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PORTRAYAL OF THECROATIAN PROBATIONSERVICES DEVELOPMENTIN PRINT MEDIAInes SUČIĆInstitute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar Zagreb

UDK 070343265(4975)20092013Izvorni znanstveni rad

Primljeno 1 12 2015

Generally research related to the media representation ofprobation is relatively rare especially in jurisdictions withouta long tradition of probation The aims of this study were toinvestigate what themes emerged in constructing the publicimage of probation and who were probations keypromoters and to analyse whether there was uniformpresentation of probation in the media over time The 390newspaper articles related to probation that were publishedin national newspapers and magazines between 2009 and2013 were analysed The analysis showed that stories aboutprobation were typically short probation was typically not amain topic and issues on probation were mainly superficiallyelaborated Probation in Croatia has relatively low mediavisibility but legislation regulations and expectations fromprobation emerged as main themes Initially reducing prisonovercrowding and financial costs were the most frequentlymentioned benefits of probation but over time attentionshifted slightly towards focusing on the benefits ofprobationers resocialisation and rehabilitation The tone ofthe stories was generally positive or neutral and politicianswere the strongest advocates of the probation system Mediainterest in probation fluctuated over the years and probationhas recently faced more criticism than before most likelybecause of the many obstacles that it experienced in thecourse of becoming truly functional in practice

Keywords media analysis probation newspaperssupervision offenders

Ines Sučić Institute of Social Sciences Ivo PilarMarulićev trg 191 P O Box 277 10 001 Zagreb CroatiaE-mail InesSucicpilarhr481

Supported by a grant(GrantID OR2013--11848) from theFoundation OpenSociety Institute incooperation with theScholarship programsof the Open SocietyFoundations

MEDIA INFLUENCE ON THE PUBLICS PERCEPTION OF CRIMEThere is considerable public interest in all aspects of crimeand justice but public knowledge of crime and criminal jus-tice is low (Roberts amp Hough 2005) In making sense of crimepeople rely on personal experiences social networks and signsof disorder in the local community (Doyle 2006) Howeversince most people have been neither victims of nor witnessesto crime the media is typically the most common source ofinformation about crime (McGreevy 2013) and crime is con-sidered a serious and newsworthy issue (Maruna amp King 2004)

There is a long tradition of research on the influence ofmedia on public discourse Theories developed to understandand describe this effect (eg cultivation theory social actiontheory reception theory agenda-setting theory use and gra-tification theory media dependence theory) predict in es-sence that exposure to media content affects the perceptionsand attitudes of the audience However they differ in the esti-mated size of the effect that media exposure has on the audi-ence and in the estimated level of the audiences participa-tion (activepassive) in receiving and interpreting the ob-served content For example cultivation theory predicts thatprolonged media exposure creates the belief in a mean andscary world (Gerbner 1988) and according to media depen-dence theory audiences depend on media information tomeet needs and reach goals especially when social changeand conflicts are high (Ball-Rokeach amp DeFluer 1979)

Thus the mismatch between public attitudes towards crimeand crime facts could be at least partially attributed to mediarepresentations of crime The representation of crime in newsmedia does not directly cause public beliefs and attitudes butmay have the potential to influence a range of criminal justicepolicies as either a reflector of public opinion or an influencerof how policy is received by the public (eg through lobbyingcampaigns headline stories) (McGreevy 2013) The mediausually tell us sensationalistic and distorted stories about crimeTheir focus is mainly on violent and interpersonal offencesThis way the media are playing upon public fears by over-stating the danger of criminal victimisation criticising theauthorities for leniency emphasising failure of rehabilitationand calling for more and harsher punitive measures (Chelio-tis 2010 Roberts amp Hough 2005) These misperceptions aboutcrime trends and sentencing practices can lower levels of con-fidence in the criminal justice system (Mirrlees-Black 2001)However media portrayal can also increase visibility and pub-lic confidence in probation by providing substantive and reli-able information about it1 (Allen 2006) and consequentlyraising knowledge about probation can incline people to fa-vour rehabilitative approaches more and hold less punitive482

attitudes (Butter Hermanns amp Menger 2013) Thus when try-ing to isolate and estimate the influence of media representa-tion on the public it is very important not to observe crime inthe media as a unitary phenomenon but to take into accountthe diversity among news media organisations and formatsthe content of the news and audience heterogeneity (Doyle2006)

MEDIA PORTRAYAL OF PROBATION SERVICESProbation is an area of the criminal justice system that hashad limited media exposure (Phillips 2014) and not surpris-ingly there is relatively little research done on it The mostcommon approach employed in research to date is contentanalysis of a selection of stories on probation that appear inprinted media over a certain time period in order to examinehow media representation of probation and public attitudes to-wards probation have changed over time (eg Maruna 2007Hayes 2013 Maguire amp Carr 2013) Marunas (2007) analysisshowed that probation received positive media coverage un-til the 1970s but that because of policy changes and increasedpolitical rhetoric around crime in recent years probation hasprimarily been the subject of attention in the context of pub-licised failures Similarly Teagues (2002 p 35) analysis ofnewspaper stories related to probation showed that commu-nity sentencing appears to be virtually invisible and hardlyworth a serious discussion An analysis by Hayes (2013) of 2000newspaper articles published between 2003 and 2011 showedthat community punishment is accepted by English newspa-pers as part of the criminal justice system although there areconflicting opinions as to what role these penalties shouldplay within that system (p 34) Maguire and Carrs (2013)study of 542 newspaper articles over an 11-year period foundthat the majority of news stories about probation were eitherneutral or positive but noted a recent shift towards a morenegative portrayal of probation that were a reflection of re-cent changes in the shape of penal-probation boundaries inIreland

The overall conclusion of previous research on the mediaportrayal of probation is that probation has not received muchmedia attention particularly in comparison to other criminaljustice institutions (eg prisons the police courts) (eg Ma-runa amp King 2008 Phillips 2014) that probation had a mar-ginal position (Mason 2006) and it was often portrayed as in-ferior to incarceration (Hayes 2013) Probations image prob-lem (Bauwens amp Mair 2012) could be partly a product of itsambiguous status as a combination of institutionalisation andcommunity rehabilitation questionable appropriateness andor legitimacy the fact that probation does not provide the483

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same volume of information of interest to the public as othercriminal justice topics and may not have reason to dissemi-nate as much information to the public as eg the police butit could also be related to its portrayal in the media (Maguireamp Carr 2013 Roberts amp Hough 2005) Probation needs to usethe media to increase understanding and support of its workas regards community sanctions ignorance is a fundamentalproblem (McNeill 2009) which may lead to the reemergenceof popular punitive measures and to demands for more ex-pressive and emotive forms of punishment (Bauwens amp Mair2012)

PROBATION SERVICE IN CROATIAThe Croatian Probation Service is a state service financed bythe government and under the jurisdiction of the Ministry ofJustice It provides interventions for adult offenders only Thefirst Probation Act in Croatia was enacted in 2009 It definesthe purpose of probation work as protection of the commu-nity from an offenders offending re-socialisation and re-inte-gration of offenders in the community and provision of sup-port to victims of crime their families and families of offend-ers (Špero 2015 p 134) The first probation office out of 11opened in 2011 In 2013 after a wider reform of criminal laws(sanctions and procedures) the professional Probation Ser-vice became fully functional (Špero 2015) Since the Servicestarted with work the caseload has constantly been increas-ing For example in 2013 the Service received 3304 new casesand 3618 new cases in 2014 (Špero 2015)

Croatian probation officers are civil servants performingprobation tasks through the entire criminal process from pre-trial to post-release supervision They supervise the enforce-ment of obligations ordered by the public prosecutor and havea role in prison sentence management through the enforce-ment of protective supervision during conditional releasefrom prison The main probation officers activities and tasksinclude delivering reports to the authorities assessing theoffenders risk andor suitability for imposed alternative sanc-tions organising and supervising the enforcement of im-posed sanctions drafting a special individualised treatmentprogramme for offenders

STUDY GOAL AND AIMSThe main goal of this study was to investigate the public imageof probation in Croatia to show what the public is allowed toknow about the implementation of probation service and itsrelations to other criminal justice institutions The particularaims were (1) to investigate what themes emerged in the

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medias portrayal of probation and who were probations keyadvocates and (2) to analyse whether there was uniform pre-sentation of probation in the media over time

Since the establishment of probation and the enactmentof new legislation related to probation and community sanc-tions was an important precondition for Croatias joining theEuropean Union (EU) in 2013 (Šimpraga Maloić amp Ricijaš2014) it was hypothesised (a) that probation legislation regu-lations and expectations will be the main topics in the media(b) that at the beginning of Service development more posi-tive information about it will be presented in the media espe-cially by politicians (c) that one of the common themes with-in the medias portrayal will be one of naivety about for ex-ample probations potential for reducing the prison popula-tion (d) that with time issues regarding probation will be-come more politicised and criticised in the media due to ob-stacles the probation service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

This topic is important to explore because there is no avail-able information on how probation is viewed by the public oreven by certain groups of the public (eg politicians) andbecause narratives presented in the media especially aboutthe issues that people have little direct experience with (suchas probation) can either lower or boost confidence in thecriminal justice system in general and probation service inparticular Lower confidence can make the public become lessinclined towards favouring rehabilitative approaches andprone to undervaluing probation work stigmatising and dis-criminating against offenders under supervision and makingoffenders resocialisation even more difficult New insights onmedia representation of probation service could also be usedby the professionals and politicians to develop more efficientpublic relations strategies in the promotion of probation servicehelping to avoid punitive attitudes and rigorous political res-ponses as the dominant means of increasing public security

METHODTo provide the greatest possible representation of the topic onprobation and increase the validity all news articles from Cro-atias national and local newspapers and magazines were in-cluded in the study (Macnamara 2005) Newspaper articleswere analysed since they are generally more accessible andlead to better recall than other news sources (eg TV inter-net) (Furnham Gunter amp Green 1990) and because main-stream newspapers have a more powerful influence on peo-ples perceptions of public policies and political issues thandoes television news (eg Brians amp Wattenberg 1996) News-485

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paper articles were located and collected using a press clip-ping agencys services because this approach provides fastand full access to all newspaper articles The first year of thisstudy 2009 coincided with the year the Law on Probationwas enacted and the Directorate for Criminal Law and Pro-bation was established in Croatia The end year of analysis2013 coincided with the wider reform of criminal laws inCroatia and probation service becoming fully functional

The unit of analysis was one newspaper article Over theperiod in question probation was mentioned in 533 nationaland local newspaper and magazine articles Out of that 390news articles were included in the analysis since the rest didnot refer to the probation service or because they were iden-tified as complete duplicates of other articles

A primary researcher coded all sampled news articlesHowever to ensure reliability of the study findings a sub-sampleof 15 randomly selected news articles was coded by a sec-ond coder Both coders were trained and each coder codedthe articles independently Intercoder reliability proved to besatisfying

To operationalise the patterns and themes that emergedthroughout the articles a structured closed-ended categorisa-tion matrix was developed The coding list consisted of thelist of variables to be examined general technical informationabout the news article main article theme different actorsexperiences with and attitudes to probation probation dutiesand instrumentstechnologies expectations from probationcollaboration between probation service and other institu-tions Each article was analysed based on the presenceab-sence of the categories in the coding list assessed for overallcontent themes and tone (positive neutral-factual negative)The frequencies of codes and classifications of informationwere calculated After initial code identification codes werematched up and collated with data extracts that demonstratethat code The different codes were grouped into categoriesand all the relevant coded data extracts within the identifiedcategories were collated Categories were then reviewed refinedand consequently organised into meaningful theme groupsThe stories were repeatedly read in order to search for mean-ings and patterns and the stories about probation were after-wards subsequently analysed using a thematic approach(Braun amp Clarke 2006) Recurring themes and patterns of res-ponse that emerged were analysed and reported in the con-text of the research questions that allowed for exploring themeanings and emphases in stories about probation (Michael-son amp Griffin 2005)

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONIn Croatia over the 5-year period most of the articles on pro-bation were published in daily newspapers articles aboutprobation were generally short probation was not generallythe main story topic probation-related headlines rarely ap-peared on newspaper cover pages and issues on probationwere mainly superficially discussed (Table 1)

Variables Categories within variables ()

Type of the daily newspapers 825newspaper weekly 116

other 36monthly 23

Length of 25 of page or less 278the article gt 1 page 249

75 of page 14950 of page 13130 of page 1111 page 82

Type of short report 424the article news 401

interview 88review 75column 13

Size of the title medium 403big 308headline 147small 134no title 08

Probation topic sporadic topic 554main topic 385equally important as other topic 62

Information superficial (just description) 810elaboration in-depth analysis 190

Altogether it can be argued that probation in Croatia hasrelatively low media visibility However it is not knownwhether other criminal justice sanctions (eg prison sen-tences) are more or less present in the media than probationsentences because there has yet been no comparative analy-sis (Maguire amp Carr 2013) Owing to different methodologiestraditions and time frames it is difficult to compare proba-tions media visibility with existing analyses of media cover-age on probation in other jurisdictions (eg Bauwens amp Mair2012) Moreover because more serious andor unusual offen-ces highly publicised cases and scandals are most likely to earn487

TABLE 1Descriptiveinformation onnewspaper articles onprobation ()

more media coverage (Greer amp Reiner 2012) it is perhaps notdetrimental for probation to have such low visibility

In three-quarters of the newspaper articles the term pro-bation was not explained (753) which is particularly inter-esting given that the 2014 data showed that 873 of theCroatian public did not know what the term meant2 (Pilarsbarometer of Croatian society 2014) When existing the defi-nition of probation was mostly very short (eg system of su-pervised freedom system of conditional freedom or system of sanctionexecution out of prison) Also only a quarter or less than a quar-ter of the news articles included a description of some per-sonal experience with probation (203) collaboration of pro-bation service with other institutions (256) and probationsmechanisms and instruments (221)

Themes out of 390 articles

Legislation 223Prediction for and expectations from probation 197Experiences with probation 169Probation officers duties 159Probation systems development(eg opening of new regional offices) 131Employment in the probation service 69Other topics 28International examples 18Victims and witness support 05

As expected probation legislation regulations and ex-pectations for the service were the two main topics in the me-dia (Table 2) because between 2009 and 2013 Croatian proba-tion service and probation policy was especially influencedby the politicisation of criminal justice policy as a result ofnecessary changes in Croatias judiciary and laws that wereimposed by the EU and its regulations in the process of Cro-atias joining the EU There were also personnel changes inthe Ministry of Justice and Probation Service following par-liamentary elections in 2011 In Croatia between 2009 and 2013three Minister of Justice positions changed three heads of theProbation Service positions changed and two probation lawschanged (Official Gazette 1532009 1432012) Even more pro-bations official titles also changed three times over this 5-year-period victims and witnesses support was includedand then excluded from the official title which clearly indi-cate the difficulties in articulating the public image of proba-tion In 2009 the official probation service title was Directoratefor Probation in 2010 it changed its name to the Directorate forProbation and Victims and Witnesses Support and in 2012 to theSector for Probation Similarly in the Republic of Ireland dur-

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TABLE 2Dominant themes inthe newspaper articleson probation

ing the rebranding of probation in 2006 the word welfarewas removed from its official title (Maguire amp Carr 2013)

Expectation of times mentioned in 390 articles

Fewer people in prison 459Fewer expenses 210Other expectations 167Resocialization 128Less crime 79More work places 64Joining the EU 64More human system 59Better social security 36More quality sanctions 33System unload 31Victims support 26Failure 26More work for police 18Easier job for judges 13Offenders monitoring 13Greater expenses 10Greater corruption 08Keep family intact 05Criminals will walk free 05More work for POs 05Less biased judges 03Harder work for judges 03

Probation service establishment was accompanied withpositive predictions and expectations in the media (Table 3)Prisons were obviously used as benchmarks in emphasisingthe Croatian probation services benefits3 similarly to otherjurisdictions eg Ireland (Maguire amp Carr 2013) Probationwas glorified in the media as the best (and only) solution forproblems facing the prison system (eg overcrowding inhu-manity ineffectiveness expense) As such the probation rhetoricin almost half of the articles emerged as fewer people in pris-ons (Table 3) However most of the analysed press failed toexplore the underlying reasons for prison overcrowding oroffer any deeper elaboration of penal policies whether pris-ons or probation

Probation was also presented as the solution for over-coming problems identified by European politicians such ashuman rights violations in prisons and out-of-date penal po-licies The press intensively confronted the Croatian publicwith the fact that the prison system was not particularly effec-tive in reducing recidivism that poor prison conditions wereharmful to health and safety and that there was an urgentneed for the humanitarian approach of probation (see Che-489

TABLE 3Expectations fromprobation

ung 1988) Thus probation was presented as not only aimingat public protection but also at the social inclusion of offend-ers their resocialisation rehabilitation and reintegration intosociety (Bauwens 2011) Probations transformative potentialhumanitarian side of the penal and judicial system and soci-etal redemption was especially stressed

The economic benefits of probation versus prison werealso emphasised The newspaper articles argued that proba-tion would be less expensive (than prison)4 and produce morework places These repeated claims of reduced expenses overthe 5-year period surely safeguarded probation from criticismto a certain degree (see Fitzgibbon 2012)

Among the negative predictions or expectations for pro-bation the most commonly mentioned was that offering pro-bation in Croatia was merely a concession to the EU that pro-bation was a failure and that it would produce even morework for police and result in higher expenses (Table 3) Inaddition probation was seen as a soft option frequently equat-ed with escaping or avoiding prison sentences and with free-dom (see Hayes 2013 Teague 2002)

Actor Number of articles positive experience

Offender 37 872Probation officer 12 50Firm NGO 9 100Head of probation office 6 50Judge 6 667Offenders family 3 100Police officer 2 100Victim 1 100Witness 1 100Social worker 1 100

Only one-fifth of the newspaper articles included a des-cription of some aspect of personal experience with probation(203) and as expected due to the promotion of the newnational service the majority of the newspaper articles des-cribed positive experiences (Table 4) Offenders experiencesprevailed while experiences of probation officers and othersinvolved in probation were rarely described It was interest-ing that offenders experiences were described mainly as pos-itive5 whereas this was the case for only 50 of the probationofficers experiences Offenders positive experiences mostlyreferred to their experiences with community work such asP Č sentenced to 730 hours of community work in a publickitchen said This is for me a type of redemption to soci-etyhellipThey did not think I would try as hard as I did I like ithere and I am even thinking of continuing volunteering here

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TABLE 4Actors whoseexperiences weredescribed

in the public kitchen in the future from time to time after Iserve this sentence (Ciglenečki 2013 p 5) However in articlesprobationers were never referred to as clients but always asoffenders and their offences were usually over-emphasisedadding to their dangerousness and dysfunctional personali-ties Due to the dominance of celebrity culture (Greer 2007)it was not surprising that Croatian journalists were eager touse politicians and celebrities who were sentenced to com-munity work as (anti)models of probation on the newspapercover pages (eg an ex-Minister of Agriculture sentenced tocommunity work in public kitchen)

Probation officers positive experiences were related totheir satisfaction with the small numbers of probationers whobreached orders the very positive feedback from probation-ers who were sent to perform community work and fromtheir employers and the successful collaborations with stateand local firms and organisations as well as NGOs in offeringcommunity work For example one offenders employer saidHe was extremely hard-working and a good worker If I couldI would immediately offer him a permanent job Whatever Igave him to do he would do it immediately without com-plaining He was really an ideal worker (Kokoruš 2013 p 13)Negative probation officers experiences were related to case--overload shortages of probation officers and official cars andthe still insufficient numbers of contracts with firms to offercommunity work (eg Bašić 2012 Rosić Zrinski 2012)

Types of probation work out of 266 articles

Community work 515Protective supervision 335Home imprisonment 301Electronic monitoring 301Risk assessment 113Alcohol treatment 68Victims support 49Conditional sentence 41Opinions to the courts 38Psychosocial treatment 30Police curfew 19Individual treatment plan 19Drug testing 15

In almost a third of the newspaper articles (318) theprobation work type was not mentioned In the rest of theanalysed articles the biggest attention was given to commu-nity work and protective supervision (Table 5) which corre-sponds to the high prevalence of community work orders thatthe Service currently supervises (2061 out of a total of 3000491

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TABLE 5Types of probationwork and tasksmentioned

cases Špero 2015) Community work was positively present-ed in the media particularly that which benefited the localcommunity Thus community work was usually describedas an effective response to probationers numerous problems anopportunity for societal redemption valuable work experience thatprobationers had rarely or never had before having more positiveeffect than prison increasing probationers dignity and a sentencethat did not isolate them from their communities and families Al-most a third of the analysed newspaper articles talked abouthome imprisonment and electronic bracelets even thoughthese types of supervision do not exist in probation practicein Croatia Thus the probation service was frequently criti-cised for the never-fulfilled promise to introduce electronicbracelets changes in Ministers (of Justice) disenabled the useof electronic monitoring because no one wanted to make thedecision about it hellipcountries in the region adopted the mo-del of electronic monitoring and used EU sources for it andnow there is no money left for electronic monitoring in the(Croatian) national budget (Borovac amp Zrinjski 2013 p 25)

General tone out of 390 articles

Positive 481Negative 247Negative and positive 10Neutral (only facts) 75Cannot be decided 07

Generally news articles that referred to probation wereconsidered positive in tone (Table 6) which is similar to themedias portrayal of probation in Ireland (Maguire amp Carr2013) but in contrast to the medias prevailing negative toneon probation in England (Fitzgibbon 2012) and Belgium (Bau-wens amp Mair 2012) It was interesting that when probation inCroatia was the main topic of the article the tone was deemedpositive in most cases (508) but when probation was thesecondary topic the articles tones were mostly deemed to benegative (655) Articles on the topics of probation predic-tions and expectations and probation system developmentwere more often deemed positive Positive portrayals of pro-bation were related to its promotion at both the individual(probationer) and societal levels but mostly in comparisonwith the negative aspects of the prison system The oppositewas found however for articles about laws and regulationsand about experiences ndash these articles were more often cate-gorised as negative in tone The negative aspects of the news-paper coverage critiqued the probation systems inadequatefunctioning in practice and much less often referred to the

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TABLE 6General attitudetowards probation innews articles

perceived leniency of probation orders Some of the critiqueswere The probation office has only one secretary phone andfax ndash probation is a dead letter (Cmok 2011 p 16) The prac-tice of alternative sanctions is rare so the law (on probation)is non-existent (Jakubin 2011 p 3) The purpose of the pro-bation law is just to rebalance the national budget Existingmeasures are already embedded in the law so it is hypocrisyto offer the same measure under a different name (Raić Kne-žević 2009 p 3) The course of probations development inCroatia was also criticised by EU politicians because of theinadequate storage of computers software delays shortagesof official cars and probation officers lack of space for proba-tion officers large numbers of unsolved cases decreased pro-bation sentencing because of case overload the failure to in-troduce electronic monitoring and the lack of furniture inprobation offices caused by the failure of two public procurementtenders (Raić Knežević 2011 p 4)

Only between one-fifth and one-quarter of the newspa-per articles included a description of cooperation with otherinstitutions andor professionals (256) or supervisionmechanisms and technologies (221) Typical descriptionsincluded collaborations with local firms and NGOs with whomthe Probation Service had signed contracts to provide com-munity work for offenders It was somewhat surprising thatcollaboration with other organisations and professionals (egjudges police local communities or social workers) was soscarcely mentioned in the media given that probation is not aclosed system guided by autonomous values but tends to bedeveloped or accomplished with other agencies and profes-sionals Especially in recent years the emphasis on the impor-tance of partnerships with other agencies and professionalshas increased (eg Maloić amp Rajić 2012 Rumgay 2007)

Journalists Ministers of Justice politicians and profes-sionals from the Probation Service and other politicians werethe actors who most frequently expressed their opinions ondifferent aspects of probation service6 (Table 7)

Journalists attitudes towards probation were mainly po-sitive (Table 7) especially in describing the development ofthe probation system predictions and expectations proba-tion duties and officers and offenders experiences But it isnot clear whether this was the result of probation workerscultivating local media contacts and succeeding in getting outgood news (Mawby amp Worrall 2011 p 18) ndash thereby pro-moting probation ndash or because they were members of teamsof professional journalists and public relations professionalswho were hired by the Ministry of Justice to publicly promoteprobation or whether they were expressing their genuine pro-fessional opinions Journalists main critiques were pointed493

