable. Misconceptions are usually formed from having stereotypes. Everybody has a stereotype that is associated with them, whether they like it or not. Male probation officers are a group that is misunderstood to society. They have multiple stereotypes and misconceptions that are associated with them; theses associations are made up by the offenders

A common misconception of probation officers is that they are correction officers. Ricky Galindo, a probation officer, mentions, “Do you get tired from working in jail all the time?” Galindo gets asked this question on a daily because people assume that probation and corrections officers are the same job. Corrections officers work inside of the prison or jails, while Galindo works as a field officer. His job consists of going to the offender’s house and making sure they are complying with the court orders, and conducting warrant searches. Field officers also do surveillance of their homes to ensure that they are not involved in illegal activity. I have notice that people usually assume that male probation officers work more with mental health than law enforcement. In some cases, there are officers that will live with the victims, who were victims of domestic violence. Because of this a person might think that the male officers are helping the victim cope with their trauma, instead of protecting them from their dangerous partner. The main misconception is that male probation officers only deal with children. Another comment that Galindo mentioned is, “You must hate working with those kids all time.” Again, this is asked to Galindo, but he mainly deals with adults that come from prison. Working only with children and being mistaken as a correction officer, are the main misconceptions male

Those types of stereotypes are usually negative and they stretch out the truth. A stereotype that has been exaggerated by television shows and movies are that male officers are perceived as corrupt individuals, who are intimidating because they are big and muscular. Additionally, male officers are strict and in the offender’s face. This is untrue because being in the offender’s face is only seen movies and it does nothing to assist the offender.. The reason why a male officer is strict is because there are certain guidelines that they have to follow depending on the offense. Male officers are strict because they care and would like to see him or her turn their life around. Furthermore, the way a male officer is supposed to look, is exaggerated in television shows and movies. Most individuals picture a male probation officer to have a muscular build, to be tall and have broad shoulders. Also an exaggerated misconception is that male probation officer work with children. This misconception started with the founder of probation John Augustus. Augustus owned a shoe store and caught a child stealing a pair of his boots. Augustus asked the court instead of sending him to jail, could the child work with him to pay off his crime. Ever since 1829, people still assume that male probation officers only work with children. Male officers tend to work with adults, but on occasions will work with a teenagers. Not to mention, a male probation