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towards the failure of developing a fully functional probationservice over a period exceeding four years They were espe-cially critical of the announced introduction of electronic mo-nitoring that had never started (and eg spent 12 million Eurofrom European funds on that project) and the lack of adequateresources reassurance for making probation offices functional(eg insufficient number of official cars probation officers con-tracts with institutions that will enable community work)

Attitudenegative

Actors negative and positive positive neutral Total

Journalists 17 14 57 6 95 252Ministers of Justice 1 1 83 4 90 239Probation Service(Sector for Probation) 2 0 40 2 44 117Politicians 14 1 13 1 29 77Probation officers 0 0 14 1 15 4Offenders 0 0 14 0 14 37Lawyers 6 1 6 0 13 34Firms 0 0 13 0 13 34Others 2 0 9 1 13 34Judges 1 4 6 1 12 32Scientists 0 0 12 0 12 32NGO 0 0 10 0 10 27Prison managers 2 2 4 0 9 24Foreign politicians 0 1 3 0 4 11Other professionals (psychiatristspolice officers social workers) 0 0 2 0 3 08Government 0 0 1 0 1 03

Total 45 24 287 16 377 100 119 64 761 42

It is indicative that the main spokesmen for probationaside from journalists were not probation officers themselvesbut politicians Ministers of Justice and politicians more fre-quently expressed opinions on probation laws and regula-tions and on predictions and expectations while the Pro-bation Service mainly discussed the development of the pro-bation system The attitudes expressed by the Ministers ofJustice the professionals from the Probation Service proba-tion officers and probationers towards different aspects ofprobation were almost all positive Politicians expressed posi-tive opinions on probation less frequently but their negativeopinions on probation were mainly the result of the critiquedirected towards their political opponents who were sup-porting probation For example the Croatian Minister of theInterior voted against amendments of the Law on Probation

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TABLE 7Main actors in news-paper articles andvalence of theirattitude towardsprobation

in order to protect police officers from getting more workand another politician commented that a similar law on pro-bation had already existed in Croatia for many years but wasnever put into practice due to a lack of financial means (F L2012)

Article topic Year ()2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Regulations and legislation 466 173 117 467 84Expectations from probation 663 427 412 272 254Employment 5 213 117 65 0System development 168 346 235 174 127Probation work tasks 198 334 392 304 24Experiences 5 27 176 272 591

Total media coverage per year 259 192 131 236 182Positive article tone 326 209 91 150 225Negative article tone 69 34 31 448 138

There are some variations in the number of articles onprobation over time but overall coverage within the newspa-pers did not increase (Table 8) Over the period of five yearsprobation was a somewhat more frequent theme in 2009 and2012 In 2011 and 2012 criticism of probation became some-what more pronounced most likely because supporters ofthe probation service were using the media to portray a posi-tive image of the service in the beginning but then dis-appointment when it finally came to putting words into ac-tions produced considerable negative criticism of probationin the media in the later years However during 2013 whenall probation offices became fully functional there were alsoa number of government initiatives (eg distribution of pro-motion leaflets and brochures presentations in the regionaloffices and in the media) aimed at increasing public knowl-edge on probation and providing more accurate and com-plete information about probation to the public (Ministry ofJustice 2014) and media portrayal of probation moved in thedirection of story-telling about probationers personal experi-ences Thus it seemed that those efforts stopped the trend ofnegative reporting about the probation system

Also it was interesting to observe how the focus of thenewspaper articles changed over time (see Table 8) Whileinterest in writing about predictions and expectations signifi-cantly declined over years interest in writing about personalexperiences increased Also the print media in Croatia wererecently more focused on examples of successful collabora-tion between the probation service and local firms and NGOsin carrying out community work Thus there were several495

TABLE 8General tone of thenewspaper articlestowards probationand theme coverageper year

examples of probationers success stories and how society thelocal community and the individual benefited from the workthe offenders had done Such approaches help probation offi-cers in their work becoming more understood by the generalpublic and less ignored or distorted by the media (Mawby ampWorrall 2011)

STUDY LIMITATIONSAlthough this type of analysis has important advantages suchas easy replication and its usefulness in documenting trendsover time several important limitations of this study shouldbe acknowledged In this study the analysis was limited bythe availability of newspaper articles and due to time-con-suming analysis it captured a small sample of the media con-tent Also it should be noted that the observed trends in themedia coverage of probation may not be an accurate reflec-tion of reality (eg more interestingpublicised events receivemore coverage than less interesting ones and under the influ-ence of the presence of other important (inter)national politi-cal and social events at the time) Also this descriptive methodmay not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pat-tern in media coverage and qualitative content analysis reliesat least partially on researcher readings and interpretationof media texts (eg subjectivity of interpretation of some vari-ables such as the tone of the article) Thus results collected inthis study as well as suggested interpretations should be readwith these limitations in mind In order to increase the relia-bility and validity as well as the generalisability of results infurther studies this method should be combined with otherdata sources and methods (eg interviews and observations)the data should be collected on larger samples over a longertime period Also media coverage of one issue should be com-pared to media coverage of similar issues in a particular medi-um and time-period Due to greater influence of virtual infor-mation it is recommended also to analyse the coverage ofissues on probation on different internet web-sites portalsand forums

CONCLUDING REMARKSThe Croatian probation service has a low level of visibility inCroatian society (Pilars barometer of Croatian society 2014)and as probation services in other jurisdictions relatively lowvisibility in the printed media (eg UK Ireland Belgium)Overall there is an impression that Croatian media were notinterested in probation and made inaccurate assumptions aboutthe (higher) level of knowledge on probation held by thetarget audience Probation themes were presented in rela-

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tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

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lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

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REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

attitudes (Butter Hermanns amp Menger 2013) Thus when try-ing to isolate and estimate the influence of media representa-tion on the public it is very important not to observe crime inthe media as a unitary phenomenon but to take into accountthe diversity among news media organisations and formatsthe content of the news and audience heterogeneity (Doyle2006)

MEDIA PORTRAYAL OF PROBATION SERVICESProbation is an area of the criminal justice system that hashad limited media exposure (Phillips 2014) and not surpris-ingly there is relatively little research done on it The mostcommon approach employed in research to date is contentanalysis of a selection of stories on probation that appear inprinted media over a certain time period in order to examinehow media representation of probation and public attitudes to-wards probation have changed over time (eg Maruna 2007Hayes 2013 Maguire amp Carr 2013) Marunas (2007) analysisshowed that probation received positive media coverage un-til the 1970s but that because of policy changes and increasedpolitical rhetoric around crime in recent years probation hasprimarily been the subject of attention in the context of pub-licised failures Similarly Teagues (2002 p 35) analysis ofnewspaper stories related to probation showed that commu-nity sentencing appears to be virtually invisible and hardlyworth a serious discussion An analysis by Hayes (2013) of 2000newspaper articles published between 2003 and 2011 showedthat community punishment is accepted by English newspa-pers as part of the criminal justice system although there areconflicting opinions as to what role these penalties shouldplay within that system (p 34) Maguire and Carrs (2013)study of 542 newspaper articles over an 11-year period foundthat the majority of news stories about probation were eitherneutral or positive but noted a recent shift towards a morenegative portrayal of probation that were a reflection of re-cent changes in the shape of penal-probation boundaries inIreland

The overall conclusion of previous research on the mediaportrayal of probation is that probation has not received muchmedia attention particularly in comparison to other criminaljustice institutions (eg prisons the police courts) (eg Ma-runa amp King 2008 Phillips 2014) that probation had a mar-ginal position (Mason 2006) and it was often portrayed as in-ferior to incarceration (Hayes 2013) Probations image prob-lem (Bauwens amp Mair 2012) could be partly a product of itsambiguous status as a combination of institutionalisation andcommunity rehabilitation questionable appropriateness andor legitimacy the fact that probation does not provide the483

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same volume of information of interest to the public as othercriminal justice topics and may not have reason to dissemi-nate as much information to the public as eg the police butit could also be related to its portrayal in the media (Maguireamp Carr 2013 Roberts amp Hough 2005) Probation needs to usethe media to increase understanding and support of its workas regards community sanctions ignorance is a fundamentalproblem (McNeill 2009) which may lead to the reemergenceof popular punitive measures and to demands for more ex-pressive and emotive forms of punishment (Bauwens amp Mair2012)

PROBATION SERVICE IN CROATIAThe Croatian Probation Service is a state service financed bythe government and under the jurisdiction of the Ministry ofJustice It provides interventions for adult offenders only Thefirst Probation Act in Croatia was enacted in 2009 It definesthe purpose of probation work as protection of the commu-nity from an offenders offending re-socialisation and re-inte-gration of offenders in the community and provision of sup-port to victims of crime their families and families of offend-ers (Špero 2015 p 134) The first probation office out of 11opened in 2011 In 2013 after a wider reform of criminal laws(sanctions and procedures) the professional Probation Ser-vice became fully functional (Špero 2015) Since the Servicestarted with work the caseload has constantly been increas-ing For example in 2013 the Service received 3304 new casesand 3618 new cases in 2014 (Špero 2015)

Croatian probation officers are civil servants performingprobation tasks through the entire criminal process from pre-trial to post-release supervision They supervise the enforce-ment of obligations ordered by the public prosecutor and havea role in prison sentence management through the enforce-ment of protective supervision during conditional releasefrom prison The main probation officers activities and tasksinclude delivering reports to the authorities assessing theoffenders risk andor suitability for imposed alternative sanc-tions organising and supervising the enforcement of im-posed sanctions drafting a special individualised treatmentprogramme for offenders

STUDY GOAL AND AIMSThe main goal of this study was to investigate the public imageof probation in Croatia to show what the public is allowed toknow about the implementation of probation service and itsrelations to other criminal justice institutions The particularaims were (1) to investigate what themes emerged in the

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medias portrayal of probation and who were probations keyadvocates and (2) to analyse whether there was uniform pre-sentation of probation in the media over time

Since the establishment of probation and the enactmentof new legislation related to probation and community sanc-tions was an important precondition for Croatias joining theEuropean Union (EU) in 2013 (Šimpraga Maloić amp Ricijaš2014) it was hypothesised (a) that probation legislation regu-lations and expectations will be the main topics in the media(b) that at the beginning of Service development more posi-tive information about it will be presented in the media espe-cially by politicians (c) that one of the common themes with-in the medias portrayal will be one of naivety about for ex-ample probations potential for reducing the prison popula-tion (d) that with time issues regarding probation will be-come more politicised and criticised in the media due to ob-stacles the probation service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

This topic is important to explore because there is no avail-able information on how probation is viewed by the public oreven by certain groups of the public (eg politicians) andbecause narratives presented in the media especially aboutthe issues that people have little direct experience with (suchas probation) can either lower or boost confidence in thecriminal justice system in general and probation service inparticular Lower confidence can make the public become lessinclined towards favouring rehabilitative approaches andprone to undervaluing probation work stigmatising and dis-criminating against offenders under supervision and makingoffenders resocialisation even more difficult New insights onmedia representation of probation service could also be usedby the professionals and politicians to develop more efficientpublic relations strategies in the promotion of probation servicehelping to avoid punitive attitudes and rigorous political res-ponses as the dominant means of increasing public security

METHODTo provide the greatest possible representation of the topic onprobation and increase the validity all news articles from Cro-atias national and local newspapers and magazines were in-cluded in the study (Macnamara 2005) Newspaper articleswere analysed since they are generally more accessible andlead to better recall than other news sources (eg TV inter-net) (Furnham Gunter amp Green 1990) and because main-stream newspapers have a more powerful influence on peo-ples perceptions of public policies and political issues thandoes television news (eg Brians amp Wattenberg 1996) News-485

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paper articles were located and collected using a press clip-ping agencys services because this approach provides fastand full access to all newspaper articles The first year of thisstudy 2009 coincided with the year the Law on Probationwas enacted and the Directorate for Criminal Law and Pro-bation was established in Croatia The end year of analysis2013 coincided with the wider reform of criminal laws inCroatia and probation service becoming fully functional

The unit of analysis was one newspaper article Over theperiod in question probation was mentioned in 533 nationaland local newspaper and magazine articles Out of that 390news articles were included in the analysis since the rest didnot refer to the probation service or because they were iden-tified as complete duplicates of other articles

A primary researcher coded all sampled news articlesHowever to ensure reliability of the study findings a sub-sampleof 15 randomly selected news articles was coded by a sec-ond coder Both coders were trained and each coder codedthe articles independently Intercoder reliability proved to besatisfying

To operationalise the patterns and themes that emergedthroughout the articles a structured closed-ended categorisa-tion matrix was developed The coding list consisted of thelist of variables to be examined general technical informationabout the news article main article theme different actorsexperiences with and attitudes to probation probation dutiesand instrumentstechnologies expectations from probationcollaboration between probation service and other institu-tions Each article was analysed based on the presenceab-sence of the categories in the coding list assessed for overallcontent themes and tone (positive neutral-factual negative)The frequencies of codes and classifications of informationwere calculated After initial code identification codes werematched up and collated with data extracts that demonstratethat code The different codes were grouped into categoriesand all the relevant coded data extracts within the identifiedcategories were collated Categories were then reviewed refinedand consequently organised into meaningful theme groupsThe stories were repeatedly read in order to search for mean-ings and patterns and the stories about probation were after-wards subsequently analysed using a thematic approach(Braun amp Clarke 2006) Recurring themes and patterns of res-ponse that emerged were analysed and reported in the con-text of the research questions that allowed for exploring themeanings and emphases in stories about probation (Michael-son amp Griffin 2005)

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONIn Croatia over the 5-year period most of the articles on pro-bation were published in daily newspapers articles aboutprobation were generally short probation was not generallythe main story topic probation-related headlines rarely ap-peared on newspaper cover pages and issues on probationwere mainly superficially discussed (Table 1)

Variables Categories within variables ()

Type of the daily newspapers 825newspaper weekly 116

other 36monthly 23

Length of 25 of page or less 278the article gt 1 page 249

75 of page 14950 of page 13130 of page 1111 page 82

Type of short report 424the article news 401

interview 88review 75column 13

Size of the title medium 403big 308headline 147small 134no title 08

Probation topic sporadic topic 554main topic 385equally important as other topic 62

Information superficial (just description) 810elaboration in-depth analysis 190

Altogether it can be argued that probation in Croatia hasrelatively low media visibility However it is not knownwhether other criminal justice sanctions (eg prison sen-tences) are more or less present in the media than probationsentences because there has yet been no comparative analy-sis (Maguire amp Carr 2013) Owing to different methodologiestraditions and time frames it is difficult to compare proba-tions media visibility with existing analyses of media cover-age on probation in other jurisdictions (eg Bauwens amp Mair2012) Moreover because more serious andor unusual offen-ces highly publicised cases and scandals are most likely to earn487

TABLE 1Descriptiveinformation onnewspaper articles onprobation ()

more media coverage (Greer amp Reiner 2012) it is perhaps notdetrimental for probation to have such low visibility

In three-quarters of the newspaper articles the term pro-bation was not explained (753) which is particularly inter-esting given that the 2014 data showed that 873 of theCroatian public did not know what the term meant2 (Pilarsbarometer of Croatian society 2014) When existing the defi-nition of probation was mostly very short (eg system of su-pervised freedom system of conditional freedom or system of sanctionexecution out of prison) Also only a quarter or less than a quar-ter of the news articles included a description of some per-sonal experience with probation (203) collaboration of pro-bation service with other institutions (256) and probationsmechanisms and instruments (221)

Themes out of 390 articles

Legislation 223Prediction for and expectations from probation 197Experiences with probation 169Probation officers duties 159Probation systems development(eg opening of new regional offices) 131Employment in the probation service 69Other topics 28International examples 18Victims and witness support 05

As expected probation legislation regulations and ex-pectations for the service were the two main topics in the me-dia (Table 2) because between 2009 and 2013 Croatian proba-tion service and probation policy was especially influencedby the politicisation of criminal justice policy as a result ofnecessary changes in Croatias judiciary and laws that wereimposed by the EU and its regulations in the process of Cro-atias joining the EU There were also personnel changes inthe Ministry of Justice and Probation Service following par-liamentary elections in 2011 In Croatia between 2009 and 2013three Minister of Justice positions changed three heads of theProbation Service positions changed and two probation lawschanged (Official Gazette 1532009 1432012) Even more pro-bations official titles also changed three times over this 5-year-period victims and witnesses support was includedand then excluded from the official title which clearly indi-cate the difficulties in articulating the public image of proba-tion In 2009 the official probation service title was Directoratefor Probation in 2010 it changed its name to the Directorate forProbation and Victims and Witnesses Support and in 2012 to theSector for Probation Similarly in the Republic of Ireland dur-

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TABLE 2Dominant themes inthe newspaper articleson probation

ing the rebranding of probation in 2006 the word welfarewas removed from its official title (Maguire amp Carr 2013)

Expectation of times mentioned in 390 articles

Fewer people in prison 459Fewer expenses 210Other expectations 167Resocialization 128Less crime 79More work places 64Joining the EU 64More human system 59Better social security 36More quality sanctions 33System unload 31Victims support 26Failure 26More work for police 18Easier job for judges 13Offenders monitoring 13Greater expenses 10Greater corruption 08Keep family intact 05Criminals will walk free 05More work for POs 05Less biased judges 03Harder work for judges 03

Probation service establishment was accompanied withpositive predictions and expectations in the media (Table 3)Prisons were obviously used as benchmarks in emphasisingthe Croatian probation services benefits3 similarly to otherjurisdictions eg Ireland (Maguire amp Carr 2013) Probationwas glorified in the media as the best (and only) solution forproblems facing the prison system (eg overcrowding inhu-manity ineffectiveness expense) As such the probation rhetoricin almost half of the articles emerged as fewer people in pris-ons (Table 3) However most of the analysed press failed toexplore the underlying reasons for prison overcrowding oroffer any deeper elaboration of penal policies whether pris-ons or probation

Probation was also presented as the solution for over-coming problems identified by European politicians such ashuman rights violations in prisons and out-of-date penal po-licies The press intensively confronted the Croatian publicwith the fact that the prison system was not particularly effec-tive in reducing recidivism that poor prison conditions wereharmful to health and safety and that there was an urgentneed for the humanitarian approach of probation (see Che-489

TABLE 3Expectations fromprobation

ung 1988) Thus probation was presented as not only aimingat public protection but also at the social inclusion of offend-ers their resocialisation rehabilitation and reintegration intosociety (Bauwens 2011) Probations transformative potentialhumanitarian side of the penal and judicial system and soci-etal redemption was especially stressed

The economic benefits of probation versus prison werealso emphasised The newspaper articles argued that proba-tion would be less expensive (than prison)4 and produce morework places These repeated claims of reduced expenses overthe 5-year period surely safeguarded probation from criticismto a certain degree (see Fitzgibbon 2012)

Among the negative predictions or expectations for pro-bation the most commonly mentioned was that offering pro-bation in Croatia was merely a concession to the EU that pro-bation was a failure and that it would produce even morework for police and result in higher expenses (Table 3) Inaddition probation was seen as a soft option frequently equat-ed with escaping or avoiding prison sentences and with free-dom (see Hayes 2013 Teague 2002)

Actor Number of articles positive experience

Offender 37 872Probation officer 12 50Firm NGO 9 100Head of probation office 6 50Judge 6 667Offenders family 3 100Police officer 2 100Victim 1 100Witness 1 100Social worker 1 100

Only one-fifth of the newspaper articles included a des-cription of some aspect of personal experience with probation(203) and as expected due to the promotion of the newnational service the majority of the newspaper articles des-cribed positive experiences (Table 4) Offenders experiencesprevailed while experiences of probation officers and othersinvolved in probation were rarely described It was interest-ing that offenders experiences were described mainly as pos-itive5 whereas this was the case for only 50 of the probationofficers experiences Offenders positive experiences mostlyreferred to their experiences with community work such asP Č sentenced to 730 hours of community work in a publickitchen said This is for me a type of redemption to soci-etyhellipThey did not think I would try as hard as I did I like ithere and I am even thinking of continuing volunteering here

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TABLE 4Actors whoseexperiences weredescribed

in the public kitchen in the future from time to time after Iserve this sentence (Ciglenečki 2013 p 5) However in articlesprobationers were never referred to as clients but always asoffenders and their offences were usually over-emphasisedadding to their dangerousness and dysfunctional personali-ties Due to the dominance of celebrity culture (Greer 2007)it was not surprising that Croatian journalists were eager touse politicians and celebrities who were sentenced to com-munity work as (anti)models of probation on the newspapercover pages (eg an ex-Minister of Agriculture sentenced tocommunity work in public kitchen)

Probation officers positive experiences were related totheir satisfaction with the small numbers of probationers whobreached orders the very positive feedback from probation-ers who were sent to perform community work and fromtheir employers and the successful collaborations with stateand local firms and organisations as well as NGOs in offeringcommunity work For example one offenders employer saidHe was extremely hard-working and a good worker If I couldI would immediately offer him a permanent job Whatever Igave him to do he would do it immediately without com-plaining He was really an ideal worker (Kokoruš 2013 p 13)Negative probation officers experiences were related to case--overload shortages of probation officers and official cars andthe still insufficient numbers of contracts with firms to offercommunity work (eg Bašić 2012 Rosić Zrinski 2012)

Types of probation work out of 266 articles

Community work 515Protective supervision 335Home imprisonment 301Electronic monitoring 301Risk assessment 113Alcohol treatment 68Victims support 49Conditional sentence 41Opinions to the courts 38Psychosocial treatment 30Police curfew 19Individual treatment plan 19Drug testing 15

In almost a third of the newspaper articles (318) theprobation work type was not mentioned In the rest of theanalysed articles the biggest attention was given to commu-nity work and protective supervision (Table 5) which corre-sponds to the high prevalence of community work orders thatthe Service currently supervises (2061 out of a total of 3000491

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TABLE 5Types of probationwork and tasksmentioned

cases Špero 2015) Community work was positively present-ed in the media particularly that which benefited the localcommunity Thus community work was usually describedas an effective response to probationers numerous problems anopportunity for societal redemption valuable work experience thatprobationers had rarely or never had before having more positiveeffect than prison increasing probationers dignity and a sentencethat did not isolate them from their communities and families Al-most a third of the analysed newspaper articles talked abouthome imprisonment and electronic bracelets even thoughthese types of supervision do not exist in probation practicein Croatia Thus the probation service was frequently criti-cised for the never-fulfilled promise to introduce electronicbracelets changes in Ministers (of Justice) disenabled the useof electronic monitoring because no one wanted to make thedecision about it hellipcountries in the region adopted the mo-del of electronic monitoring and used EU sources for it andnow there is no money left for electronic monitoring in the(Croatian) national budget (Borovac amp Zrinjski 2013 p 25)

General tone out of 390 articles

Positive 481Negative 247Negative and positive 10Neutral (only facts) 75Cannot be decided 07

Generally news articles that referred to probation wereconsidered positive in tone (Table 6) which is similar to themedias portrayal of probation in Ireland (Maguire amp Carr2013) but in contrast to the medias prevailing negative toneon probation in England (Fitzgibbon 2012) and Belgium (Bau-wens amp Mair 2012) It was interesting that when probation inCroatia was the main topic of the article the tone was deemedpositive in most cases (508) but when probation was thesecondary topic the articles tones were mostly deemed to benegative (655) Articles on the topics of probation predic-tions and expectations and probation system developmentwere more often deemed positive Positive portrayals of pro-bation were related to its promotion at both the individual(probationer) and societal levels but mostly in comparisonwith the negative aspects of the prison system The oppositewas found however for articles about laws and regulationsand about experiences ndash these articles were more often cate-gorised as negative in tone The negative aspects of the news-paper coverage critiqued the probation systems inadequatefunctioning in practice and much less often referred to the

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TABLE 6General attitudetowards probation innews articles

perceived leniency of probation orders Some of the critiqueswere The probation office has only one secretary phone andfax ndash probation is a dead letter (Cmok 2011 p 16) The prac-tice of alternative sanctions is rare so the law (on probation)is non-existent (Jakubin 2011 p 3) The purpose of the pro-bation law is just to rebalance the national budget Existingmeasures are already embedded in the law so it is hypocrisyto offer the same measure under a different name (Raić Kne-žević 2009 p 3) The course of probations development inCroatia was also criticised by EU politicians because of theinadequate storage of computers software delays shortagesof official cars and probation officers lack of space for proba-tion officers large numbers of unsolved cases decreased pro-bation sentencing because of case overload the failure to in-troduce electronic monitoring and the lack of furniture inprobation offices caused by the failure of two public procurementtenders (Raić Knežević 2011 p 4)

Only between one-fifth and one-quarter of the newspa-per articles included a description of cooperation with otherinstitutions andor professionals (256) or supervisionmechanisms and technologies (221) Typical descriptionsincluded collaborations with local firms and NGOs with whomthe Probation Service had signed contracts to provide com-munity work for offenders It was somewhat surprising thatcollaboration with other organisations and professionals (egjudges police local communities or social workers) was soscarcely mentioned in the media given that probation is not aclosed system guided by autonomous values but tends to bedeveloped or accomplished with other agencies and profes-sionals Especially in recent years the emphasis on the impor-tance of partnerships with other agencies and professionalshas increased (eg Maloić amp Rajić 2012 Rumgay 2007)

Journalists Ministers of Justice politicians and profes-sionals from the Probation Service and other politicians werethe actors who most frequently expressed their opinions ondifferent aspects of probation service6 (Table 7)

Journalists attitudes towards probation were mainly po-sitive (Table 7) especially in describing the development ofthe probation system predictions and expectations proba-tion duties and officers and offenders experiences But it isnot clear whether this was the result of probation workerscultivating local media contacts and succeeding in getting outgood news (Mawby amp Worrall 2011 p 18) ndash thereby pro-moting probation ndash or because they were members of teamsof professional journalists and public relations professionalswho were hired by the Ministry of Justice to publicly promoteprobation or whether they were expressing their genuine pro-fessional opinions Journalists main critiques were pointed493

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towards the failure of developing a fully functional probationservice over a period exceeding four years They were espe-cially critical of the announced introduction of electronic mo-nitoring that had never started (and eg spent 12 million Eurofrom European funds on that project) and the lack of adequateresources reassurance for making probation offices functional(eg insufficient number of official cars probation officers con-tracts with institutions that will enable community work)

Attitudenegative

Actors negative and positive positive neutral Total

Journalists 17 14 57 6 95 252Ministers of Justice 1 1 83 4 90 239Probation Service(Sector for Probation) 2 0 40 2 44 117Politicians 14 1 13 1 29 77Probation officers 0 0 14 1 15 4Offenders 0 0 14 0 14 37Lawyers 6 1 6 0 13 34Firms 0 0 13 0 13 34Others 2 0 9 1 13 34Judges 1 4 6 1 12 32Scientists 0 0 12 0 12 32NGO 0 0 10 0 10 27Prison managers 2 2 4 0 9 24Foreign politicians 0 1 3 0 4 11Other professionals (psychiatristspolice officers social workers) 0 0 2 0 3 08Government 0 0 1 0 1 03

Total 45 24 287 16 377 100 119 64 761 42

It is indicative that the main spokesmen for probationaside from journalists were not probation officers themselvesbut politicians Ministers of Justice and politicians more fre-quently expressed opinions on probation laws and regula-tions and on predictions and expectations while the Pro-bation Service mainly discussed the development of the pro-bation system The attitudes expressed by the Ministers ofJustice the professionals from the Probation Service proba-tion officers and probationers towards different aspects ofprobation were almost all positive Politicians expressed posi-tive opinions on probation less frequently but their negativeopinions on probation were mainly the result of the critiquedirected towards their political opponents who were sup-porting probation For example the Croatian Minister of theInterior voted against amendments of the Law on Probation

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TABLE 7Main actors in news-paper articles andvalence of theirattitude towardsprobation

in order to protect police officers from getting more workand another politician commented that a similar law on pro-bation had already existed in Croatia for many years but wasnever put into practice due to a lack of financial means (F L2012)

Article topic Year ()2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Regulations and legislation 466 173 117 467 84Expectations from probation 663 427 412 272 254Employment 5 213 117 65 0System development 168 346 235 174 127Probation work tasks 198 334 392 304 24Experiences 5 27 176 272 591

Total media coverage per year 259 192 131 236 182Positive article tone 326 209 91 150 225Negative article tone 69 34 31 448 138

There are some variations in the number of articles onprobation over time but overall coverage within the newspa-pers did not increase (Table 8) Over the period of five yearsprobation was a somewhat more frequent theme in 2009 and2012 In 2011 and 2012 criticism of probation became some-what more pronounced most likely because supporters ofthe probation service were using the media to portray a posi-tive image of the service in the beginning but then dis-appointment when it finally came to putting words into ac-tions produced considerable negative criticism of probationin the media in the later years However during 2013 whenall probation offices became fully functional there were alsoa number of government initiatives (eg distribution of pro-motion leaflets and brochures presentations in the regionaloffices and in the media) aimed at increasing public knowl-edge on probation and providing more accurate and com-plete information about probation to the public (Ministry ofJustice 2014) and media portrayal of probation moved in thedirection of story-telling about probationers personal experi-ences Thus it seemed that those efforts stopped the trend ofnegative reporting about the probation system

Also it was interesting to observe how the focus of thenewspaper articles changed over time (see Table 8) Whileinterest in writing about predictions and expectations signifi-cantly declined over years interest in writing about personalexperiences increased Also the print media in Croatia wererecently more focused on examples of successful collabora-tion between the probation service and local firms and NGOsin carrying out community work Thus there were several495

TABLE 8General tone of thenewspaper articlestowards probationand theme coverageper year

examples of probationers success stories and how society thelocal community and the individual benefited from the workthe offenders had done Such approaches help probation offi-cers in their work becoming more understood by the generalpublic and less ignored or distorted by the media (Mawby ampWorrall 2011)

STUDY LIMITATIONSAlthough this type of analysis has important advantages suchas easy replication and its usefulness in documenting trendsover time several important limitations of this study shouldbe acknowledged In this study the analysis was limited bythe availability of newspaper articles and due to time-con-suming analysis it captured a small sample of the media con-tent Also it should be noted that the observed trends in themedia coverage of probation may not be an accurate reflec-tion of reality (eg more interestingpublicised events receivemore coverage than less interesting ones and under the influ-ence of the presence of other important (inter)national politi-cal and social events at the time) Also this descriptive methodmay not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pat-tern in media coverage and qualitative content analysis reliesat least partially on researcher readings and interpretationof media texts (eg subjectivity of interpretation of some vari-ables such as the tone of the article) Thus results collected inthis study as well as suggested interpretations should be readwith these limitations in mind In order to increase the relia-bility and validity as well as the generalisability of results infurther studies this method should be combined with otherdata sources and methods (eg interviews and observations)the data should be collected on larger samples over a longertime period Also media coverage of one issue should be com-pared to media coverage of similar issues in a particular medi-um and time-period Due to greater influence of virtual infor-mation it is recommended also to analyse the coverage ofissues on probation on different internet web-sites portalsand forums

CONCLUDING REMARKSThe Croatian probation service has a low level of visibility inCroatian society (Pilars barometer of Croatian society 2014)and as probation services in other jurisdictions relatively lowvisibility in the printed media (eg UK Ireland Belgium)Overall there is an impression that Croatian media were notinterested in probation and made inaccurate assumptions aboutthe (higher) level of knowledge on probation held by thetarget audience Probation themes were presented in rela-

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tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

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lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

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REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

same volume of information of interest to the public as othercriminal justice topics and may not have reason to dissemi-nate as much information to the public as eg the police butit could also be related to its portrayal in the media (Maguireamp Carr 2013 Roberts amp Hough 2005) Probation needs to usethe media to increase understanding and support of its workas regards community sanctions ignorance is a fundamentalproblem (McNeill 2009) which may lead to the reemergenceof popular punitive measures and to demands for more ex-pressive and emotive forms of punishment (Bauwens amp Mair2012)

PROBATION SERVICE IN CROATIAThe Croatian Probation Service is a state service financed bythe government and under the jurisdiction of the Ministry ofJustice It provides interventions for adult offenders only Thefirst Probation Act in Croatia was enacted in 2009 It definesthe purpose of probation work as protection of the commu-nity from an offenders offending re-socialisation and re-inte-gration of offenders in the community and provision of sup-port to victims of crime their families and families of offend-ers (Špero 2015 p 134) The first probation office out of 11opened in 2011 In 2013 after a wider reform of criminal laws(sanctions and procedures) the professional Probation Ser-vice became fully functional (Špero 2015) Since the Servicestarted with work the caseload has constantly been increas-ing For example in 2013 the Service received 3304 new casesand 3618 new cases in 2014 (Špero 2015)

Croatian probation officers are civil servants performingprobation tasks through the entire criminal process from pre-trial to post-release supervision They supervise the enforce-ment of obligations ordered by the public prosecutor and havea role in prison sentence management through the enforce-ment of protective supervision during conditional releasefrom prison The main probation officers activities and tasksinclude delivering reports to the authorities assessing theoffenders risk andor suitability for imposed alternative sanc-tions organising and supervising the enforcement of im-posed sanctions drafting a special individualised treatmentprogramme for offenders

STUDY GOAL AND AIMSThe main goal of this study was to investigate the public imageof probation in Croatia to show what the public is allowed toknow about the implementation of probation service and itsrelations to other criminal justice institutions The particularaims were (1) to investigate what themes emerged in the

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medias portrayal of probation and who were probations keyadvocates and (2) to analyse whether there was uniform pre-sentation of probation in the media over time

Since the establishment of probation and the enactmentof new legislation related to probation and community sanc-tions was an important precondition for Croatias joining theEuropean Union (EU) in 2013 (Šimpraga Maloić amp Ricijaš2014) it was hypothesised (a) that probation legislation regu-lations and expectations will be the main topics in the media(b) that at the beginning of Service development more posi-tive information about it will be presented in the media espe-cially by politicians (c) that one of the common themes with-in the medias portrayal will be one of naivety about for ex-ample probations potential for reducing the prison popula-tion (d) that with time issues regarding probation will be-come more politicised and criticised in the media due to ob-stacles the probation service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

This topic is important to explore because there is no avail-able information on how probation is viewed by the public oreven by certain groups of the public (eg politicians) andbecause narratives presented in the media especially aboutthe issues that people have little direct experience with (suchas probation) can either lower or boost confidence in thecriminal justice system in general and probation service inparticular Lower confidence can make the public become lessinclined towards favouring rehabilitative approaches andprone to undervaluing probation work stigmatising and dis-criminating against offenders under supervision and makingoffenders resocialisation even more difficult New insights onmedia representation of probation service could also be usedby the professionals and politicians to develop more efficientpublic relations strategies in the promotion of probation servicehelping to avoid punitive attitudes and rigorous political res-ponses as the dominant means of increasing public security

METHODTo provide the greatest possible representation of the topic onprobation and increase the validity all news articles from Cro-atias national and local newspapers and magazines were in-cluded in the study (Macnamara 2005) Newspaper articleswere analysed since they are generally more accessible andlead to better recall than other news sources (eg TV inter-net) (Furnham Gunter amp Green 1990) and because main-stream newspapers have a more powerful influence on peo-ples perceptions of public policies and political issues thandoes television news (eg Brians amp Wattenberg 1996) News-485

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paper articles were located and collected using a press clip-ping agencys services because this approach provides fastand full access to all newspaper articles The first year of thisstudy 2009 coincided with the year the Law on Probationwas enacted and the Directorate for Criminal Law and Pro-bation was established in Croatia The end year of analysis2013 coincided with the wider reform of criminal laws inCroatia and probation service becoming fully functional

The unit of analysis was one newspaper article Over theperiod in question probation was mentioned in 533 nationaland local newspaper and magazine articles Out of that 390news articles were included in the analysis since the rest didnot refer to the probation service or because they were iden-tified as complete duplicates of other articles

A primary researcher coded all sampled news articlesHowever to ensure reliability of the study findings a sub-sampleof 15 randomly selected news articles was coded by a sec-ond coder Both coders were trained and each coder codedthe articles independently Intercoder reliability proved to besatisfying

To operationalise the patterns and themes that emergedthroughout the articles a structured closed-ended categorisa-tion matrix was developed The coding list consisted of thelist of variables to be examined general technical informationabout the news article main article theme different actorsexperiences with and attitudes to probation probation dutiesand instrumentstechnologies expectations from probationcollaboration between probation service and other institu-tions Each article was analysed based on the presenceab-sence of the categories in the coding list assessed for overallcontent themes and tone (positive neutral-factual negative)The frequencies of codes and classifications of informationwere calculated After initial code identification codes werematched up and collated with data extracts that demonstratethat code The different codes were grouped into categoriesand all the relevant coded data extracts within the identifiedcategories were collated Categories were then reviewed refinedand consequently organised into meaningful theme groupsThe stories were repeatedly read in order to search for mean-ings and patterns and the stories about probation were after-wards subsequently analysed using a thematic approach(Braun amp Clarke 2006) Recurring themes and patterns of res-ponse that emerged were analysed and reported in the con-text of the research questions that allowed for exploring themeanings and emphases in stories about probation (Michael-son amp Griffin 2005)

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONIn Croatia over the 5-year period most of the articles on pro-bation were published in daily newspapers articles aboutprobation were generally short probation was not generallythe main story topic probation-related headlines rarely ap-peared on newspaper cover pages and issues on probationwere mainly superficially discussed (Table 1)

Variables Categories within variables ()

Type of the daily newspapers 825newspaper weekly 116

other 36monthly 23

Length of 25 of page or less 278the article gt 1 page 249

75 of page 14950 of page 13130 of page 1111 page 82

Type of short report 424the article news 401

interview 88review 75column 13

Size of the title medium 403big 308headline 147small 134no title 08

Probation topic sporadic topic 554main topic 385equally important as other topic 62

Information superficial (just description) 810elaboration in-depth analysis 190

Altogether it can be argued that probation in Croatia hasrelatively low media visibility However it is not knownwhether other criminal justice sanctions (eg prison sen-tences) are more or less present in the media than probationsentences because there has yet been no comparative analy-sis (Maguire amp Carr 2013) Owing to different methodologiestraditions and time frames it is difficult to compare proba-tions media visibility with existing analyses of media cover-age on probation in other jurisdictions (eg Bauwens amp Mair2012) Moreover because more serious andor unusual offen-ces highly publicised cases and scandals are most likely to earn487

TABLE 1Descriptiveinformation onnewspaper articles onprobation ()

more media coverage (Greer amp Reiner 2012) it is perhaps notdetrimental for probation to have such low visibility

In three-quarters of the newspaper articles the term pro-bation was not explained (753) which is particularly inter-esting given that the 2014 data showed that 873 of theCroatian public did not know what the term meant2 (Pilarsbarometer of Croatian society 2014) When existing the defi-nition of probation was mostly very short (eg system of su-pervised freedom system of conditional freedom or system of sanctionexecution out of prison) Also only a quarter or less than a quar-ter of the news articles included a description of some per-sonal experience with probation (203) collaboration of pro-bation service with other institutions (256) and probationsmechanisms and instruments (221)

Themes out of 390 articles

Legislation 223Prediction for and expectations from probation 197Experiences with probation 169Probation officers duties 159Probation systems development(eg opening of new regional offices) 131Employment in the probation service 69Other topics 28International examples 18Victims and witness support 05

As expected probation legislation regulations and ex-pectations for the service were the two main topics in the me-dia (Table 2) because between 2009 and 2013 Croatian proba-tion service and probation policy was especially influencedby the politicisation of criminal justice policy as a result ofnecessary changes in Croatias judiciary and laws that wereimposed by the EU and its regulations in the process of Cro-atias joining the EU There were also personnel changes inthe Ministry of Justice and Probation Service following par-liamentary elections in 2011 In Croatia between 2009 and 2013three Minister of Justice positions changed three heads of theProbation Service positions changed and two probation lawschanged (Official Gazette 1532009 1432012) Even more pro-bations official titles also changed three times over this 5-year-period victims and witnesses support was includedand then excluded from the official title which clearly indi-cate the difficulties in articulating the public image of proba-tion In 2009 the official probation service title was Directoratefor Probation in 2010 it changed its name to the Directorate forProbation and Victims and Witnesses Support and in 2012 to theSector for Probation Similarly in the Republic of Ireland dur-

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TABLE 2Dominant themes inthe newspaper articleson probation

ing the rebranding of probation in 2006 the word welfarewas removed from its official title (Maguire amp Carr 2013)

Expectation of times mentioned in 390 articles

Fewer people in prison 459Fewer expenses 210Other expectations 167Resocialization 128Less crime 79More work places 64Joining the EU 64More human system 59Better social security 36More quality sanctions 33System unload 31Victims support 26Failure 26More work for police 18Easier job for judges 13Offenders monitoring 13Greater expenses 10Greater corruption 08Keep family intact 05Criminals will walk free 05More work for POs 05Less biased judges 03Harder work for judges 03

Probation service establishment was accompanied withpositive predictions and expectations in the media (Table 3)Prisons were obviously used as benchmarks in emphasisingthe Croatian probation services benefits3 similarly to otherjurisdictions eg Ireland (Maguire amp Carr 2013) Probationwas glorified in the media as the best (and only) solution forproblems facing the prison system (eg overcrowding inhu-manity ineffectiveness expense) As such the probation rhetoricin almost half of the articles emerged as fewer people in pris-ons (Table 3) However most of the analysed press failed toexplore the underlying reasons for prison overcrowding oroffer any deeper elaboration of penal policies whether pris-ons or probation

Probation was also presented as the solution for over-coming problems identified by European politicians such ashuman rights violations in prisons and out-of-date penal po-licies The press intensively confronted the Croatian publicwith the fact that the prison system was not particularly effec-tive in reducing recidivism that poor prison conditions wereharmful to health and safety and that there was an urgentneed for the humanitarian approach of probation (see Che-489

TABLE 3Expectations fromprobation

ung 1988) Thus probation was presented as not only aimingat public protection but also at the social inclusion of offend-ers their resocialisation rehabilitation and reintegration intosociety (Bauwens 2011) Probations transformative potentialhumanitarian side of the penal and judicial system and soci-etal redemption was especially stressed

The economic benefits of probation versus prison werealso emphasised The newspaper articles argued that proba-tion would be less expensive (than prison)4 and produce morework places These repeated claims of reduced expenses overthe 5-year period surely safeguarded probation from criticismto a certain degree (see Fitzgibbon 2012)

Among the negative predictions or expectations for pro-bation the most commonly mentioned was that offering pro-bation in Croatia was merely a concession to the EU that pro-bation was a failure and that it would produce even morework for police and result in higher expenses (Table 3) Inaddition probation was seen as a soft option frequently equat-ed with escaping or avoiding prison sentences and with free-dom (see Hayes 2013 Teague 2002)

Actor Number of articles positive experience

Offender 37 872Probation officer 12 50Firm NGO 9 100Head of probation office 6 50Judge 6 667Offenders family 3 100Police officer 2 100Victim 1 100Witness 1 100Social worker 1 100

Only one-fifth of the newspaper articles included a des-cription of some aspect of personal experience with probation(203) and as expected due to the promotion of the newnational service the majority of the newspaper articles des-cribed positive experiences (Table 4) Offenders experiencesprevailed while experiences of probation officers and othersinvolved in probation were rarely described It was interest-ing that offenders experiences were described mainly as pos-itive5 whereas this was the case for only 50 of the probationofficers experiences Offenders positive experiences mostlyreferred to their experiences with community work such asP Č sentenced to 730 hours of community work in a publickitchen said This is for me a type of redemption to soci-etyhellipThey did not think I would try as hard as I did I like ithere and I am even thinking of continuing volunteering here

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TABLE 4Actors whoseexperiences weredescribed

in the public kitchen in the future from time to time after Iserve this sentence (Ciglenečki 2013 p 5) However in articlesprobationers were never referred to as clients but always asoffenders and their offences were usually over-emphasisedadding to their dangerousness and dysfunctional personali-ties Due to the dominance of celebrity culture (Greer 2007)it was not surprising that Croatian journalists were eager touse politicians and celebrities who were sentenced to com-munity work as (anti)models of probation on the newspapercover pages (eg an ex-Minister of Agriculture sentenced tocommunity work in public kitchen)

Probation officers positive experiences were related totheir satisfaction with the small numbers of probationers whobreached orders the very positive feedback from probation-ers who were sent to perform community work and fromtheir employers and the successful collaborations with stateand local firms and organisations as well as NGOs in offeringcommunity work For example one offenders employer saidHe was extremely hard-working and a good worker If I couldI would immediately offer him a permanent job Whatever Igave him to do he would do it immediately without com-plaining He was really an ideal worker (Kokoruš 2013 p 13)Negative probation officers experiences were related to case--overload shortages of probation officers and official cars andthe still insufficient numbers of contracts with firms to offercommunity work (eg Bašić 2012 Rosić Zrinski 2012)

Types of probation work out of 266 articles

Community work 515Protective supervision 335Home imprisonment 301Electronic monitoring 301Risk assessment 113Alcohol treatment 68Victims support 49Conditional sentence 41Opinions to the courts 38Psychosocial treatment 30Police curfew 19Individual treatment plan 19Drug testing 15

In almost a third of the newspaper articles (318) theprobation work type was not mentioned In the rest of theanalysed articles the biggest attention was given to commu-nity work and protective supervision (Table 5) which corre-sponds to the high prevalence of community work orders thatthe Service currently supervises (2061 out of a total of 3000491

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TABLE 5Types of probationwork and tasksmentioned

cases Špero 2015) Community work was positively present-ed in the media particularly that which benefited the localcommunity Thus community work was usually describedas an effective response to probationers numerous problems anopportunity for societal redemption valuable work experience thatprobationers had rarely or never had before having more positiveeffect than prison increasing probationers dignity and a sentencethat did not isolate them from their communities and families Al-most a third of the analysed newspaper articles talked abouthome imprisonment and electronic bracelets even thoughthese types of supervision do not exist in probation practicein Croatia Thus the probation service was frequently criti-cised for the never-fulfilled promise to introduce electronicbracelets changes in Ministers (of Justice) disenabled the useof electronic monitoring because no one wanted to make thedecision about it hellipcountries in the region adopted the mo-del of electronic monitoring and used EU sources for it andnow there is no money left for electronic monitoring in the(Croatian) national budget (Borovac amp Zrinjski 2013 p 25)

General tone out of 390 articles

Positive 481Negative 247Negative and positive 10Neutral (only facts) 75Cannot be decided 07

Generally news articles that referred to probation wereconsidered positive in tone (Table 6) which is similar to themedias portrayal of probation in Ireland (Maguire amp Carr2013) but in contrast to the medias prevailing negative toneon probation in England (Fitzgibbon 2012) and Belgium (Bau-wens amp Mair 2012) It was interesting that when probation inCroatia was the main topic of the article the tone was deemedpositive in most cases (508) but when probation was thesecondary topic the articles tones were mostly deemed to benegative (655) Articles on the topics of probation predic-tions and expectations and probation system developmentwere more often deemed positive Positive portrayals of pro-bation were related to its promotion at both the individual(probationer) and societal levels but mostly in comparisonwith the negative aspects of the prison system The oppositewas found however for articles about laws and regulationsand about experiences ndash these articles were more often cate-gorised as negative in tone The negative aspects of the news-paper coverage critiqued the probation systems inadequatefunctioning in practice and much less often referred to the

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TABLE 6General attitudetowards probation innews articles

perceived leniency of probation orders Some of the critiqueswere The probation office has only one secretary phone andfax ndash probation is a dead letter (Cmok 2011 p 16) The prac-tice of alternative sanctions is rare so the law (on probation)is non-existent (Jakubin 2011 p 3) The purpose of the pro-bation law is just to rebalance the national budget Existingmeasures are already embedded in the law so it is hypocrisyto offer the same measure under a different name (Raić Kne-žević 2009 p 3) The course of probations development inCroatia was also criticised by EU politicians because of theinadequate storage of computers software delays shortagesof official cars and probation officers lack of space for proba-tion officers large numbers of unsolved cases decreased pro-bation sentencing because of case overload the failure to in-troduce electronic monitoring and the lack of furniture inprobation offices caused by the failure of two public procurementtenders (Raić Knežević 2011 p 4)

Only between one-fifth and one-quarter of the newspa-per articles included a description of cooperation with otherinstitutions andor professionals (256) or supervisionmechanisms and technologies (221) Typical descriptionsincluded collaborations with local firms and NGOs with whomthe Probation Service had signed contracts to provide com-munity work for offenders It was somewhat surprising thatcollaboration with other organisations and professionals (egjudges police local communities or social workers) was soscarcely mentioned in the media given that probation is not aclosed system guided by autonomous values but tends to bedeveloped or accomplished with other agencies and profes-sionals Especially in recent years the emphasis on the impor-tance of partnerships with other agencies and professionalshas increased (eg Maloić amp Rajić 2012 Rumgay 2007)

Journalists Ministers of Justice politicians and profes-sionals from the Probation Service and other politicians werethe actors who most frequently expressed their opinions ondifferent aspects of probation service6 (Table 7)

Journalists attitudes towards probation were mainly po-sitive (Table 7) especially in describing the development ofthe probation system predictions and expectations proba-tion duties and officers and offenders experiences But it isnot clear whether this was the result of probation workerscultivating local media contacts and succeeding in getting outgood news (Mawby amp Worrall 2011 p 18) ndash thereby pro-moting probation ndash or because they were members of teamsof professional journalists and public relations professionalswho were hired by the Ministry of Justice to publicly promoteprobation or whether they were expressing their genuine pro-fessional opinions Journalists main critiques were pointed493

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towards the failure of developing a fully functional probationservice over a period exceeding four years They were espe-cially critical of the announced introduction of electronic mo-nitoring that had never started (and eg spent 12 million Eurofrom European funds on that project) and the lack of adequateresources reassurance for making probation offices functional(eg insufficient number of official cars probation officers con-tracts with institutions that will enable community work)

Attitudenegative

Actors negative and positive positive neutral Total

Journalists 17 14 57 6 95 252Ministers of Justice 1 1 83 4 90 239Probation Service(Sector for Probation) 2 0 40 2 44 117Politicians 14 1 13 1 29 77Probation officers 0 0 14 1 15 4Offenders 0 0 14 0 14 37Lawyers 6 1 6 0 13 34Firms 0 0 13 0 13 34Others 2 0 9 1 13 34Judges 1 4 6 1 12 32Scientists 0 0 12 0 12 32NGO 0 0 10 0 10 27Prison managers 2 2 4 0 9 24Foreign politicians 0 1 3 0 4 11Other professionals (psychiatristspolice officers social workers) 0 0 2 0 3 08Government 0 0 1 0 1 03

Total 45 24 287 16 377 100 119 64 761 42

It is indicative that the main spokesmen for probationaside from journalists were not probation officers themselvesbut politicians Ministers of Justice and politicians more fre-quently expressed opinions on probation laws and regula-tions and on predictions and expectations while the Pro-bation Service mainly discussed the development of the pro-bation system The attitudes expressed by the Ministers ofJustice the professionals from the Probation Service proba-tion officers and probationers towards different aspects ofprobation were almost all positive Politicians expressed posi-tive opinions on probation less frequently but their negativeopinions on probation were mainly the result of the critiquedirected towards their political opponents who were sup-porting probation For example the Croatian Minister of theInterior voted against amendments of the Law on Probation

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TABLE 7Main actors in news-paper articles andvalence of theirattitude towardsprobation

in order to protect police officers from getting more workand another politician commented that a similar law on pro-bation had already existed in Croatia for many years but wasnever put into practice due to a lack of financial means (F L2012)

Article topic Year ()2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Regulations and legislation 466 173 117 467 84Expectations from probation 663 427 412 272 254Employment 5 213 117 65 0System development 168 346 235 174 127Probation work tasks 198 334 392 304 24Experiences 5 27 176 272 591

Total media coverage per year 259 192 131 236 182Positive article tone 326 209 91 150 225Negative article tone 69 34 31 448 138

There are some variations in the number of articles onprobation over time but overall coverage within the newspa-pers did not increase (Table 8) Over the period of five yearsprobation was a somewhat more frequent theme in 2009 and2012 In 2011 and 2012 criticism of probation became some-what more pronounced most likely because supporters ofthe probation service were using the media to portray a posi-tive image of the service in the beginning but then dis-appointment when it finally came to putting words into ac-tions produced considerable negative criticism of probationin the media in the later years However during 2013 whenall probation offices became fully functional there were alsoa number of government initiatives (eg distribution of pro-motion leaflets and brochures presentations in the regionaloffices and in the media) aimed at increasing public knowl-edge on probation and providing more accurate and com-plete information about probation to the public (Ministry ofJustice 2014) and media portrayal of probation moved in thedirection of story-telling about probationers personal experi-ences Thus it seemed that those efforts stopped the trend ofnegative reporting about the probation system

Also it was interesting to observe how the focus of thenewspaper articles changed over time (see Table 8) Whileinterest in writing about predictions and expectations signifi-cantly declined over years interest in writing about personalexperiences increased Also the print media in Croatia wererecently more focused on examples of successful collabora-tion between the probation service and local firms and NGOsin carrying out community work Thus there were several495

TABLE 8General tone of thenewspaper articlestowards probationand theme coverageper year

examples of probationers success stories and how society thelocal community and the individual benefited from the workthe offenders had done Such approaches help probation offi-cers in their work becoming more understood by the generalpublic and less ignored or distorted by the media (Mawby ampWorrall 2011)

STUDY LIMITATIONSAlthough this type of analysis has important advantages suchas easy replication and its usefulness in documenting trendsover time several important limitations of this study shouldbe acknowledged In this study the analysis was limited bythe availability of newspaper articles and due to time-con-suming analysis it captured a small sample of the media con-tent Also it should be noted that the observed trends in themedia coverage of probation may not be an accurate reflec-tion of reality (eg more interestingpublicised events receivemore coverage than less interesting ones and under the influ-ence of the presence of other important (inter)national politi-cal and social events at the time) Also this descriptive methodmay not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pat-tern in media coverage and qualitative content analysis reliesat least partially on researcher readings and interpretationof media texts (eg subjectivity of interpretation of some vari-ables such as the tone of the article) Thus results collected inthis study as well as suggested interpretations should be readwith these limitations in mind In order to increase the relia-bility and validity as well as the generalisability of results infurther studies this method should be combined with otherdata sources and methods (eg interviews and observations)the data should be collected on larger samples over a longertime period Also media coverage of one issue should be com-pared to media coverage of similar issues in a particular medi-um and time-period Due to greater influence of virtual infor-mation it is recommended also to analyse the coverage ofissues on probation on different internet web-sites portalsand forums

CONCLUDING REMARKSThe Croatian probation service has a low level of visibility inCroatian society (Pilars barometer of Croatian society 2014)and as probation services in other jurisdictions relatively lowvisibility in the printed media (eg UK Ireland Belgium)Overall there is an impression that Croatian media were notinterested in probation and made inaccurate assumptions aboutthe (higher) level of knowledge on probation held by thetarget audience Probation themes were presented in rela-

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tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

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lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

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REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

medias portrayal of probation and who were probations keyadvocates and (2) to analyse whether there was uniform pre-sentation of probation in the media over time

Since the establishment of probation and the enactmentof new legislation related to probation and community sanc-tions was an important precondition for Croatias joining theEuropean Union (EU) in 2013 (Šimpraga Maloić amp Ricijaš2014) it was hypothesised (a) that probation legislation regu-lations and expectations will be the main topics in the media(b) that at the beginning of Service development more posi-tive information about it will be presented in the media espe-cially by politicians (c) that one of the common themes with-in the medias portrayal will be one of naivety about for ex-ample probations potential for reducing the prison popula-tion (d) that with time issues regarding probation will be-come more politicised and criticised in the media due to ob-stacles the probation service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

This topic is important to explore because there is no avail-able information on how probation is viewed by the public oreven by certain groups of the public (eg politicians) andbecause narratives presented in the media especially aboutthe issues that people have little direct experience with (suchas probation) can either lower or boost confidence in thecriminal justice system in general and probation service inparticular Lower confidence can make the public become lessinclined towards favouring rehabilitative approaches andprone to undervaluing probation work stigmatising and dis-criminating against offenders under supervision and makingoffenders resocialisation even more difficult New insights onmedia representation of probation service could also be usedby the professionals and politicians to develop more efficientpublic relations strategies in the promotion of probation servicehelping to avoid punitive attitudes and rigorous political res-ponses as the dominant means of increasing public security

METHODTo provide the greatest possible representation of the topic onprobation and increase the validity all news articles from Cro-atias national and local newspapers and magazines were in-cluded in the study (Macnamara 2005) Newspaper articleswere analysed since they are generally more accessible andlead to better recall than other news sources (eg TV inter-net) (Furnham Gunter amp Green 1990) and because main-stream newspapers have a more powerful influence on peo-ples perceptions of public policies and political issues thandoes television news (eg Brians amp Wattenberg 1996) News-485

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paper articles were located and collected using a press clip-ping agencys services because this approach provides fastand full access to all newspaper articles The first year of thisstudy 2009 coincided with the year the Law on Probationwas enacted and the Directorate for Criminal Law and Pro-bation was established in Croatia The end year of analysis2013 coincided with the wider reform of criminal laws inCroatia and probation service becoming fully functional

The unit of analysis was one newspaper article Over theperiod in question probation was mentioned in 533 nationaland local newspaper and magazine articles Out of that 390news articles were included in the analysis since the rest didnot refer to the probation service or because they were iden-tified as complete duplicates of other articles

A primary researcher coded all sampled news articlesHowever to ensure reliability of the study findings a sub-sampleof 15 randomly selected news articles was coded by a sec-ond coder Both coders were trained and each coder codedthe articles independently Intercoder reliability proved to besatisfying

To operationalise the patterns and themes that emergedthroughout the articles a structured closed-ended categorisa-tion matrix was developed The coding list consisted of thelist of variables to be examined general technical informationabout the news article main article theme different actorsexperiences with and attitudes to probation probation dutiesand instrumentstechnologies expectations from probationcollaboration between probation service and other institu-tions Each article was analysed based on the presenceab-sence of the categories in the coding list assessed for overallcontent themes and tone (positive neutral-factual negative)The frequencies of codes and classifications of informationwere calculated After initial code identification codes werematched up and collated with data extracts that demonstratethat code The different codes were grouped into categoriesand all the relevant coded data extracts within the identifiedcategories were collated Categories were then reviewed refinedand consequently organised into meaningful theme groupsThe stories were repeatedly read in order to search for mean-ings and patterns and the stories about probation were after-wards subsequently analysed using a thematic approach(Braun amp Clarke 2006) Recurring themes and patterns of res-ponse that emerged were analysed and reported in the con-text of the research questions that allowed for exploring themeanings and emphases in stories about probation (Michael-son amp Griffin 2005)

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONIn Croatia over the 5-year period most of the articles on pro-bation were published in daily newspapers articles aboutprobation were generally short probation was not generallythe main story topic probation-related headlines rarely ap-peared on newspaper cover pages and issues on probationwere mainly superficially discussed (Table 1)

Variables Categories within variables ()

Type of the daily newspapers 825newspaper weekly 116

other 36monthly 23

Length of 25 of page or less 278the article gt 1 page 249

75 of page 14950 of page 13130 of page 1111 page 82

Type of short report 424the article news 401

interview 88review 75column 13

Size of the title medium 403big 308headline 147small 134no title 08

Probation topic sporadic topic 554main topic 385equally important as other topic 62

Information superficial (just description) 810elaboration in-depth analysis 190

Altogether it can be argued that probation in Croatia hasrelatively low media visibility However it is not knownwhether other criminal justice sanctions (eg prison sen-tences) are more or less present in the media than probationsentences because there has yet been no comparative analy-sis (Maguire amp Carr 2013) Owing to different methodologiestraditions and time frames it is difficult to compare proba-tions media visibility with existing analyses of media cover-age on probation in other jurisdictions (eg Bauwens amp Mair2012) Moreover because more serious andor unusual offen-ces highly publicised cases and scandals are most likely to earn487

TABLE 1Descriptiveinformation onnewspaper articles onprobation ()

more media coverage (Greer amp Reiner 2012) it is perhaps notdetrimental for probation to have such low visibility

In three-quarters of the newspaper articles the term pro-bation was not explained (753) which is particularly inter-esting given that the 2014 data showed that 873 of theCroatian public did not know what the term meant2 (Pilarsbarometer of Croatian society 2014) When existing the defi-nition of probation was mostly very short (eg system of su-pervised freedom system of conditional freedom or system of sanctionexecution out of prison) Also only a quarter or less than a quar-ter of the news articles included a description of some per-sonal experience with probation (203) collaboration of pro-bation service with other institutions (256) and probationsmechanisms and instruments (221)

Themes out of 390 articles

Legislation 223Prediction for and expectations from probation 197Experiences with probation 169Probation officers duties 159Probation systems development(eg opening of new regional offices) 131Employment in the probation service 69Other topics 28International examples 18Victims and witness support 05

As expected probation legislation regulations and ex-pectations for the service were the two main topics in the me-dia (Table 2) because between 2009 and 2013 Croatian proba-tion service and probation policy was especially influencedby the politicisation of criminal justice policy as a result ofnecessary changes in Croatias judiciary and laws that wereimposed by the EU and its regulations in the process of Cro-atias joining the EU There were also personnel changes inthe Ministry of Justice and Probation Service following par-liamentary elections in 2011 In Croatia between 2009 and 2013three Minister of Justice positions changed three heads of theProbation Service positions changed and two probation lawschanged (Official Gazette 1532009 1432012) Even more pro-bations official titles also changed three times over this 5-year-period victims and witnesses support was includedand then excluded from the official title which clearly indi-cate the difficulties in articulating the public image of proba-tion In 2009 the official probation service title was Directoratefor Probation in 2010 it changed its name to the Directorate forProbation and Victims and Witnesses Support and in 2012 to theSector for Probation Similarly in the Republic of Ireland dur-

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TABLE 2Dominant themes inthe newspaper articleson probation

ing the rebranding of probation in 2006 the word welfarewas removed from its official title (Maguire amp Carr 2013)

Expectation of times mentioned in 390 articles

Fewer people in prison 459Fewer expenses 210Other expectations 167Resocialization 128Less crime 79More work places 64Joining the EU 64More human system 59Better social security 36More quality sanctions 33System unload 31Victims support 26Failure 26More work for police 18Easier job for judges 13Offenders monitoring 13Greater expenses 10Greater corruption 08Keep family intact 05Criminals will walk free 05More work for POs 05Less biased judges 03Harder work for judges 03

Probation service establishment was accompanied withpositive predictions and expectations in the media (Table 3)Prisons were obviously used as benchmarks in emphasisingthe Croatian probation services benefits3 similarly to otherjurisdictions eg Ireland (Maguire amp Carr 2013) Probationwas glorified in the media as the best (and only) solution forproblems facing the prison system (eg overcrowding inhu-manity ineffectiveness expense) As such the probation rhetoricin almost half of the articles emerged as fewer people in pris-ons (Table 3) However most of the analysed press failed toexplore the underlying reasons for prison overcrowding oroffer any deeper elaboration of penal policies whether pris-ons or probation

Probation was also presented as the solution for over-coming problems identified by European politicians such ashuman rights violations in prisons and out-of-date penal po-licies The press intensively confronted the Croatian publicwith the fact that the prison system was not particularly effec-tive in reducing recidivism that poor prison conditions wereharmful to health and safety and that there was an urgentneed for the humanitarian approach of probation (see Che-489

TABLE 3Expectations fromprobation

ung 1988) Thus probation was presented as not only aimingat public protection but also at the social inclusion of offend-ers their resocialisation rehabilitation and reintegration intosociety (Bauwens 2011) Probations transformative potentialhumanitarian side of the penal and judicial system and soci-etal redemption was especially stressed

The economic benefits of probation versus prison werealso emphasised The newspaper articles argued that proba-tion would be less expensive (than prison)4 and produce morework places These repeated claims of reduced expenses overthe 5-year period surely safeguarded probation from criticismto a certain degree (see Fitzgibbon 2012)

Among the negative predictions or expectations for pro-bation the most commonly mentioned was that offering pro-bation in Croatia was merely a concession to the EU that pro-bation was a failure and that it would produce even morework for police and result in higher expenses (Table 3) Inaddition probation was seen as a soft option frequently equat-ed with escaping or avoiding prison sentences and with free-dom (see Hayes 2013 Teague 2002)

Actor Number of articles positive experience

Offender 37 872Probation officer 12 50Firm NGO 9 100Head of probation office 6 50Judge 6 667Offenders family 3 100Police officer 2 100Victim 1 100Witness 1 100Social worker 1 100

Only one-fifth of the newspaper articles included a des-cription of some aspect of personal experience with probation(203) and as expected due to the promotion of the newnational service the majority of the newspaper articles des-cribed positive experiences (Table 4) Offenders experiencesprevailed while experiences of probation officers and othersinvolved in probation were rarely described It was interest-ing that offenders experiences were described mainly as pos-itive5 whereas this was the case for only 50 of the probationofficers experiences Offenders positive experiences mostlyreferred to their experiences with community work such asP Č sentenced to 730 hours of community work in a publickitchen said This is for me a type of redemption to soci-etyhellipThey did not think I would try as hard as I did I like ithere and I am even thinking of continuing volunteering here

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TABLE 4Actors whoseexperiences weredescribed

in the public kitchen in the future from time to time after Iserve this sentence (Ciglenečki 2013 p 5) However in articlesprobationers were never referred to as clients but always asoffenders and their offences were usually over-emphasisedadding to their dangerousness and dysfunctional personali-ties Due to the dominance of celebrity culture (Greer 2007)it was not surprising that Croatian journalists were eager touse politicians and celebrities who were sentenced to com-munity work as (anti)models of probation on the newspapercover pages (eg an ex-Minister of Agriculture sentenced tocommunity work in public kitchen)

Probation officers positive experiences were related totheir satisfaction with the small numbers of probationers whobreached orders the very positive feedback from probation-ers who were sent to perform community work and fromtheir employers and the successful collaborations with stateand local firms and organisations as well as NGOs in offeringcommunity work For example one offenders employer saidHe was extremely hard-working and a good worker If I couldI would immediately offer him a permanent job Whatever Igave him to do he would do it immediately without com-plaining He was really an ideal worker (Kokoruš 2013 p 13)Negative probation officers experiences were related to case--overload shortages of probation officers and official cars andthe still insufficient numbers of contracts with firms to offercommunity work (eg Bašić 2012 Rosić Zrinski 2012)

Types of probation work out of 266 articles

Community work 515Protective supervision 335Home imprisonment 301Electronic monitoring 301Risk assessment 113Alcohol treatment 68Victims support 49Conditional sentence 41Opinions to the courts 38Psychosocial treatment 30Police curfew 19Individual treatment plan 19Drug testing 15

In almost a third of the newspaper articles (318) theprobation work type was not mentioned In the rest of theanalysed articles the biggest attention was given to commu-nity work and protective supervision (Table 5) which corre-sponds to the high prevalence of community work orders thatthe Service currently supervises (2061 out of a total of 3000491

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TABLE 5Types of probationwork and tasksmentioned

cases Špero 2015) Community work was positively present-ed in the media particularly that which benefited the localcommunity Thus community work was usually describedas an effective response to probationers numerous problems anopportunity for societal redemption valuable work experience thatprobationers had rarely or never had before having more positiveeffect than prison increasing probationers dignity and a sentencethat did not isolate them from their communities and families Al-most a third of the analysed newspaper articles talked abouthome imprisonment and electronic bracelets even thoughthese types of supervision do not exist in probation practicein Croatia Thus the probation service was frequently criti-cised for the never-fulfilled promise to introduce electronicbracelets changes in Ministers (of Justice) disenabled the useof electronic monitoring because no one wanted to make thedecision about it hellipcountries in the region adopted the mo-del of electronic monitoring and used EU sources for it andnow there is no money left for electronic monitoring in the(Croatian) national budget (Borovac amp Zrinjski 2013 p 25)

General tone out of 390 articles

Positive 481Negative 247Negative and positive 10Neutral (only facts) 75Cannot be decided 07

Generally news articles that referred to probation wereconsidered positive in tone (Table 6) which is similar to themedias portrayal of probation in Ireland (Maguire amp Carr2013) but in contrast to the medias prevailing negative toneon probation in England (Fitzgibbon 2012) and Belgium (Bau-wens amp Mair 2012) It was interesting that when probation inCroatia was the main topic of the article the tone was deemedpositive in most cases (508) but when probation was thesecondary topic the articles tones were mostly deemed to benegative (655) Articles on the topics of probation predic-tions and expectations and probation system developmentwere more often deemed positive Positive portrayals of pro-bation were related to its promotion at both the individual(probationer) and societal levels but mostly in comparisonwith the negative aspects of the prison system The oppositewas found however for articles about laws and regulationsand about experiences ndash these articles were more often cate-gorised as negative in tone The negative aspects of the news-paper coverage critiqued the probation systems inadequatefunctioning in practice and much less often referred to the

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TABLE 6General attitudetowards probation innews articles

perceived leniency of probation orders Some of the critiqueswere The probation office has only one secretary phone andfax ndash probation is a dead letter (Cmok 2011 p 16) The prac-tice of alternative sanctions is rare so the law (on probation)is non-existent (Jakubin 2011 p 3) The purpose of the pro-bation law is just to rebalance the national budget Existingmeasures are already embedded in the law so it is hypocrisyto offer the same measure under a different name (Raić Kne-žević 2009 p 3) The course of probations development inCroatia was also criticised by EU politicians because of theinadequate storage of computers software delays shortagesof official cars and probation officers lack of space for proba-tion officers large numbers of unsolved cases decreased pro-bation sentencing because of case overload the failure to in-troduce electronic monitoring and the lack of furniture inprobation offices caused by the failure of two public procurementtenders (Raić Knežević 2011 p 4)

Only between one-fifth and one-quarter of the newspa-per articles included a description of cooperation with otherinstitutions andor professionals (256) or supervisionmechanisms and technologies (221) Typical descriptionsincluded collaborations with local firms and NGOs with whomthe Probation Service had signed contracts to provide com-munity work for offenders It was somewhat surprising thatcollaboration with other organisations and professionals (egjudges police local communities or social workers) was soscarcely mentioned in the media given that probation is not aclosed system guided by autonomous values but tends to bedeveloped or accomplished with other agencies and profes-sionals Especially in recent years the emphasis on the impor-tance of partnerships with other agencies and professionalshas increased (eg Maloić amp Rajić 2012 Rumgay 2007)

Journalists Ministers of Justice politicians and profes-sionals from the Probation Service and other politicians werethe actors who most frequently expressed their opinions ondifferent aspects of probation service6 (Table 7)

Journalists attitudes towards probation were mainly po-sitive (Table 7) especially in describing the development ofthe probation system predictions and expectations proba-tion duties and officers and offenders experiences But it isnot clear whether this was the result of probation workerscultivating local media contacts and succeeding in getting outgood news (Mawby amp Worrall 2011 p 18) ndash thereby pro-moting probation ndash or because they were members of teamsof professional journalists and public relations professionalswho were hired by the Ministry of Justice to publicly promoteprobation or whether they were expressing their genuine pro-fessional opinions Journalists main critiques were pointed493

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towards the failure of developing a fully functional probationservice over a period exceeding four years They were espe-cially critical of the announced introduction of electronic mo-nitoring that had never started (and eg spent 12 million Eurofrom European funds on that project) and the lack of adequateresources reassurance for making probation offices functional(eg insufficient number of official cars probation officers con-tracts with institutions that will enable community work)

Attitudenegative

Actors negative and positive positive neutral Total

Journalists 17 14 57 6 95 252Ministers of Justice 1 1 83 4 90 239Probation Service(Sector for Probation) 2 0 40 2 44 117Politicians 14 1 13 1 29 77Probation officers 0 0 14 1 15 4Offenders 0 0 14 0 14 37Lawyers 6 1 6 0 13 34Firms 0 0 13 0 13 34Others 2 0 9 1 13 34Judges 1 4 6 1 12 32Scientists 0 0 12 0 12 32NGO 0 0 10 0 10 27Prison managers 2 2 4 0 9 24Foreign politicians 0 1 3 0 4 11Other professionals (psychiatristspolice officers social workers) 0 0 2 0 3 08Government 0 0 1 0 1 03

Total 45 24 287 16 377 100 119 64 761 42

It is indicative that the main spokesmen for probationaside from journalists were not probation officers themselvesbut politicians Ministers of Justice and politicians more fre-quently expressed opinions on probation laws and regula-tions and on predictions and expectations while the Pro-bation Service mainly discussed the development of the pro-bation system The attitudes expressed by the Ministers ofJustice the professionals from the Probation Service proba-tion officers and probationers towards different aspects ofprobation were almost all positive Politicians expressed posi-tive opinions on probation less frequently but their negativeopinions on probation were mainly the result of the critiquedirected towards their political opponents who were sup-porting probation For example the Croatian Minister of theInterior voted against amendments of the Law on Probation

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TABLE 7Main actors in news-paper articles andvalence of theirattitude towardsprobation

in order to protect police officers from getting more workand another politician commented that a similar law on pro-bation had already existed in Croatia for many years but wasnever put into practice due to a lack of financial means (F L2012)

Article topic Year ()2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Regulations and legislation 466 173 117 467 84Expectations from probation 663 427 412 272 254Employment 5 213 117 65 0System development 168 346 235 174 127Probation work tasks 198 334 392 304 24Experiences 5 27 176 272 591

Total media coverage per year 259 192 131 236 182Positive article tone 326 209 91 150 225Negative article tone 69 34 31 448 138

There are some variations in the number of articles onprobation over time but overall coverage within the newspa-pers did not increase (Table 8) Over the period of five yearsprobation was a somewhat more frequent theme in 2009 and2012 In 2011 and 2012 criticism of probation became some-what more pronounced most likely because supporters ofthe probation service were using the media to portray a posi-tive image of the service in the beginning but then dis-appointment when it finally came to putting words into ac-tions produced considerable negative criticism of probationin the media in the later years However during 2013 whenall probation offices became fully functional there were alsoa number of government initiatives (eg distribution of pro-motion leaflets and brochures presentations in the regionaloffices and in the media) aimed at increasing public knowl-edge on probation and providing more accurate and com-plete information about probation to the public (Ministry ofJustice 2014) and media portrayal of probation moved in thedirection of story-telling about probationers personal experi-ences Thus it seemed that those efforts stopped the trend ofnegative reporting about the probation system

Also it was interesting to observe how the focus of thenewspaper articles changed over time (see Table 8) Whileinterest in writing about predictions and expectations signifi-cantly declined over years interest in writing about personalexperiences increased Also the print media in Croatia wererecently more focused on examples of successful collabora-tion between the probation service and local firms and NGOsin carrying out community work Thus there were several495

TABLE 8General tone of thenewspaper articlestowards probationand theme coverageper year

examples of probationers success stories and how society thelocal community and the individual benefited from the workthe offenders had done Such approaches help probation offi-cers in their work becoming more understood by the generalpublic and less ignored or distorted by the media (Mawby ampWorrall 2011)

STUDY LIMITATIONSAlthough this type of analysis has important advantages suchas easy replication and its usefulness in documenting trendsover time several important limitations of this study shouldbe acknowledged In this study the analysis was limited bythe availability of newspaper articles and due to time-con-suming analysis it captured a small sample of the media con-tent Also it should be noted that the observed trends in themedia coverage of probation may not be an accurate reflec-tion of reality (eg more interestingpublicised events receivemore coverage than less interesting ones and under the influ-ence of the presence of other important (inter)national politi-cal and social events at the time) Also this descriptive methodmay not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pat-tern in media coverage and qualitative content analysis reliesat least partially on researcher readings and interpretationof media texts (eg subjectivity of interpretation of some vari-ables such as the tone of the article) Thus results collected inthis study as well as suggested interpretations should be readwith these limitations in mind In order to increase the relia-bility and validity as well as the generalisability of results infurther studies this method should be combined with otherdata sources and methods (eg interviews and observations)the data should be collected on larger samples over a longertime period Also media coverage of one issue should be com-pared to media coverage of similar issues in a particular medi-um and time-period Due to greater influence of virtual infor-mation it is recommended also to analyse the coverage ofissues on probation on different internet web-sites portalsand forums

CONCLUDING REMARKSThe Croatian probation service has a low level of visibility inCroatian society (Pilars barometer of Croatian society 2014)and as probation services in other jurisdictions relatively lowvisibility in the printed media (eg UK Ireland Belgium)Overall there is an impression that Croatian media were notinterested in probation and made inaccurate assumptions aboutthe (higher) level of knowledge on probation held by thetarget audience Probation themes were presented in rela-

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tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

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lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

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REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

paper articles were located and collected using a press clip-ping agencys services because this approach provides fastand full access to all newspaper articles The first year of thisstudy 2009 coincided with the year the Law on Probationwas enacted and the Directorate for Criminal Law and Pro-bation was established in Croatia The end year of analysis2013 coincided with the wider reform of criminal laws inCroatia and probation service becoming fully functional

The unit of analysis was one newspaper article Over theperiod in question probation was mentioned in 533 nationaland local newspaper and magazine articles Out of that 390news articles were included in the analysis since the rest didnot refer to the probation service or because they were iden-tified as complete duplicates of other articles

A primary researcher coded all sampled news articlesHowever to ensure reliability of the study findings a sub-sampleof 15 randomly selected news articles was coded by a sec-ond coder Both coders were trained and each coder codedthe articles independently Intercoder reliability proved to besatisfying

To operationalise the patterns and themes that emergedthroughout the articles a structured closed-ended categorisa-tion matrix was developed The coding list consisted of thelist of variables to be examined general technical informationabout the news article main article theme different actorsexperiences with and attitudes to probation probation dutiesand instrumentstechnologies expectations from probationcollaboration between probation service and other institu-tions Each article was analysed based on the presenceab-sence of the categories in the coding list assessed for overallcontent themes and tone (positive neutral-factual negative)The frequencies of codes and classifications of informationwere calculated After initial code identification codes werematched up and collated with data extracts that demonstratethat code The different codes were grouped into categoriesand all the relevant coded data extracts within the identifiedcategories were collated Categories were then reviewed refinedand consequently organised into meaningful theme groupsThe stories were repeatedly read in order to search for mean-ings and patterns and the stories about probation were after-wards subsequently analysed using a thematic approach(Braun amp Clarke 2006) Recurring themes and patterns of res-ponse that emerged were analysed and reported in the con-text of the research questions that allowed for exploring themeanings and emphases in stories about probation (Michael-son amp Griffin 2005)

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONIn Croatia over the 5-year period most of the articles on pro-bation were published in daily newspapers articles aboutprobation were generally short probation was not generallythe main story topic probation-related headlines rarely ap-peared on newspaper cover pages and issues on probationwere mainly superficially discussed (Table 1)

Variables Categories within variables ()

Type of the daily newspapers 825newspaper weekly 116

other 36monthly 23

Length of 25 of page or less 278the article gt 1 page 249

75 of page 14950 of page 13130 of page 1111 page 82

Type of short report 424the article news 401

interview 88review 75column 13

Size of the title medium 403big 308headline 147small 134no title 08

Probation topic sporadic topic 554main topic 385equally important as other topic 62

Information superficial (just description) 810elaboration in-depth analysis 190

Altogether it can be argued that probation in Croatia hasrelatively low media visibility However it is not knownwhether other criminal justice sanctions (eg prison sen-tences) are more or less present in the media than probationsentences because there has yet been no comparative analy-sis (Maguire amp Carr 2013) Owing to different methodologiestraditions and time frames it is difficult to compare proba-tions media visibility with existing analyses of media cover-age on probation in other jurisdictions (eg Bauwens amp Mair2012) Moreover because more serious andor unusual offen-ces highly publicised cases and scandals are most likely to earn487

TABLE 1Descriptiveinformation onnewspaper articles onprobation ()

more media coverage (Greer amp Reiner 2012) it is perhaps notdetrimental for probation to have such low visibility

In three-quarters of the newspaper articles the term pro-bation was not explained (753) which is particularly inter-esting given that the 2014 data showed that 873 of theCroatian public did not know what the term meant2 (Pilarsbarometer of Croatian society 2014) When existing the defi-nition of probation was mostly very short (eg system of su-pervised freedom system of conditional freedom or system of sanctionexecution out of prison) Also only a quarter or less than a quar-ter of the news articles included a description of some per-sonal experience with probation (203) collaboration of pro-bation service with other institutions (256) and probationsmechanisms and instruments (221)

Themes out of 390 articles

Legislation 223Prediction for and expectations from probation 197Experiences with probation 169Probation officers duties 159Probation systems development(eg opening of new regional offices) 131Employment in the probation service 69Other topics 28International examples 18Victims and witness support 05

As expected probation legislation regulations and ex-pectations for the service were the two main topics in the me-dia (Table 2) because between 2009 and 2013 Croatian proba-tion service and probation policy was especially influencedby the politicisation of criminal justice policy as a result ofnecessary changes in Croatias judiciary and laws that wereimposed by the EU and its regulations in the process of Cro-atias joining the EU There were also personnel changes inthe Ministry of Justice and Probation Service following par-liamentary elections in 2011 In Croatia between 2009 and 2013three Minister of Justice positions changed three heads of theProbation Service positions changed and two probation lawschanged (Official Gazette 1532009 1432012) Even more pro-bations official titles also changed three times over this 5-year-period victims and witnesses support was includedand then excluded from the official title which clearly indi-cate the difficulties in articulating the public image of proba-tion In 2009 the official probation service title was Directoratefor Probation in 2010 it changed its name to the Directorate forProbation and Victims and Witnesses Support and in 2012 to theSector for Probation Similarly in the Republic of Ireland dur-

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TABLE 2Dominant themes inthe newspaper articleson probation

ing the rebranding of probation in 2006 the word welfarewas removed from its official title (Maguire amp Carr 2013)

Expectation of times mentioned in 390 articles

Fewer people in prison 459Fewer expenses 210Other expectations 167Resocialization 128Less crime 79More work places 64Joining the EU 64More human system 59Better social security 36More quality sanctions 33System unload 31Victims support 26Failure 26More work for police 18Easier job for judges 13Offenders monitoring 13Greater expenses 10Greater corruption 08Keep family intact 05Criminals will walk free 05More work for POs 05Less biased judges 03Harder work for judges 03

Probation service establishment was accompanied withpositive predictions and expectations in the media (Table 3)Prisons were obviously used as benchmarks in emphasisingthe Croatian probation services benefits3 similarly to otherjurisdictions eg Ireland (Maguire amp Carr 2013) Probationwas glorified in the media as the best (and only) solution forproblems facing the prison system (eg overcrowding inhu-manity ineffectiveness expense) As such the probation rhetoricin almost half of the articles emerged as fewer people in pris-ons (Table 3) However most of the analysed press failed toexplore the underlying reasons for prison overcrowding oroffer any deeper elaboration of penal policies whether pris-ons or probation

Probation was also presented as the solution for over-coming problems identified by European politicians such ashuman rights violations in prisons and out-of-date penal po-licies The press intensively confronted the Croatian publicwith the fact that the prison system was not particularly effec-tive in reducing recidivism that poor prison conditions wereharmful to health and safety and that there was an urgentneed for the humanitarian approach of probation (see Che-489

TABLE 3Expectations fromprobation

ung 1988) Thus probation was presented as not only aimingat public protection but also at the social inclusion of offend-ers their resocialisation rehabilitation and reintegration intosociety (Bauwens 2011) Probations transformative potentialhumanitarian side of the penal and judicial system and soci-etal redemption was especially stressed

The economic benefits of probation versus prison werealso emphasised The newspaper articles argued that proba-tion would be less expensive (than prison)4 and produce morework places These repeated claims of reduced expenses overthe 5-year period surely safeguarded probation from criticismto a certain degree (see Fitzgibbon 2012)

Among the negative predictions or expectations for pro-bation the most commonly mentioned was that offering pro-bation in Croatia was merely a concession to the EU that pro-bation was a failure and that it would produce even morework for police and result in higher expenses (Table 3) Inaddition probation was seen as a soft option frequently equat-ed with escaping or avoiding prison sentences and with free-dom (see Hayes 2013 Teague 2002)

Actor Number of articles positive experience

Offender 37 872Probation officer 12 50Firm NGO 9 100Head of probation office 6 50Judge 6 667Offenders family 3 100Police officer 2 100Victim 1 100Witness 1 100Social worker 1 100

Only one-fifth of the newspaper articles included a des-cription of some aspect of personal experience with probation(203) and as expected due to the promotion of the newnational service the majority of the newspaper articles des-cribed positive experiences (Table 4) Offenders experiencesprevailed while experiences of probation officers and othersinvolved in probation were rarely described It was interest-ing that offenders experiences were described mainly as pos-itive5 whereas this was the case for only 50 of the probationofficers experiences Offenders positive experiences mostlyreferred to their experiences with community work such asP Č sentenced to 730 hours of community work in a publickitchen said This is for me a type of redemption to soci-etyhellipThey did not think I would try as hard as I did I like ithere and I am even thinking of continuing volunteering here

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TABLE 4Actors whoseexperiences weredescribed

in the public kitchen in the future from time to time after Iserve this sentence (Ciglenečki 2013 p 5) However in articlesprobationers were never referred to as clients but always asoffenders and their offences were usually over-emphasisedadding to their dangerousness and dysfunctional personali-ties Due to the dominance of celebrity culture (Greer 2007)it was not surprising that Croatian journalists were eager touse politicians and celebrities who were sentenced to com-munity work as (anti)models of probation on the newspapercover pages (eg an ex-Minister of Agriculture sentenced tocommunity work in public kitchen)

Probation officers positive experiences were related totheir satisfaction with the small numbers of probationers whobreached orders the very positive feedback from probation-ers who were sent to perform community work and fromtheir employers and the successful collaborations with stateand local firms and organisations as well as NGOs in offeringcommunity work For example one offenders employer saidHe was extremely hard-working and a good worker If I couldI would immediately offer him a permanent job Whatever Igave him to do he would do it immediately without com-plaining He was really an ideal worker (Kokoruš 2013 p 13)Negative probation officers experiences were related to case--overload shortages of probation officers and official cars andthe still insufficient numbers of contracts with firms to offercommunity work (eg Bašić 2012 Rosić Zrinski 2012)

Types of probation work out of 266 articles

Community work 515Protective supervision 335Home imprisonment 301Electronic monitoring 301Risk assessment 113Alcohol treatment 68Victims support 49Conditional sentence 41Opinions to the courts 38Psychosocial treatment 30Police curfew 19Individual treatment plan 19Drug testing 15

In almost a third of the newspaper articles (318) theprobation work type was not mentioned In the rest of theanalysed articles the biggest attention was given to commu-nity work and protective supervision (Table 5) which corre-sponds to the high prevalence of community work orders thatthe Service currently supervises (2061 out of a total of 3000491

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TABLE 5Types of probationwork and tasksmentioned

cases Špero 2015) Community work was positively present-ed in the media particularly that which benefited the localcommunity Thus community work was usually describedas an effective response to probationers numerous problems anopportunity for societal redemption valuable work experience thatprobationers had rarely or never had before having more positiveeffect than prison increasing probationers dignity and a sentencethat did not isolate them from their communities and families Al-most a third of the analysed newspaper articles talked abouthome imprisonment and electronic bracelets even thoughthese types of supervision do not exist in probation practicein Croatia Thus the probation service was frequently criti-cised for the never-fulfilled promise to introduce electronicbracelets changes in Ministers (of Justice) disenabled the useof electronic monitoring because no one wanted to make thedecision about it hellipcountries in the region adopted the mo-del of electronic monitoring and used EU sources for it andnow there is no money left for electronic monitoring in the(Croatian) national budget (Borovac amp Zrinjski 2013 p 25)

General tone out of 390 articles

Positive 481Negative 247Negative and positive 10Neutral (only facts) 75Cannot be decided 07

Generally news articles that referred to probation wereconsidered positive in tone (Table 6) which is similar to themedias portrayal of probation in Ireland (Maguire amp Carr2013) but in contrast to the medias prevailing negative toneon probation in England (Fitzgibbon 2012) and Belgium (Bau-wens amp Mair 2012) It was interesting that when probation inCroatia was the main topic of the article the tone was deemedpositive in most cases (508) but when probation was thesecondary topic the articles tones were mostly deemed to benegative (655) Articles on the topics of probation predic-tions and expectations and probation system developmentwere more often deemed positive Positive portrayals of pro-bation were related to its promotion at both the individual(probationer) and societal levels but mostly in comparisonwith the negative aspects of the prison system The oppositewas found however for articles about laws and regulationsand about experiences ndash these articles were more often cate-gorised as negative in tone The negative aspects of the news-paper coverage critiqued the probation systems inadequatefunctioning in practice and much less often referred to the

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TABLE 6General attitudetowards probation innews articles

perceived leniency of probation orders Some of the critiqueswere The probation office has only one secretary phone andfax ndash probation is a dead letter (Cmok 2011 p 16) The prac-tice of alternative sanctions is rare so the law (on probation)is non-existent (Jakubin 2011 p 3) The purpose of the pro-bation law is just to rebalance the national budget Existingmeasures are already embedded in the law so it is hypocrisyto offer the same measure under a different name (Raić Kne-žević 2009 p 3) The course of probations development inCroatia was also criticised by EU politicians because of theinadequate storage of computers software delays shortagesof official cars and probation officers lack of space for proba-tion officers large numbers of unsolved cases decreased pro-bation sentencing because of case overload the failure to in-troduce electronic monitoring and the lack of furniture inprobation offices caused by the failure of two public procurementtenders (Raić Knežević 2011 p 4)

Only between one-fifth and one-quarter of the newspa-per articles included a description of cooperation with otherinstitutions andor professionals (256) or supervisionmechanisms and technologies (221) Typical descriptionsincluded collaborations with local firms and NGOs with whomthe Probation Service had signed contracts to provide com-munity work for offenders It was somewhat surprising thatcollaboration with other organisations and professionals (egjudges police local communities or social workers) was soscarcely mentioned in the media given that probation is not aclosed system guided by autonomous values but tends to bedeveloped or accomplished with other agencies and profes-sionals Especially in recent years the emphasis on the impor-tance of partnerships with other agencies and professionalshas increased (eg Maloić amp Rajić 2012 Rumgay 2007)

Journalists Ministers of Justice politicians and profes-sionals from the Probation Service and other politicians werethe actors who most frequently expressed their opinions ondifferent aspects of probation service6 (Table 7)

Journalists attitudes towards probation were mainly po-sitive (Table 7) especially in describing the development ofthe probation system predictions and expectations proba-tion duties and officers and offenders experiences But it isnot clear whether this was the result of probation workerscultivating local media contacts and succeeding in getting outgood news (Mawby amp Worrall 2011 p 18) ndash thereby pro-moting probation ndash or because they were members of teamsof professional journalists and public relations professionalswho were hired by the Ministry of Justice to publicly promoteprobation or whether they were expressing their genuine pro-fessional opinions Journalists main critiques were pointed493

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towards the failure of developing a fully functional probationservice over a period exceeding four years They were espe-cially critical of the announced introduction of electronic mo-nitoring that had never started (and eg spent 12 million Eurofrom European funds on that project) and the lack of adequateresources reassurance for making probation offices functional(eg insufficient number of official cars probation officers con-tracts with institutions that will enable community work)

Attitudenegative

Actors negative and positive positive neutral Total

Journalists 17 14 57 6 95 252Ministers of Justice 1 1 83 4 90 239Probation Service(Sector for Probation) 2 0 40 2 44 117Politicians 14 1 13 1 29 77Probation officers 0 0 14 1 15 4Offenders 0 0 14 0 14 37Lawyers 6 1 6 0 13 34Firms 0 0 13 0 13 34Others 2 0 9 1 13 34Judges 1 4 6 1 12 32Scientists 0 0 12 0 12 32NGO 0 0 10 0 10 27Prison managers 2 2 4 0 9 24Foreign politicians 0 1 3 0 4 11Other professionals (psychiatristspolice officers social workers) 0 0 2 0 3 08Government 0 0 1 0 1 03

Total 45 24 287 16 377 100 119 64 761 42

It is indicative that the main spokesmen for probationaside from journalists were not probation officers themselvesbut politicians Ministers of Justice and politicians more fre-quently expressed opinions on probation laws and regula-tions and on predictions and expectations while the Pro-bation Service mainly discussed the development of the pro-bation system The attitudes expressed by the Ministers ofJustice the professionals from the Probation Service proba-tion officers and probationers towards different aspects ofprobation were almost all positive Politicians expressed posi-tive opinions on probation less frequently but their negativeopinions on probation were mainly the result of the critiquedirected towards their political opponents who were sup-porting probation For example the Croatian Minister of theInterior voted against amendments of the Law on Probation

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TABLE 7Main actors in news-paper articles andvalence of theirattitude towardsprobation

in order to protect police officers from getting more workand another politician commented that a similar law on pro-bation had already existed in Croatia for many years but wasnever put into practice due to a lack of financial means (F L2012)

Article topic Year ()2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Regulations and legislation 466 173 117 467 84Expectations from probation 663 427 412 272 254Employment 5 213 117 65 0System development 168 346 235 174 127Probation work tasks 198 334 392 304 24Experiences 5 27 176 272 591

Total media coverage per year 259 192 131 236 182Positive article tone 326 209 91 150 225Negative article tone 69 34 31 448 138

There are some variations in the number of articles onprobation over time but overall coverage within the newspa-pers did not increase (Table 8) Over the period of five yearsprobation was a somewhat more frequent theme in 2009 and2012 In 2011 and 2012 criticism of probation became some-what more pronounced most likely because supporters ofthe probation service were using the media to portray a posi-tive image of the service in the beginning but then dis-appointment when it finally came to putting words into ac-tions produced considerable negative criticism of probationin the media in the later years However during 2013 whenall probation offices became fully functional there were alsoa number of government initiatives (eg distribution of pro-motion leaflets and brochures presentations in the regionaloffices and in the media) aimed at increasing public knowl-edge on probation and providing more accurate and com-plete information about probation to the public (Ministry ofJustice 2014) and media portrayal of probation moved in thedirection of story-telling about probationers personal experi-ences Thus it seemed that those efforts stopped the trend ofnegative reporting about the probation system

Also it was interesting to observe how the focus of thenewspaper articles changed over time (see Table 8) Whileinterest in writing about predictions and expectations signifi-cantly declined over years interest in writing about personalexperiences increased Also the print media in Croatia wererecently more focused on examples of successful collabora-tion between the probation service and local firms and NGOsin carrying out community work Thus there were several495

TABLE 8General tone of thenewspaper articlestowards probationand theme coverageper year

examples of probationers success stories and how society thelocal community and the individual benefited from the workthe offenders had done Such approaches help probation offi-cers in their work becoming more understood by the generalpublic and less ignored or distorted by the media (Mawby ampWorrall 2011)

STUDY LIMITATIONSAlthough this type of analysis has important advantages suchas easy replication and its usefulness in documenting trendsover time several important limitations of this study shouldbe acknowledged In this study the analysis was limited bythe availability of newspaper articles and due to time-con-suming analysis it captured a small sample of the media con-tent Also it should be noted that the observed trends in themedia coverage of probation may not be an accurate reflec-tion of reality (eg more interestingpublicised events receivemore coverage than less interesting ones and under the influ-ence of the presence of other important (inter)national politi-cal and social events at the time) Also this descriptive methodmay not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pat-tern in media coverage and qualitative content analysis reliesat least partially on researcher readings and interpretationof media texts (eg subjectivity of interpretation of some vari-ables such as the tone of the article) Thus results collected inthis study as well as suggested interpretations should be readwith these limitations in mind In order to increase the relia-bility and validity as well as the generalisability of results infurther studies this method should be combined with otherdata sources and methods (eg interviews and observations)the data should be collected on larger samples over a longertime period Also media coverage of one issue should be com-pared to media coverage of similar issues in a particular medi-um and time-period Due to greater influence of virtual infor-mation it is recommended also to analyse the coverage ofissues on probation on different internet web-sites portalsand forums

CONCLUDING REMARKSThe Croatian probation service has a low level of visibility inCroatian society (Pilars barometer of Croatian society 2014)and as probation services in other jurisdictions relatively lowvisibility in the printed media (eg UK Ireland Belgium)Overall there is an impression that Croatian media were notinterested in probation and made inaccurate assumptions aboutthe (higher) level of knowledge on probation held by thetarget audience Probation themes were presented in rela-

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tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

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lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

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REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONIn Croatia over the 5-year period most of the articles on pro-bation were published in daily newspapers articles aboutprobation were generally short probation was not generallythe main story topic probation-related headlines rarely ap-peared on newspaper cover pages and issues on probationwere mainly superficially discussed (Table 1)

Variables Categories within variables ()

Type of the daily newspapers 825newspaper weekly 116

other 36monthly 23

Length of 25 of page or less 278the article gt 1 page 249

75 of page 14950 of page 13130 of page 1111 page 82

Type of short report 424the article news 401

interview 88review 75column 13

Size of the title medium 403big 308headline 147small 134no title 08

Probation topic sporadic topic 554main topic 385equally important as other topic 62

Information superficial (just description) 810elaboration in-depth analysis 190

Altogether it can be argued that probation in Croatia hasrelatively low media visibility However it is not knownwhether other criminal justice sanctions (eg prison sen-tences) are more or less present in the media than probationsentences because there has yet been no comparative analy-sis (Maguire amp Carr 2013) Owing to different methodologiestraditions and time frames it is difficult to compare proba-tions media visibility with existing analyses of media cover-age on probation in other jurisdictions (eg Bauwens amp Mair2012) Moreover because more serious andor unusual offen-ces highly publicised cases and scandals are most likely to earn487

TABLE 1Descriptiveinformation onnewspaper articles onprobation ()

more media coverage (Greer amp Reiner 2012) it is perhaps notdetrimental for probation to have such low visibility

In three-quarters of the newspaper articles the term pro-bation was not explained (753) which is particularly inter-esting given that the 2014 data showed that 873 of theCroatian public did not know what the term meant2 (Pilarsbarometer of Croatian society 2014) When existing the defi-nition of probation was mostly very short (eg system of su-pervised freedom system of conditional freedom or system of sanctionexecution out of prison) Also only a quarter or less than a quar-ter of the news articles included a description of some per-sonal experience with probation (203) collaboration of pro-bation service with other institutions (256) and probationsmechanisms and instruments (221)

Themes out of 390 articles

Legislation 223Prediction for and expectations from probation 197Experiences with probation 169Probation officers duties 159Probation systems development(eg opening of new regional offices) 131Employment in the probation service 69Other topics 28International examples 18Victims and witness support 05

As expected probation legislation regulations and ex-pectations for the service were the two main topics in the me-dia (Table 2) because between 2009 and 2013 Croatian proba-tion service and probation policy was especially influencedby the politicisation of criminal justice policy as a result ofnecessary changes in Croatias judiciary and laws that wereimposed by the EU and its regulations in the process of Cro-atias joining the EU There were also personnel changes inthe Ministry of Justice and Probation Service following par-liamentary elections in 2011 In Croatia between 2009 and 2013three Minister of Justice positions changed three heads of theProbation Service positions changed and two probation lawschanged (Official Gazette 1532009 1432012) Even more pro-bations official titles also changed three times over this 5-year-period victims and witnesses support was includedand then excluded from the official title which clearly indi-cate the difficulties in articulating the public image of proba-tion In 2009 the official probation service title was Directoratefor Probation in 2010 it changed its name to the Directorate forProbation and Victims and Witnesses Support and in 2012 to theSector for Probation Similarly in the Republic of Ireland dur-

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TABLE 2Dominant themes inthe newspaper articleson probation

ing the rebranding of probation in 2006 the word welfarewas removed from its official title (Maguire amp Carr 2013)

Expectation of times mentioned in 390 articles

Fewer people in prison 459Fewer expenses 210Other expectations 167Resocialization 128Less crime 79More work places 64Joining the EU 64More human system 59Better social security 36More quality sanctions 33System unload 31Victims support 26Failure 26More work for police 18Easier job for judges 13Offenders monitoring 13Greater expenses 10Greater corruption 08Keep family intact 05Criminals will walk free 05More work for POs 05Less biased judges 03Harder work for judges 03

Probation service establishment was accompanied withpositive predictions and expectations in the media (Table 3)Prisons were obviously used as benchmarks in emphasisingthe Croatian probation services benefits3 similarly to otherjurisdictions eg Ireland (Maguire amp Carr 2013) Probationwas glorified in the media as the best (and only) solution forproblems facing the prison system (eg overcrowding inhu-manity ineffectiveness expense) As such the probation rhetoricin almost half of the articles emerged as fewer people in pris-ons (Table 3) However most of the analysed press failed toexplore the underlying reasons for prison overcrowding oroffer any deeper elaboration of penal policies whether pris-ons or probation

Probation was also presented as the solution for over-coming problems identified by European politicians such ashuman rights violations in prisons and out-of-date penal po-licies The press intensively confronted the Croatian publicwith the fact that the prison system was not particularly effec-tive in reducing recidivism that poor prison conditions wereharmful to health and safety and that there was an urgentneed for the humanitarian approach of probation (see Che-489

TABLE 3Expectations fromprobation

ung 1988) Thus probation was presented as not only aimingat public protection but also at the social inclusion of offend-ers their resocialisation rehabilitation and reintegration intosociety (Bauwens 2011) Probations transformative potentialhumanitarian side of the penal and judicial system and soci-etal redemption was especially stressed

The economic benefits of probation versus prison werealso emphasised The newspaper articles argued that proba-tion would be less expensive (than prison)4 and produce morework places These repeated claims of reduced expenses overthe 5-year period surely safeguarded probation from criticismto a certain degree (see Fitzgibbon 2012)

Among the negative predictions or expectations for pro-bation the most commonly mentioned was that offering pro-bation in Croatia was merely a concession to the EU that pro-bation was a failure and that it would produce even morework for police and result in higher expenses (Table 3) Inaddition probation was seen as a soft option frequently equat-ed with escaping or avoiding prison sentences and with free-dom (see Hayes 2013 Teague 2002)

Actor Number of articles positive experience

Offender 37 872Probation officer 12 50Firm NGO 9 100Head of probation office 6 50Judge 6 667Offenders family 3 100Police officer 2 100Victim 1 100Witness 1 100Social worker 1 100

Only one-fifth of the newspaper articles included a des-cription of some aspect of personal experience with probation(203) and as expected due to the promotion of the newnational service the majority of the newspaper articles des-cribed positive experiences (Table 4) Offenders experiencesprevailed while experiences of probation officers and othersinvolved in probation were rarely described It was interest-ing that offenders experiences were described mainly as pos-itive5 whereas this was the case for only 50 of the probationofficers experiences Offenders positive experiences mostlyreferred to their experiences with community work such asP Č sentenced to 730 hours of community work in a publickitchen said This is for me a type of redemption to soci-etyhellipThey did not think I would try as hard as I did I like ithere and I am even thinking of continuing volunteering here

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TABLE 4Actors whoseexperiences weredescribed

in the public kitchen in the future from time to time after Iserve this sentence (Ciglenečki 2013 p 5) However in articlesprobationers were never referred to as clients but always asoffenders and their offences were usually over-emphasisedadding to their dangerousness and dysfunctional personali-ties Due to the dominance of celebrity culture (Greer 2007)it was not surprising that Croatian journalists were eager touse politicians and celebrities who were sentenced to com-munity work as (anti)models of probation on the newspapercover pages (eg an ex-Minister of Agriculture sentenced tocommunity work in public kitchen)

Probation officers positive experiences were related totheir satisfaction with the small numbers of probationers whobreached orders the very positive feedback from probation-ers who were sent to perform community work and fromtheir employers and the successful collaborations with stateand local firms and organisations as well as NGOs in offeringcommunity work For example one offenders employer saidHe was extremely hard-working and a good worker If I couldI would immediately offer him a permanent job Whatever Igave him to do he would do it immediately without com-plaining He was really an ideal worker (Kokoruš 2013 p 13)Negative probation officers experiences were related to case--overload shortages of probation officers and official cars andthe still insufficient numbers of contracts with firms to offercommunity work (eg Bašić 2012 Rosić Zrinski 2012)

Types of probation work out of 266 articles

Community work 515Protective supervision 335Home imprisonment 301Electronic monitoring 301Risk assessment 113Alcohol treatment 68Victims support 49Conditional sentence 41Opinions to the courts 38Psychosocial treatment 30Police curfew 19Individual treatment plan 19Drug testing 15

In almost a third of the newspaper articles (318) theprobation work type was not mentioned In the rest of theanalysed articles the biggest attention was given to commu-nity work and protective supervision (Table 5) which corre-sponds to the high prevalence of community work orders thatthe Service currently supervises (2061 out of a total of 3000491

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TABLE 5Types of probationwork and tasksmentioned

cases Špero 2015) Community work was positively present-ed in the media particularly that which benefited the localcommunity Thus community work was usually describedas an effective response to probationers numerous problems anopportunity for societal redemption valuable work experience thatprobationers had rarely or never had before having more positiveeffect than prison increasing probationers dignity and a sentencethat did not isolate them from their communities and families Al-most a third of the analysed newspaper articles talked abouthome imprisonment and electronic bracelets even thoughthese types of supervision do not exist in probation practicein Croatia Thus the probation service was frequently criti-cised for the never-fulfilled promise to introduce electronicbracelets changes in Ministers (of Justice) disenabled the useof electronic monitoring because no one wanted to make thedecision about it hellipcountries in the region adopted the mo-del of electronic monitoring and used EU sources for it andnow there is no money left for electronic monitoring in the(Croatian) national budget (Borovac amp Zrinjski 2013 p 25)

General tone out of 390 articles

Positive 481Negative 247Negative and positive 10Neutral (only facts) 75Cannot be decided 07

Generally news articles that referred to probation wereconsidered positive in tone (Table 6) which is similar to themedias portrayal of probation in Ireland (Maguire amp Carr2013) but in contrast to the medias prevailing negative toneon probation in England (Fitzgibbon 2012) and Belgium (Bau-wens amp Mair 2012) It was interesting that when probation inCroatia was the main topic of the article the tone was deemedpositive in most cases (508) but when probation was thesecondary topic the articles tones were mostly deemed to benegative (655) Articles on the topics of probation predic-tions and expectations and probation system developmentwere more often deemed positive Positive portrayals of pro-bation were related to its promotion at both the individual(probationer) and societal levels but mostly in comparisonwith the negative aspects of the prison system The oppositewas found however for articles about laws and regulationsand about experiences ndash these articles were more often cate-gorised as negative in tone The negative aspects of the news-paper coverage critiqued the probation systems inadequatefunctioning in practice and much less often referred to the

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TABLE 6General attitudetowards probation innews articles

perceived leniency of probation orders Some of the critiqueswere The probation office has only one secretary phone andfax ndash probation is a dead letter (Cmok 2011 p 16) The prac-tice of alternative sanctions is rare so the law (on probation)is non-existent (Jakubin 2011 p 3) The purpose of the pro-bation law is just to rebalance the national budget Existingmeasures are already embedded in the law so it is hypocrisyto offer the same measure under a different name (Raić Kne-žević 2009 p 3) The course of probations development inCroatia was also criticised by EU politicians because of theinadequate storage of computers software delays shortagesof official cars and probation officers lack of space for proba-tion officers large numbers of unsolved cases decreased pro-bation sentencing because of case overload the failure to in-troduce electronic monitoring and the lack of furniture inprobation offices caused by the failure of two public procurementtenders (Raić Knežević 2011 p 4)

Only between one-fifth and one-quarter of the newspa-per articles included a description of cooperation with otherinstitutions andor professionals (256) or supervisionmechanisms and technologies (221) Typical descriptionsincluded collaborations with local firms and NGOs with whomthe Probation Service had signed contracts to provide com-munity work for offenders It was somewhat surprising thatcollaboration with other organisations and professionals (egjudges police local communities or social workers) was soscarcely mentioned in the media given that probation is not aclosed system guided by autonomous values but tends to bedeveloped or accomplished with other agencies and profes-sionals Especially in recent years the emphasis on the impor-tance of partnerships with other agencies and professionalshas increased (eg Maloić amp Rajić 2012 Rumgay 2007)

Journalists Ministers of Justice politicians and profes-sionals from the Probation Service and other politicians werethe actors who most frequently expressed their opinions ondifferent aspects of probation service6 (Table 7)

Journalists attitudes towards probation were mainly po-sitive (Table 7) especially in describing the development ofthe probation system predictions and expectations proba-tion duties and officers and offenders experiences But it isnot clear whether this was the result of probation workerscultivating local media contacts and succeeding in getting outgood news (Mawby amp Worrall 2011 p 18) ndash thereby pro-moting probation ndash or because they were members of teamsof professional journalists and public relations professionalswho were hired by the Ministry of Justice to publicly promoteprobation or whether they were expressing their genuine pro-fessional opinions Journalists main critiques were pointed493

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towards the failure of developing a fully functional probationservice over a period exceeding four years They were espe-cially critical of the announced introduction of electronic mo-nitoring that had never started (and eg spent 12 million Eurofrom European funds on that project) and the lack of adequateresources reassurance for making probation offices functional(eg insufficient number of official cars probation officers con-tracts with institutions that will enable community work)

Attitudenegative

Actors negative and positive positive neutral Total

Journalists 17 14 57 6 95 252Ministers of Justice 1 1 83 4 90 239Probation Service(Sector for Probation) 2 0 40 2 44 117Politicians 14 1 13 1 29 77Probation officers 0 0 14 1 15 4Offenders 0 0 14 0 14 37Lawyers 6 1 6 0 13 34Firms 0 0 13 0 13 34Others 2 0 9 1 13 34Judges 1 4 6 1 12 32Scientists 0 0 12 0 12 32NGO 0 0 10 0 10 27Prison managers 2 2 4 0 9 24Foreign politicians 0 1 3 0 4 11Other professionals (psychiatristspolice officers social workers) 0 0 2 0 3 08Government 0 0 1 0 1 03

Total 45 24 287 16 377 100 119 64 761 42

It is indicative that the main spokesmen for probationaside from journalists were not probation officers themselvesbut politicians Ministers of Justice and politicians more fre-quently expressed opinions on probation laws and regula-tions and on predictions and expectations while the Pro-bation Service mainly discussed the development of the pro-bation system The attitudes expressed by the Ministers ofJustice the professionals from the Probation Service proba-tion officers and probationers towards different aspects ofprobation were almost all positive Politicians expressed posi-tive opinions on probation less frequently but their negativeopinions on probation were mainly the result of the critiquedirected towards their political opponents who were sup-porting probation For example the Croatian Minister of theInterior voted against amendments of the Law on Probation

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TABLE 7Main actors in news-paper articles andvalence of theirattitude towardsprobation

in order to protect police officers from getting more workand another politician commented that a similar law on pro-bation had already existed in Croatia for many years but wasnever put into practice due to a lack of financial means (F L2012)

Article topic Year ()2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Regulations and legislation 466 173 117 467 84Expectations from probation 663 427 412 272 254Employment 5 213 117 65 0System development 168 346 235 174 127Probation work tasks 198 334 392 304 24Experiences 5 27 176 272 591

Total media coverage per year 259 192 131 236 182Positive article tone 326 209 91 150 225Negative article tone 69 34 31 448 138

There are some variations in the number of articles onprobation over time but overall coverage within the newspa-pers did not increase (Table 8) Over the period of five yearsprobation was a somewhat more frequent theme in 2009 and2012 In 2011 and 2012 criticism of probation became some-what more pronounced most likely because supporters ofthe probation service were using the media to portray a posi-tive image of the service in the beginning but then dis-appointment when it finally came to putting words into ac-tions produced considerable negative criticism of probationin the media in the later years However during 2013 whenall probation offices became fully functional there were alsoa number of government initiatives (eg distribution of pro-motion leaflets and brochures presentations in the regionaloffices and in the media) aimed at increasing public knowl-edge on probation and providing more accurate and com-plete information about probation to the public (Ministry ofJustice 2014) and media portrayal of probation moved in thedirection of story-telling about probationers personal experi-ences Thus it seemed that those efforts stopped the trend ofnegative reporting about the probation system

Also it was interesting to observe how the focus of thenewspaper articles changed over time (see Table 8) Whileinterest in writing about predictions and expectations signifi-cantly declined over years interest in writing about personalexperiences increased Also the print media in Croatia wererecently more focused on examples of successful collabora-tion between the probation service and local firms and NGOsin carrying out community work Thus there were several495

TABLE 8General tone of thenewspaper articlestowards probationand theme coverageper year

examples of probationers success stories and how society thelocal community and the individual benefited from the workthe offenders had done Such approaches help probation offi-cers in their work becoming more understood by the generalpublic and less ignored or distorted by the media (Mawby ampWorrall 2011)

STUDY LIMITATIONSAlthough this type of analysis has important advantages suchas easy replication and its usefulness in documenting trendsover time several important limitations of this study shouldbe acknowledged In this study the analysis was limited bythe availability of newspaper articles and due to time-con-suming analysis it captured a small sample of the media con-tent Also it should be noted that the observed trends in themedia coverage of probation may not be an accurate reflec-tion of reality (eg more interestingpublicised events receivemore coverage than less interesting ones and under the influ-ence of the presence of other important (inter)national politi-cal and social events at the time) Also this descriptive methodmay not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pat-tern in media coverage and qualitative content analysis reliesat least partially on researcher readings and interpretationof media texts (eg subjectivity of interpretation of some vari-ables such as the tone of the article) Thus results collected inthis study as well as suggested interpretations should be readwith these limitations in mind In order to increase the relia-bility and validity as well as the generalisability of results infurther studies this method should be combined with otherdata sources and methods (eg interviews and observations)the data should be collected on larger samples over a longertime period Also media coverage of one issue should be com-pared to media coverage of similar issues in a particular medi-um and time-period Due to greater influence of virtual infor-mation it is recommended also to analyse the coverage ofissues on probation on different internet web-sites portalsand forums

CONCLUDING REMARKSThe Croatian probation service has a low level of visibility inCroatian society (Pilars barometer of Croatian society 2014)and as probation services in other jurisdictions relatively lowvisibility in the printed media (eg UK Ireland Belgium)Overall there is an impression that Croatian media were notinterested in probation and made inaccurate assumptions aboutthe (higher) level of knowledge on probation held by thetarget audience Probation themes were presented in rela-

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496

tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

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lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

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498

REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

more media coverage (Greer amp Reiner 2012) it is perhaps notdetrimental for probation to have such low visibility

In three-quarters of the newspaper articles the term pro-bation was not explained (753) which is particularly inter-esting given that the 2014 data showed that 873 of theCroatian public did not know what the term meant2 (Pilarsbarometer of Croatian society 2014) When existing the defi-nition of probation was mostly very short (eg system of su-pervised freedom system of conditional freedom or system of sanctionexecution out of prison) Also only a quarter or less than a quar-ter of the news articles included a description of some per-sonal experience with probation (203) collaboration of pro-bation service with other institutions (256) and probationsmechanisms and instruments (221)

Themes out of 390 articles

Legislation 223Prediction for and expectations from probation 197Experiences with probation 169Probation officers duties 159Probation systems development(eg opening of new regional offices) 131Employment in the probation service 69Other topics 28International examples 18Victims and witness support 05

As expected probation legislation regulations and ex-pectations for the service were the two main topics in the me-dia (Table 2) because between 2009 and 2013 Croatian proba-tion service and probation policy was especially influencedby the politicisation of criminal justice policy as a result ofnecessary changes in Croatias judiciary and laws that wereimposed by the EU and its regulations in the process of Cro-atias joining the EU There were also personnel changes inthe Ministry of Justice and Probation Service following par-liamentary elections in 2011 In Croatia between 2009 and 2013three Minister of Justice positions changed three heads of theProbation Service positions changed and two probation lawschanged (Official Gazette 1532009 1432012) Even more pro-bations official titles also changed three times over this 5-year-period victims and witnesses support was includedand then excluded from the official title which clearly indi-cate the difficulties in articulating the public image of proba-tion In 2009 the official probation service title was Directoratefor Probation in 2010 it changed its name to the Directorate forProbation and Victims and Witnesses Support and in 2012 to theSector for Probation Similarly in the Republic of Ireland dur-

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TABLE 2Dominant themes inthe newspaper articleson probation

ing the rebranding of probation in 2006 the word welfarewas removed from its official title (Maguire amp Carr 2013)

Expectation of times mentioned in 390 articles

Fewer people in prison 459Fewer expenses 210Other expectations 167Resocialization 128Less crime 79More work places 64Joining the EU 64More human system 59Better social security 36More quality sanctions 33System unload 31Victims support 26Failure 26More work for police 18Easier job for judges 13Offenders monitoring 13Greater expenses 10Greater corruption 08Keep family intact 05Criminals will walk free 05More work for POs 05Less biased judges 03Harder work for judges 03

Probation service establishment was accompanied withpositive predictions and expectations in the media (Table 3)Prisons were obviously used as benchmarks in emphasisingthe Croatian probation services benefits3 similarly to otherjurisdictions eg Ireland (Maguire amp Carr 2013) Probationwas glorified in the media as the best (and only) solution forproblems facing the prison system (eg overcrowding inhu-manity ineffectiveness expense) As such the probation rhetoricin almost half of the articles emerged as fewer people in pris-ons (Table 3) However most of the analysed press failed toexplore the underlying reasons for prison overcrowding oroffer any deeper elaboration of penal policies whether pris-ons or probation

Probation was also presented as the solution for over-coming problems identified by European politicians such ashuman rights violations in prisons and out-of-date penal po-licies The press intensively confronted the Croatian publicwith the fact that the prison system was not particularly effec-tive in reducing recidivism that poor prison conditions wereharmful to health and safety and that there was an urgentneed for the humanitarian approach of probation (see Che-489

TABLE 3Expectations fromprobation

ung 1988) Thus probation was presented as not only aimingat public protection but also at the social inclusion of offend-ers their resocialisation rehabilitation and reintegration intosociety (Bauwens 2011) Probations transformative potentialhumanitarian side of the penal and judicial system and soci-etal redemption was especially stressed

The economic benefits of probation versus prison werealso emphasised The newspaper articles argued that proba-tion would be less expensive (than prison)4 and produce morework places These repeated claims of reduced expenses overthe 5-year period surely safeguarded probation from criticismto a certain degree (see Fitzgibbon 2012)

Among the negative predictions or expectations for pro-bation the most commonly mentioned was that offering pro-bation in Croatia was merely a concession to the EU that pro-bation was a failure and that it would produce even morework for police and result in higher expenses (Table 3) Inaddition probation was seen as a soft option frequently equat-ed with escaping or avoiding prison sentences and with free-dom (see Hayes 2013 Teague 2002)

Actor Number of articles positive experience

Offender 37 872Probation officer 12 50Firm NGO 9 100Head of probation office 6 50Judge 6 667Offenders family 3 100Police officer 2 100Victim 1 100Witness 1 100Social worker 1 100

Only one-fifth of the newspaper articles included a des-cription of some aspect of personal experience with probation(203) and as expected due to the promotion of the newnational service the majority of the newspaper articles des-cribed positive experiences (Table 4) Offenders experiencesprevailed while experiences of probation officers and othersinvolved in probation were rarely described It was interest-ing that offenders experiences were described mainly as pos-itive5 whereas this was the case for only 50 of the probationofficers experiences Offenders positive experiences mostlyreferred to their experiences with community work such asP Č sentenced to 730 hours of community work in a publickitchen said This is for me a type of redemption to soci-etyhellipThey did not think I would try as hard as I did I like ithere and I am even thinking of continuing volunteering here

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490

TABLE 4Actors whoseexperiences weredescribed

in the public kitchen in the future from time to time after Iserve this sentence (Ciglenečki 2013 p 5) However in articlesprobationers were never referred to as clients but always asoffenders and their offences were usually over-emphasisedadding to their dangerousness and dysfunctional personali-ties Due to the dominance of celebrity culture (Greer 2007)it was not surprising that Croatian journalists were eager touse politicians and celebrities who were sentenced to com-munity work as (anti)models of probation on the newspapercover pages (eg an ex-Minister of Agriculture sentenced tocommunity work in public kitchen)

Probation officers positive experiences were related totheir satisfaction with the small numbers of probationers whobreached orders the very positive feedback from probation-ers who were sent to perform community work and fromtheir employers and the successful collaborations with stateand local firms and organisations as well as NGOs in offeringcommunity work For example one offenders employer saidHe was extremely hard-working and a good worker If I couldI would immediately offer him a permanent job Whatever Igave him to do he would do it immediately without com-plaining He was really an ideal worker (Kokoruš 2013 p 13)Negative probation officers experiences were related to case--overload shortages of probation officers and official cars andthe still insufficient numbers of contracts with firms to offercommunity work (eg Bašić 2012 Rosić Zrinski 2012)

Types of probation work out of 266 articles

Community work 515Protective supervision 335Home imprisonment 301Electronic monitoring 301Risk assessment 113Alcohol treatment 68Victims support 49Conditional sentence 41Opinions to the courts 38Psychosocial treatment 30Police curfew 19Individual treatment plan 19Drug testing 15

In almost a third of the newspaper articles (318) theprobation work type was not mentioned In the rest of theanalysed articles the biggest attention was given to commu-nity work and protective supervision (Table 5) which corre-sponds to the high prevalence of community work orders thatthe Service currently supervises (2061 out of a total of 3000491

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TABLE 5Types of probationwork and tasksmentioned

cases Špero 2015) Community work was positively present-ed in the media particularly that which benefited the localcommunity Thus community work was usually describedas an effective response to probationers numerous problems anopportunity for societal redemption valuable work experience thatprobationers had rarely or never had before having more positiveeffect than prison increasing probationers dignity and a sentencethat did not isolate them from their communities and families Al-most a third of the analysed newspaper articles talked abouthome imprisonment and electronic bracelets even thoughthese types of supervision do not exist in probation practicein Croatia Thus the probation service was frequently criti-cised for the never-fulfilled promise to introduce electronicbracelets changes in Ministers (of Justice) disenabled the useof electronic monitoring because no one wanted to make thedecision about it hellipcountries in the region adopted the mo-del of electronic monitoring and used EU sources for it andnow there is no money left for electronic monitoring in the(Croatian) national budget (Borovac amp Zrinjski 2013 p 25)

General tone out of 390 articles

Positive 481Negative 247Negative and positive 10Neutral (only facts) 75Cannot be decided 07

Generally news articles that referred to probation wereconsidered positive in tone (Table 6) which is similar to themedias portrayal of probation in Ireland (Maguire amp Carr2013) but in contrast to the medias prevailing negative toneon probation in England (Fitzgibbon 2012) and Belgium (Bau-wens amp Mair 2012) It was interesting that when probation inCroatia was the main topic of the article the tone was deemedpositive in most cases (508) but when probation was thesecondary topic the articles tones were mostly deemed to benegative (655) Articles on the topics of probation predic-tions and expectations and probation system developmentwere more often deemed positive Positive portrayals of pro-bation were related to its promotion at both the individual(probationer) and societal levels but mostly in comparisonwith the negative aspects of the prison system The oppositewas found however for articles about laws and regulationsand about experiences ndash these articles were more often cate-gorised as negative in tone The negative aspects of the news-paper coverage critiqued the probation systems inadequatefunctioning in practice and much less often referred to the

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TABLE 6General attitudetowards probation innews articles

perceived leniency of probation orders Some of the critiqueswere The probation office has only one secretary phone andfax ndash probation is a dead letter (Cmok 2011 p 16) The prac-tice of alternative sanctions is rare so the law (on probation)is non-existent (Jakubin 2011 p 3) The purpose of the pro-bation law is just to rebalance the national budget Existingmeasures are already embedded in the law so it is hypocrisyto offer the same measure under a different name (Raić Kne-žević 2009 p 3) The course of probations development inCroatia was also criticised by EU politicians because of theinadequate storage of computers software delays shortagesof official cars and probation officers lack of space for proba-tion officers large numbers of unsolved cases decreased pro-bation sentencing because of case overload the failure to in-troduce electronic monitoring and the lack of furniture inprobation offices caused by the failure of two public procurementtenders (Raić Knežević 2011 p 4)

Only between one-fifth and one-quarter of the newspa-per articles included a description of cooperation with otherinstitutions andor professionals (256) or supervisionmechanisms and technologies (221) Typical descriptionsincluded collaborations with local firms and NGOs with whomthe Probation Service had signed contracts to provide com-munity work for offenders It was somewhat surprising thatcollaboration with other organisations and professionals (egjudges police local communities or social workers) was soscarcely mentioned in the media given that probation is not aclosed system guided by autonomous values but tends to bedeveloped or accomplished with other agencies and profes-sionals Especially in recent years the emphasis on the impor-tance of partnerships with other agencies and professionalshas increased (eg Maloić amp Rajić 2012 Rumgay 2007)

Journalists Ministers of Justice politicians and profes-sionals from the Probation Service and other politicians werethe actors who most frequently expressed their opinions ondifferent aspects of probation service6 (Table 7)

Journalists attitudes towards probation were mainly po-sitive (Table 7) especially in describing the development ofthe probation system predictions and expectations proba-tion duties and officers and offenders experiences But it isnot clear whether this was the result of probation workerscultivating local media contacts and succeeding in getting outgood news (Mawby amp Worrall 2011 p 18) ndash thereby pro-moting probation ndash or because they were members of teamsof professional journalists and public relations professionalswho were hired by the Ministry of Justice to publicly promoteprobation or whether they were expressing their genuine pro-fessional opinions Journalists main critiques were pointed493

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towards the failure of developing a fully functional probationservice over a period exceeding four years They were espe-cially critical of the announced introduction of electronic mo-nitoring that had never started (and eg spent 12 million Eurofrom European funds on that project) and the lack of adequateresources reassurance for making probation offices functional(eg insufficient number of official cars probation officers con-tracts with institutions that will enable community work)

Attitudenegative

Actors negative and positive positive neutral Total

Journalists 17 14 57 6 95 252Ministers of Justice 1 1 83 4 90 239Probation Service(Sector for Probation) 2 0 40 2 44 117Politicians 14 1 13 1 29 77Probation officers 0 0 14 1 15 4Offenders 0 0 14 0 14 37Lawyers 6 1 6 0 13 34Firms 0 0 13 0 13 34Others 2 0 9 1 13 34Judges 1 4 6 1 12 32Scientists 0 0 12 0 12 32NGO 0 0 10 0 10 27Prison managers 2 2 4 0 9 24Foreign politicians 0 1 3 0 4 11Other professionals (psychiatristspolice officers social workers) 0 0 2 0 3 08Government 0 0 1 0 1 03

Total 45 24 287 16 377 100 119 64 761 42

It is indicative that the main spokesmen for probationaside from journalists were not probation officers themselvesbut politicians Ministers of Justice and politicians more fre-quently expressed opinions on probation laws and regula-tions and on predictions and expectations while the Pro-bation Service mainly discussed the development of the pro-bation system The attitudes expressed by the Ministers ofJustice the professionals from the Probation Service proba-tion officers and probationers towards different aspects ofprobation were almost all positive Politicians expressed posi-tive opinions on probation less frequently but their negativeopinions on probation were mainly the result of the critiquedirected towards their political opponents who were sup-porting probation For example the Croatian Minister of theInterior voted against amendments of the Law on Probation

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494

TABLE 7Main actors in news-paper articles andvalence of theirattitude towardsprobation

in order to protect police officers from getting more workand another politician commented that a similar law on pro-bation had already existed in Croatia for many years but wasnever put into practice due to a lack of financial means (F L2012)

Article topic Year ()2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Regulations and legislation 466 173 117 467 84Expectations from probation 663 427 412 272 254Employment 5 213 117 65 0System development 168 346 235 174 127Probation work tasks 198 334 392 304 24Experiences 5 27 176 272 591

Total media coverage per year 259 192 131 236 182Positive article tone 326 209 91 150 225Negative article tone 69 34 31 448 138

There are some variations in the number of articles onprobation over time but overall coverage within the newspa-pers did not increase (Table 8) Over the period of five yearsprobation was a somewhat more frequent theme in 2009 and2012 In 2011 and 2012 criticism of probation became some-what more pronounced most likely because supporters ofthe probation service were using the media to portray a posi-tive image of the service in the beginning but then dis-appointment when it finally came to putting words into ac-tions produced considerable negative criticism of probationin the media in the later years However during 2013 whenall probation offices became fully functional there were alsoa number of government initiatives (eg distribution of pro-motion leaflets and brochures presentations in the regionaloffices and in the media) aimed at increasing public knowl-edge on probation and providing more accurate and com-plete information about probation to the public (Ministry ofJustice 2014) and media portrayal of probation moved in thedirection of story-telling about probationers personal experi-ences Thus it seemed that those efforts stopped the trend ofnegative reporting about the probation system

Also it was interesting to observe how the focus of thenewspaper articles changed over time (see Table 8) Whileinterest in writing about predictions and expectations signifi-cantly declined over years interest in writing about personalexperiences increased Also the print media in Croatia wererecently more focused on examples of successful collabora-tion between the probation service and local firms and NGOsin carrying out community work Thus there were several495

TABLE 8General tone of thenewspaper articlestowards probationand theme coverageper year

examples of probationers success stories and how society thelocal community and the individual benefited from the workthe offenders had done Such approaches help probation offi-cers in their work becoming more understood by the generalpublic and less ignored or distorted by the media (Mawby ampWorrall 2011)

STUDY LIMITATIONSAlthough this type of analysis has important advantages suchas easy replication and its usefulness in documenting trendsover time several important limitations of this study shouldbe acknowledged In this study the analysis was limited bythe availability of newspaper articles and due to time-con-suming analysis it captured a small sample of the media con-tent Also it should be noted that the observed trends in themedia coverage of probation may not be an accurate reflec-tion of reality (eg more interestingpublicised events receivemore coverage than less interesting ones and under the influ-ence of the presence of other important (inter)national politi-cal and social events at the time) Also this descriptive methodmay not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pat-tern in media coverage and qualitative content analysis reliesat least partially on researcher readings and interpretationof media texts (eg subjectivity of interpretation of some vari-ables such as the tone of the article) Thus results collected inthis study as well as suggested interpretations should be readwith these limitations in mind In order to increase the relia-bility and validity as well as the generalisability of results infurther studies this method should be combined with otherdata sources and methods (eg interviews and observations)the data should be collected on larger samples over a longertime period Also media coverage of one issue should be com-pared to media coverage of similar issues in a particular medi-um and time-period Due to greater influence of virtual infor-mation it is recommended also to analyse the coverage ofissues on probation on different internet web-sites portalsand forums

CONCLUDING REMARKSThe Croatian probation service has a low level of visibility inCroatian society (Pilars barometer of Croatian society 2014)and as probation services in other jurisdictions relatively lowvisibility in the printed media (eg UK Ireland Belgium)Overall there is an impression that Croatian media were notinterested in probation and made inaccurate assumptions aboutthe (higher) level of knowledge on probation held by thetarget audience Probation themes were presented in rela-

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496

tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

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lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

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498

REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

ing the rebranding of probation in 2006 the word welfarewas removed from its official title (Maguire amp Carr 2013)

Expectation of times mentioned in 390 articles

Fewer people in prison 459Fewer expenses 210Other expectations 167Resocialization 128Less crime 79More work places 64Joining the EU 64More human system 59Better social security 36More quality sanctions 33System unload 31Victims support 26Failure 26More work for police 18Easier job for judges 13Offenders monitoring 13Greater expenses 10Greater corruption 08Keep family intact 05Criminals will walk free 05More work for POs 05Less biased judges 03Harder work for judges 03

Probation service establishment was accompanied withpositive predictions and expectations in the media (Table 3)Prisons were obviously used as benchmarks in emphasisingthe Croatian probation services benefits3 similarly to otherjurisdictions eg Ireland (Maguire amp Carr 2013) Probationwas glorified in the media as the best (and only) solution forproblems facing the prison system (eg overcrowding inhu-manity ineffectiveness expense) As such the probation rhetoricin almost half of the articles emerged as fewer people in pris-ons (Table 3) However most of the analysed press failed toexplore the underlying reasons for prison overcrowding oroffer any deeper elaboration of penal policies whether pris-ons or probation

Probation was also presented as the solution for over-coming problems identified by European politicians such ashuman rights violations in prisons and out-of-date penal po-licies The press intensively confronted the Croatian publicwith the fact that the prison system was not particularly effec-tive in reducing recidivism that poor prison conditions wereharmful to health and safety and that there was an urgentneed for the humanitarian approach of probation (see Che-489

TABLE 3Expectations fromprobation

ung 1988) Thus probation was presented as not only aimingat public protection but also at the social inclusion of offend-ers their resocialisation rehabilitation and reintegration intosociety (Bauwens 2011) Probations transformative potentialhumanitarian side of the penal and judicial system and soci-etal redemption was especially stressed

The economic benefits of probation versus prison werealso emphasised The newspaper articles argued that proba-tion would be less expensive (than prison)4 and produce morework places These repeated claims of reduced expenses overthe 5-year period surely safeguarded probation from criticismto a certain degree (see Fitzgibbon 2012)

Among the negative predictions or expectations for pro-bation the most commonly mentioned was that offering pro-bation in Croatia was merely a concession to the EU that pro-bation was a failure and that it would produce even morework for police and result in higher expenses (Table 3) Inaddition probation was seen as a soft option frequently equat-ed with escaping or avoiding prison sentences and with free-dom (see Hayes 2013 Teague 2002)

Actor Number of articles positive experience

Offender 37 872Probation officer 12 50Firm NGO 9 100Head of probation office 6 50Judge 6 667Offenders family 3 100Police officer 2 100Victim 1 100Witness 1 100Social worker 1 100

Only one-fifth of the newspaper articles included a des-cription of some aspect of personal experience with probation(203) and as expected due to the promotion of the newnational service the majority of the newspaper articles des-cribed positive experiences (Table 4) Offenders experiencesprevailed while experiences of probation officers and othersinvolved in probation were rarely described It was interest-ing that offenders experiences were described mainly as pos-itive5 whereas this was the case for only 50 of the probationofficers experiences Offenders positive experiences mostlyreferred to their experiences with community work such asP Č sentenced to 730 hours of community work in a publickitchen said This is for me a type of redemption to soci-etyhellipThey did not think I would try as hard as I did I like ithere and I am even thinking of continuing volunteering here

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490

TABLE 4Actors whoseexperiences weredescribed

in the public kitchen in the future from time to time after Iserve this sentence (Ciglenečki 2013 p 5) However in articlesprobationers were never referred to as clients but always asoffenders and their offences were usually over-emphasisedadding to their dangerousness and dysfunctional personali-ties Due to the dominance of celebrity culture (Greer 2007)it was not surprising that Croatian journalists were eager touse politicians and celebrities who were sentenced to com-munity work as (anti)models of probation on the newspapercover pages (eg an ex-Minister of Agriculture sentenced tocommunity work in public kitchen)

Probation officers positive experiences were related totheir satisfaction with the small numbers of probationers whobreached orders the very positive feedback from probation-ers who were sent to perform community work and fromtheir employers and the successful collaborations with stateand local firms and organisations as well as NGOs in offeringcommunity work For example one offenders employer saidHe was extremely hard-working and a good worker If I couldI would immediately offer him a permanent job Whatever Igave him to do he would do it immediately without com-plaining He was really an ideal worker (Kokoruš 2013 p 13)Negative probation officers experiences were related to case--overload shortages of probation officers and official cars andthe still insufficient numbers of contracts with firms to offercommunity work (eg Bašić 2012 Rosić Zrinski 2012)

Types of probation work out of 266 articles

Community work 515Protective supervision 335Home imprisonment 301Electronic monitoring 301Risk assessment 113Alcohol treatment 68Victims support 49Conditional sentence 41Opinions to the courts 38Psychosocial treatment 30Police curfew 19Individual treatment plan 19Drug testing 15

In almost a third of the newspaper articles (318) theprobation work type was not mentioned In the rest of theanalysed articles the biggest attention was given to commu-nity work and protective supervision (Table 5) which corre-sponds to the high prevalence of community work orders thatthe Service currently supervises (2061 out of a total of 3000491

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TABLE 5Types of probationwork and tasksmentioned

cases Špero 2015) Community work was positively present-ed in the media particularly that which benefited the localcommunity Thus community work was usually describedas an effective response to probationers numerous problems anopportunity for societal redemption valuable work experience thatprobationers had rarely or never had before having more positiveeffect than prison increasing probationers dignity and a sentencethat did not isolate them from their communities and families Al-most a third of the analysed newspaper articles talked abouthome imprisonment and electronic bracelets even thoughthese types of supervision do not exist in probation practicein Croatia Thus the probation service was frequently criti-cised for the never-fulfilled promise to introduce electronicbracelets changes in Ministers (of Justice) disenabled the useof electronic monitoring because no one wanted to make thedecision about it hellipcountries in the region adopted the mo-del of electronic monitoring and used EU sources for it andnow there is no money left for electronic monitoring in the(Croatian) national budget (Borovac amp Zrinjski 2013 p 25)

General tone out of 390 articles

Positive 481Negative 247Negative and positive 10Neutral (only facts) 75Cannot be decided 07

Generally news articles that referred to probation wereconsidered positive in tone (Table 6) which is similar to themedias portrayal of probation in Ireland (Maguire amp Carr2013) but in contrast to the medias prevailing negative toneon probation in England (Fitzgibbon 2012) and Belgium (Bau-wens amp Mair 2012) It was interesting that when probation inCroatia was the main topic of the article the tone was deemedpositive in most cases (508) but when probation was thesecondary topic the articles tones were mostly deemed to benegative (655) Articles on the topics of probation predic-tions and expectations and probation system developmentwere more often deemed positive Positive portrayals of pro-bation were related to its promotion at both the individual(probationer) and societal levels but mostly in comparisonwith the negative aspects of the prison system The oppositewas found however for articles about laws and regulationsand about experiences ndash these articles were more often cate-gorised as negative in tone The negative aspects of the news-paper coverage critiqued the probation systems inadequatefunctioning in practice and much less often referred to the

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TABLE 6General attitudetowards probation innews articles

perceived leniency of probation orders Some of the critiqueswere The probation office has only one secretary phone andfax ndash probation is a dead letter (Cmok 2011 p 16) The prac-tice of alternative sanctions is rare so the law (on probation)is non-existent (Jakubin 2011 p 3) The purpose of the pro-bation law is just to rebalance the national budget Existingmeasures are already embedded in the law so it is hypocrisyto offer the same measure under a different name (Raić Kne-žević 2009 p 3) The course of probations development inCroatia was also criticised by EU politicians because of theinadequate storage of computers software delays shortagesof official cars and probation officers lack of space for proba-tion officers large numbers of unsolved cases decreased pro-bation sentencing because of case overload the failure to in-troduce electronic monitoring and the lack of furniture inprobation offices caused by the failure of two public procurementtenders (Raić Knežević 2011 p 4)

Only between one-fifth and one-quarter of the newspa-per articles included a description of cooperation with otherinstitutions andor professionals (256) or supervisionmechanisms and technologies (221) Typical descriptionsincluded collaborations with local firms and NGOs with whomthe Probation Service had signed contracts to provide com-munity work for offenders It was somewhat surprising thatcollaboration with other organisations and professionals (egjudges police local communities or social workers) was soscarcely mentioned in the media given that probation is not aclosed system guided by autonomous values but tends to bedeveloped or accomplished with other agencies and profes-sionals Especially in recent years the emphasis on the impor-tance of partnerships with other agencies and professionalshas increased (eg Maloić amp Rajić 2012 Rumgay 2007)

Journalists Ministers of Justice politicians and profes-sionals from the Probation Service and other politicians werethe actors who most frequently expressed their opinions ondifferent aspects of probation service6 (Table 7)

Journalists attitudes towards probation were mainly po-sitive (Table 7) especially in describing the development ofthe probation system predictions and expectations proba-tion duties and officers and offenders experiences But it isnot clear whether this was the result of probation workerscultivating local media contacts and succeeding in getting outgood news (Mawby amp Worrall 2011 p 18) ndash thereby pro-moting probation ndash or because they were members of teamsof professional journalists and public relations professionalswho were hired by the Ministry of Justice to publicly promoteprobation or whether they were expressing their genuine pro-fessional opinions Journalists main critiques were pointed493

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towards the failure of developing a fully functional probationservice over a period exceeding four years They were espe-cially critical of the announced introduction of electronic mo-nitoring that had never started (and eg spent 12 million Eurofrom European funds on that project) and the lack of adequateresources reassurance for making probation offices functional(eg insufficient number of official cars probation officers con-tracts with institutions that will enable community work)

Attitudenegative

Actors negative and positive positive neutral Total

Journalists 17 14 57 6 95 252Ministers of Justice 1 1 83 4 90 239Probation Service(Sector for Probation) 2 0 40 2 44 117Politicians 14 1 13 1 29 77Probation officers 0 0 14 1 15 4Offenders 0 0 14 0 14 37Lawyers 6 1 6 0 13 34Firms 0 0 13 0 13 34Others 2 0 9 1 13 34Judges 1 4 6 1 12 32Scientists 0 0 12 0 12 32NGO 0 0 10 0 10 27Prison managers 2 2 4 0 9 24Foreign politicians 0 1 3 0 4 11Other professionals (psychiatristspolice officers social workers) 0 0 2 0 3 08Government 0 0 1 0 1 03

Total 45 24 287 16 377 100 119 64 761 42

It is indicative that the main spokesmen for probationaside from journalists were not probation officers themselvesbut politicians Ministers of Justice and politicians more fre-quently expressed opinions on probation laws and regula-tions and on predictions and expectations while the Pro-bation Service mainly discussed the development of the pro-bation system The attitudes expressed by the Ministers ofJustice the professionals from the Probation Service proba-tion officers and probationers towards different aspects ofprobation were almost all positive Politicians expressed posi-tive opinions on probation less frequently but their negativeopinions on probation were mainly the result of the critiquedirected towards their political opponents who were sup-porting probation For example the Croatian Minister of theInterior voted against amendments of the Law on Probation

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494

TABLE 7Main actors in news-paper articles andvalence of theirattitude towardsprobation

in order to protect police officers from getting more workand another politician commented that a similar law on pro-bation had already existed in Croatia for many years but wasnever put into practice due to a lack of financial means (F L2012)

Article topic Year ()2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Regulations and legislation 466 173 117 467 84Expectations from probation 663 427 412 272 254Employment 5 213 117 65 0System development 168 346 235 174 127Probation work tasks 198 334 392 304 24Experiences 5 27 176 272 591

Total media coverage per year 259 192 131 236 182Positive article tone 326 209 91 150 225Negative article tone 69 34 31 448 138

There are some variations in the number of articles onprobation over time but overall coverage within the newspa-pers did not increase (Table 8) Over the period of five yearsprobation was a somewhat more frequent theme in 2009 and2012 In 2011 and 2012 criticism of probation became some-what more pronounced most likely because supporters ofthe probation service were using the media to portray a posi-tive image of the service in the beginning but then dis-appointment when it finally came to putting words into ac-tions produced considerable negative criticism of probationin the media in the later years However during 2013 whenall probation offices became fully functional there were alsoa number of government initiatives (eg distribution of pro-motion leaflets and brochures presentations in the regionaloffices and in the media) aimed at increasing public knowl-edge on probation and providing more accurate and com-plete information about probation to the public (Ministry ofJustice 2014) and media portrayal of probation moved in thedirection of story-telling about probationers personal experi-ences Thus it seemed that those efforts stopped the trend ofnegative reporting about the probation system

Also it was interesting to observe how the focus of thenewspaper articles changed over time (see Table 8) Whileinterest in writing about predictions and expectations signifi-cantly declined over years interest in writing about personalexperiences increased Also the print media in Croatia wererecently more focused on examples of successful collabora-tion between the probation service and local firms and NGOsin carrying out community work Thus there were several495

TABLE 8General tone of thenewspaper articlestowards probationand theme coverageper year

examples of probationers success stories and how society thelocal community and the individual benefited from the workthe offenders had done Such approaches help probation offi-cers in their work becoming more understood by the generalpublic and less ignored or distorted by the media (Mawby ampWorrall 2011)

STUDY LIMITATIONSAlthough this type of analysis has important advantages suchas easy replication and its usefulness in documenting trendsover time several important limitations of this study shouldbe acknowledged In this study the analysis was limited bythe availability of newspaper articles and due to time-con-suming analysis it captured a small sample of the media con-tent Also it should be noted that the observed trends in themedia coverage of probation may not be an accurate reflec-tion of reality (eg more interestingpublicised events receivemore coverage than less interesting ones and under the influ-ence of the presence of other important (inter)national politi-cal and social events at the time) Also this descriptive methodmay not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pat-tern in media coverage and qualitative content analysis reliesat least partially on researcher readings and interpretationof media texts (eg subjectivity of interpretation of some vari-ables such as the tone of the article) Thus results collected inthis study as well as suggested interpretations should be readwith these limitations in mind In order to increase the relia-bility and validity as well as the generalisability of results infurther studies this method should be combined with otherdata sources and methods (eg interviews and observations)the data should be collected on larger samples over a longertime period Also media coverage of one issue should be com-pared to media coverage of similar issues in a particular medi-um and time-period Due to greater influence of virtual infor-mation it is recommended also to analyse the coverage ofissues on probation on different internet web-sites portalsand forums

CONCLUDING REMARKSThe Croatian probation service has a low level of visibility inCroatian society (Pilars barometer of Croatian society 2014)and as probation services in other jurisdictions relatively lowvisibility in the printed media (eg UK Ireland Belgium)Overall there is an impression that Croatian media were notinterested in probation and made inaccurate assumptions aboutthe (higher) level of knowledge on probation held by thetarget audience Probation themes were presented in rela-

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496

tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

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lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

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498

REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

ung 1988) Thus probation was presented as not only aimingat public protection but also at the social inclusion of offend-ers their resocialisation rehabilitation and reintegration intosociety (Bauwens 2011) Probations transformative potentialhumanitarian side of the penal and judicial system and soci-etal redemption was especially stressed

The economic benefits of probation versus prison werealso emphasised The newspaper articles argued that proba-tion would be less expensive (than prison)4 and produce morework places These repeated claims of reduced expenses overthe 5-year period surely safeguarded probation from criticismto a certain degree (see Fitzgibbon 2012)

Among the negative predictions or expectations for pro-bation the most commonly mentioned was that offering pro-bation in Croatia was merely a concession to the EU that pro-bation was a failure and that it would produce even morework for police and result in higher expenses (Table 3) Inaddition probation was seen as a soft option frequently equat-ed with escaping or avoiding prison sentences and with free-dom (see Hayes 2013 Teague 2002)

Actor Number of articles positive experience

Offender 37 872Probation officer 12 50Firm NGO 9 100Head of probation office 6 50Judge 6 667Offenders family 3 100Police officer 2 100Victim 1 100Witness 1 100Social worker 1 100

Only one-fifth of the newspaper articles included a des-cription of some aspect of personal experience with probation(203) and as expected due to the promotion of the newnational service the majority of the newspaper articles des-cribed positive experiences (Table 4) Offenders experiencesprevailed while experiences of probation officers and othersinvolved in probation were rarely described It was interest-ing that offenders experiences were described mainly as pos-itive5 whereas this was the case for only 50 of the probationofficers experiences Offenders positive experiences mostlyreferred to their experiences with community work such asP Č sentenced to 730 hours of community work in a publickitchen said This is for me a type of redemption to soci-etyhellipThey did not think I would try as hard as I did I like ithere and I am even thinking of continuing volunteering here

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490

TABLE 4Actors whoseexperiences weredescribed

in the public kitchen in the future from time to time after Iserve this sentence (Ciglenečki 2013 p 5) However in articlesprobationers were never referred to as clients but always asoffenders and their offences were usually over-emphasisedadding to their dangerousness and dysfunctional personali-ties Due to the dominance of celebrity culture (Greer 2007)it was not surprising that Croatian journalists were eager touse politicians and celebrities who were sentenced to com-munity work as (anti)models of probation on the newspapercover pages (eg an ex-Minister of Agriculture sentenced tocommunity work in public kitchen)

Probation officers positive experiences were related totheir satisfaction with the small numbers of probationers whobreached orders the very positive feedback from probation-ers who were sent to perform community work and fromtheir employers and the successful collaborations with stateand local firms and organisations as well as NGOs in offeringcommunity work For example one offenders employer saidHe was extremely hard-working and a good worker If I couldI would immediately offer him a permanent job Whatever Igave him to do he would do it immediately without com-plaining He was really an ideal worker (Kokoruš 2013 p 13)Negative probation officers experiences were related to case--overload shortages of probation officers and official cars andthe still insufficient numbers of contracts with firms to offercommunity work (eg Bašić 2012 Rosić Zrinski 2012)

Types of probation work out of 266 articles

Community work 515Protective supervision 335Home imprisonment 301Electronic monitoring 301Risk assessment 113Alcohol treatment 68Victims support 49Conditional sentence 41Opinions to the courts 38Psychosocial treatment 30Police curfew 19Individual treatment plan 19Drug testing 15

In almost a third of the newspaper articles (318) theprobation work type was not mentioned In the rest of theanalysed articles the biggest attention was given to commu-nity work and protective supervision (Table 5) which corre-sponds to the high prevalence of community work orders thatthe Service currently supervises (2061 out of a total of 3000491

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TABLE 5Types of probationwork and tasksmentioned

cases Špero 2015) Community work was positively present-ed in the media particularly that which benefited the localcommunity Thus community work was usually describedas an effective response to probationers numerous problems anopportunity for societal redemption valuable work experience thatprobationers had rarely or never had before having more positiveeffect than prison increasing probationers dignity and a sentencethat did not isolate them from their communities and families Al-most a third of the analysed newspaper articles talked abouthome imprisonment and electronic bracelets even thoughthese types of supervision do not exist in probation practicein Croatia Thus the probation service was frequently criti-cised for the never-fulfilled promise to introduce electronicbracelets changes in Ministers (of Justice) disenabled the useof electronic monitoring because no one wanted to make thedecision about it hellipcountries in the region adopted the mo-del of electronic monitoring and used EU sources for it andnow there is no money left for electronic monitoring in the(Croatian) national budget (Borovac amp Zrinjski 2013 p 25)

General tone out of 390 articles

Positive 481Negative 247Negative and positive 10Neutral (only facts) 75Cannot be decided 07

Generally news articles that referred to probation wereconsidered positive in tone (Table 6) which is similar to themedias portrayal of probation in Ireland (Maguire amp Carr2013) but in contrast to the medias prevailing negative toneon probation in England (Fitzgibbon 2012) and Belgium (Bau-wens amp Mair 2012) It was interesting that when probation inCroatia was the main topic of the article the tone was deemedpositive in most cases (508) but when probation was thesecondary topic the articles tones were mostly deemed to benegative (655) Articles on the topics of probation predic-tions and expectations and probation system developmentwere more often deemed positive Positive portrayals of pro-bation were related to its promotion at both the individual(probationer) and societal levels but mostly in comparisonwith the negative aspects of the prison system The oppositewas found however for articles about laws and regulationsand about experiences ndash these articles were more often cate-gorised as negative in tone The negative aspects of the news-paper coverage critiqued the probation systems inadequatefunctioning in practice and much less often referred to the

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492

TABLE 6General attitudetowards probation innews articles

perceived leniency of probation orders Some of the critiqueswere The probation office has only one secretary phone andfax ndash probation is a dead letter (Cmok 2011 p 16) The prac-tice of alternative sanctions is rare so the law (on probation)is non-existent (Jakubin 2011 p 3) The purpose of the pro-bation law is just to rebalance the national budget Existingmeasures are already embedded in the law so it is hypocrisyto offer the same measure under a different name (Raić Kne-žević 2009 p 3) The course of probations development inCroatia was also criticised by EU politicians because of theinadequate storage of computers software delays shortagesof official cars and probation officers lack of space for proba-tion officers large numbers of unsolved cases decreased pro-bation sentencing because of case overload the failure to in-troduce electronic monitoring and the lack of furniture inprobation offices caused by the failure of two public procurementtenders (Raić Knežević 2011 p 4)

Only between one-fifth and one-quarter of the newspa-per articles included a description of cooperation with otherinstitutions andor professionals (256) or supervisionmechanisms and technologies (221) Typical descriptionsincluded collaborations with local firms and NGOs with whomthe Probation Service had signed contracts to provide com-munity work for offenders It was somewhat surprising thatcollaboration with other organisations and professionals (egjudges police local communities or social workers) was soscarcely mentioned in the media given that probation is not aclosed system guided by autonomous values but tends to bedeveloped or accomplished with other agencies and profes-sionals Especially in recent years the emphasis on the impor-tance of partnerships with other agencies and professionalshas increased (eg Maloić amp Rajić 2012 Rumgay 2007)

Journalists Ministers of Justice politicians and profes-sionals from the Probation Service and other politicians werethe actors who most frequently expressed their opinions ondifferent aspects of probation service6 (Table 7)

Journalists attitudes towards probation were mainly po-sitive (Table 7) especially in describing the development ofthe probation system predictions and expectations proba-tion duties and officers and offenders experiences But it isnot clear whether this was the result of probation workerscultivating local media contacts and succeeding in getting outgood news (Mawby amp Worrall 2011 p 18) ndash thereby pro-moting probation ndash or because they were members of teamsof professional journalists and public relations professionalswho were hired by the Ministry of Justice to publicly promoteprobation or whether they were expressing their genuine pro-fessional opinions Journalists main critiques were pointed493

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towards the failure of developing a fully functional probationservice over a period exceeding four years They were espe-cially critical of the announced introduction of electronic mo-nitoring that had never started (and eg spent 12 million Eurofrom European funds on that project) and the lack of adequateresources reassurance for making probation offices functional(eg insufficient number of official cars probation officers con-tracts with institutions that will enable community work)

Attitudenegative

Actors negative and positive positive neutral Total

Journalists 17 14 57 6 95 252Ministers of Justice 1 1 83 4 90 239Probation Service(Sector for Probation) 2 0 40 2 44 117Politicians 14 1 13 1 29 77Probation officers 0 0 14 1 15 4Offenders 0 0 14 0 14 37Lawyers 6 1 6 0 13 34Firms 0 0 13 0 13 34Others 2 0 9 1 13 34Judges 1 4 6 1 12 32Scientists 0 0 12 0 12 32NGO 0 0 10 0 10 27Prison managers 2 2 4 0 9 24Foreign politicians 0 1 3 0 4 11Other professionals (psychiatristspolice officers social workers) 0 0 2 0 3 08Government 0 0 1 0 1 03

Total 45 24 287 16 377 100 119 64 761 42

It is indicative that the main spokesmen for probationaside from journalists were not probation officers themselvesbut politicians Ministers of Justice and politicians more fre-quently expressed opinions on probation laws and regula-tions and on predictions and expectations while the Pro-bation Service mainly discussed the development of the pro-bation system The attitudes expressed by the Ministers ofJustice the professionals from the Probation Service proba-tion officers and probationers towards different aspects ofprobation were almost all positive Politicians expressed posi-tive opinions on probation less frequently but their negativeopinions on probation were mainly the result of the critiquedirected towards their political opponents who were sup-porting probation For example the Croatian Minister of theInterior voted against amendments of the Law on Probation

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TABLE 7Main actors in news-paper articles andvalence of theirattitude towardsprobation

in order to protect police officers from getting more workand another politician commented that a similar law on pro-bation had already existed in Croatia for many years but wasnever put into practice due to a lack of financial means (F L2012)

Article topic Year ()2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Regulations and legislation 466 173 117 467 84Expectations from probation 663 427 412 272 254Employment 5 213 117 65 0System development 168 346 235 174 127Probation work tasks 198 334 392 304 24Experiences 5 27 176 272 591

Total media coverage per year 259 192 131 236 182Positive article tone 326 209 91 150 225Negative article tone 69 34 31 448 138

There are some variations in the number of articles onprobation over time but overall coverage within the newspa-pers did not increase (Table 8) Over the period of five yearsprobation was a somewhat more frequent theme in 2009 and2012 In 2011 and 2012 criticism of probation became some-what more pronounced most likely because supporters ofthe probation service were using the media to portray a posi-tive image of the service in the beginning but then dis-appointment when it finally came to putting words into ac-tions produced considerable negative criticism of probationin the media in the later years However during 2013 whenall probation offices became fully functional there were alsoa number of government initiatives (eg distribution of pro-motion leaflets and brochures presentations in the regionaloffices and in the media) aimed at increasing public knowl-edge on probation and providing more accurate and com-plete information about probation to the public (Ministry ofJustice 2014) and media portrayal of probation moved in thedirection of story-telling about probationers personal experi-ences Thus it seemed that those efforts stopped the trend ofnegative reporting about the probation system

Also it was interesting to observe how the focus of thenewspaper articles changed over time (see Table 8) Whileinterest in writing about predictions and expectations signifi-cantly declined over years interest in writing about personalexperiences increased Also the print media in Croatia wererecently more focused on examples of successful collabora-tion between the probation service and local firms and NGOsin carrying out community work Thus there were several495

TABLE 8General tone of thenewspaper articlestowards probationand theme coverageper year

examples of probationers success stories and how society thelocal community and the individual benefited from the workthe offenders had done Such approaches help probation offi-cers in their work becoming more understood by the generalpublic and less ignored or distorted by the media (Mawby ampWorrall 2011)

STUDY LIMITATIONSAlthough this type of analysis has important advantages suchas easy replication and its usefulness in documenting trendsover time several important limitations of this study shouldbe acknowledged In this study the analysis was limited bythe availability of newspaper articles and due to time-con-suming analysis it captured a small sample of the media con-tent Also it should be noted that the observed trends in themedia coverage of probation may not be an accurate reflec-tion of reality (eg more interestingpublicised events receivemore coverage than less interesting ones and under the influ-ence of the presence of other important (inter)national politi-cal and social events at the time) Also this descriptive methodmay not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pat-tern in media coverage and qualitative content analysis reliesat least partially on researcher readings and interpretationof media texts (eg subjectivity of interpretation of some vari-ables such as the tone of the article) Thus results collected inthis study as well as suggested interpretations should be readwith these limitations in mind In order to increase the relia-bility and validity as well as the generalisability of results infurther studies this method should be combined with otherdata sources and methods (eg interviews and observations)the data should be collected on larger samples over a longertime period Also media coverage of one issue should be com-pared to media coverage of similar issues in a particular medi-um and time-period Due to greater influence of virtual infor-mation it is recommended also to analyse the coverage ofissues on probation on different internet web-sites portalsand forums

CONCLUDING REMARKSThe Croatian probation service has a low level of visibility inCroatian society (Pilars barometer of Croatian society 2014)and as probation services in other jurisdictions relatively lowvisibility in the printed media (eg UK Ireland Belgium)Overall there is an impression that Croatian media were notinterested in probation and made inaccurate assumptions aboutthe (higher) level of knowledge on probation held by thetarget audience Probation themes were presented in rela-

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tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

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lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

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REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

in the public kitchen in the future from time to time after Iserve this sentence (Ciglenečki 2013 p 5) However in articlesprobationers were never referred to as clients but always asoffenders and their offences were usually over-emphasisedadding to their dangerousness and dysfunctional personali-ties Due to the dominance of celebrity culture (Greer 2007)it was not surprising that Croatian journalists were eager touse politicians and celebrities who were sentenced to com-munity work as (anti)models of probation on the newspapercover pages (eg an ex-Minister of Agriculture sentenced tocommunity work in public kitchen)

Probation officers positive experiences were related totheir satisfaction with the small numbers of probationers whobreached orders the very positive feedback from probation-ers who were sent to perform community work and fromtheir employers and the successful collaborations with stateand local firms and organisations as well as NGOs in offeringcommunity work For example one offenders employer saidHe was extremely hard-working and a good worker If I couldI would immediately offer him a permanent job Whatever Igave him to do he would do it immediately without com-plaining He was really an ideal worker (Kokoruš 2013 p 13)Negative probation officers experiences were related to case--overload shortages of probation officers and official cars andthe still insufficient numbers of contracts with firms to offercommunity work (eg Bašić 2012 Rosić Zrinski 2012)

Types of probation work out of 266 articles

Community work 515Protective supervision 335Home imprisonment 301Electronic monitoring 301Risk assessment 113Alcohol treatment 68Victims support 49Conditional sentence 41Opinions to the courts 38Psychosocial treatment 30Police curfew 19Individual treatment plan 19Drug testing 15

In almost a third of the newspaper articles (318) theprobation work type was not mentioned In the rest of theanalysed articles the biggest attention was given to commu-nity work and protective supervision (Table 5) which corre-sponds to the high prevalence of community work orders thatthe Service currently supervises (2061 out of a total of 3000491

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TABLE 5Types of probationwork and tasksmentioned

cases Špero 2015) Community work was positively present-ed in the media particularly that which benefited the localcommunity Thus community work was usually describedas an effective response to probationers numerous problems anopportunity for societal redemption valuable work experience thatprobationers had rarely or never had before having more positiveeffect than prison increasing probationers dignity and a sentencethat did not isolate them from their communities and families Al-most a third of the analysed newspaper articles talked abouthome imprisonment and electronic bracelets even thoughthese types of supervision do not exist in probation practicein Croatia Thus the probation service was frequently criti-cised for the never-fulfilled promise to introduce electronicbracelets changes in Ministers (of Justice) disenabled the useof electronic monitoring because no one wanted to make thedecision about it hellipcountries in the region adopted the mo-del of electronic monitoring and used EU sources for it andnow there is no money left for electronic monitoring in the(Croatian) national budget (Borovac amp Zrinjski 2013 p 25)

General tone out of 390 articles

Positive 481Negative 247Negative and positive 10Neutral (only facts) 75Cannot be decided 07

Generally news articles that referred to probation wereconsidered positive in tone (Table 6) which is similar to themedias portrayal of probation in Ireland (Maguire amp Carr2013) but in contrast to the medias prevailing negative toneon probation in England (Fitzgibbon 2012) and Belgium (Bau-wens amp Mair 2012) It was interesting that when probation inCroatia was the main topic of the article the tone was deemedpositive in most cases (508) but when probation was thesecondary topic the articles tones were mostly deemed to benegative (655) Articles on the topics of probation predic-tions and expectations and probation system developmentwere more often deemed positive Positive portrayals of pro-bation were related to its promotion at both the individual(probationer) and societal levels but mostly in comparisonwith the negative aspects of the prison system The oppositewas found however for articles about laws and regulationsand about experiences ndash these articles were more often cate-gorised as negative in tone The negative aspects of the news-paper coverage critiqued the probation systems inadequatefunctioning in practice and much less often referred to the

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TABLE 6General attitudetowards probation innews articles

perceived leniency of probation orders Some of the critiqueswere The probation office has only one secretary phone andfax ndash probation is a dead letter (Cmok 2011 p 16) The prac-tice of alternative sanctions is rare so the law (on probation)is non-existent (Jakubin 2011 p 3) The purpose of the pro-bation law is just to rebalance the national budget Existingmeasures are already embedded in the law so it is hypocrisyto offer the same measure under a different name (Raić Kne-žević 2009 p 3) The course of probations development inCroatia was also criticised by EU politicians because of theinadequate storage of computers software delays shortagesof official cars and probation officers lack of space for proba-tion officers large numbers of unsolved cases decreased pro-bation sentencing because of case overload the failure to in-troduce electronic monitoring and the lack of furniture inprobation offices caused by the failure of two public procurementtenders (Raić Knežević 2011 p 4)

Only between one-fifth and one-quarter of the newspa-per articles included a description of cooperation with otherinstitutions andor professionals (256) or supervisionmechanisms and technologies (221) Typical descriptionsincluded collaborations with local firms and NGOs with whomthe Probation Service had signed contracts to provide com-munity work for offenders It was somewhat surprising thatcollaboration with other organisations and professionals (egjudges police local communities or social workers) was soscarcely mentioned in the media given that probation is not aclosed system guided by autonomous values but tends to bedeveloped or accomplished with other agencies and profes-sionals Especially in recent years the emphasis on the impor-tance of partnerships with other agencies and professionalshas increased (eg Maloić amp Rajić 2012 Rumgay 2007)

Journalists Ministers of Justice politicians and profes-sionals from the Probation Service and other politicians werethe actors who most frequently expressed their opinions ondifferent aspects of probation service6 (Table 7)

Journalists attitudes towards probation were mainly po-sitive (Table 7) especially in describing the development ofthe probation system predictions and expectations proba-tion duties and officers and offenders experiences But it isnot clear whether this was the result of probation workerscultivating local media contacts and succeeding in getting outgood news (Mawby amp Worrall 2011 p 18) ndash thereby pro-moting probation ndash or because they were members of teamsof professional journalists and public relations professionalswho were hired by the Ministry of Justice to publicly promoteprobation or whether they were expressing their genuine pro-fessional opinions Journalists main critiques were pointed493

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towards the failure of developing a fully functional probationservice over a period exceeding four years They were espe-cially critical of the announced introduction of electronic mo-nitoring that had never started (and eg spent 12 million Eurofrom European funds on that project) and the lack of adequateresources reassurance for making probation offices functional(eg insufficient number of official cars probation officers con-tracts with institutions that will enable community work)

Attitudenegative

Actors negative and positive positive neutral Total

Journalists 17 14 57 6 95 252Ministers of Justice 1 1 83 4 90 239Probation Service(Sector for Probation) 2 0 40 2 44 117Politicians 14 1 13 1 29 77Probation officers 0 0 14 1 15 4Offenders 0 0 14 0 14 37Lawyers 6 1 6 0 13 34Firms 0 0 13 0 13 34Others 2 0 9 1 13 34Judges 1 4 6 1 12 32Scientists 0 0 12 0 12 32NGO 0 0 10 0 10 27Prison managers 2 2 4 0 9 24Foreign politicians 0 1 3 0 4 11Other professionals (psychiatristspolice officers social workers) 0 0 2 0 3 08Government 0 0 1 0 1 03

Total 45 24 287 16 377 100 119 64 761 42

It is indicative that the main spokesmen for probationaside from journalists were not probation officers themselvesbut politicians Ministers of Justice and politicians more fre-quently expressed opinions on probation laws and regula-tions and on predictions and expectations while the Pro-bation Service mainly discussed the development of the pro-bation system The attitudes expressed by the Ministers ofJustice the professionals from the Probation Service proba-tion officers and probationers towards different aspects ofprobation were almost all positive Politicians expressed posi-tive opinions on probation less frequently but their negativeopinions on probation were mainly the result of the critiquedirected towards their political opponents who were sup-porting probation For example the Croatian Minister of theInterior voted against amendments of the Law on Probation

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TABLE 7Main actors in news-paper articles andvalence of theirattitude towardsprobation

in order to protect police officers from getting more workand another politician commented that a similar law on pro-bation had already existed in Croatia for many years but wasnever put into practice due to a lack of financial means (F L2012)

Article topic Year ()2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Regulations and legislation 466 173 117 467 84Expectations from probation 663 427 412 272 254Employment 5 213 117 65 0System development 168 346 235 174 127Probation work tasks 198 334 392 304 24Experiences 5 27 176 272 591

Total media coverage per year 259 192 131 236 182Positive article tone 326 209 91 150 225Negative article tone 69 34 31 448 138

There are some variations in the number of articles onprobation over time but overall coverage within the newspa-pers did not increase (Table 8) Over the period of five yearsprobation was a somewhat more frequent theme in 2009 and2012 In 2011 and 2012 criticism of probation became some-what more pronounced most likely because supporters ofthe probation service were using the media to portray a posi-tive image of the service in the beginning but then dis-appointment when it finally came to putting words into ac-tions produced considerable negative criticism of probationin the media in the later years However during 2013 whenall probation offices became fully functional there were alsoa number of government initiatives (eg distribution of pro-motion leaflets and brochures presentations in the regionaloffices and in the media) aimed at increasing public knowl-edge on probation and providing more accurate and com-plete information about probation to the public (Ministry ofJustice 2014) and media portrayal of probation moved in thedirection of story-telling about probationers personal experi-ences Thus it seemed that those efforts stopped the trend ofnegative reporting about the probation system

Also it was interesting to observe how the focus of thenewspaper articles changed over time (see Table 8) Whileinterest in writing about predictions and expectations signifi-cantly declined over years interest in writing about personalexperiences increased Also the print media in Croatia wererecently more focused on examples of successful collabora-tion between the probation service and local firms and NGOsin carrying out community work Thus there were several495

TABLE 8General tone of thenewspaper articlestowards probationand theme coverageper year

examples of probationers success stories and how society thelocal community and the individual benefited from the workthe offenders had done Such approaches help probation offi-cers in their work becoming more understood by the generalpublic and less ignored or distorted by the media (Mawby ampWorrall 2011)

STUDY LIMITATIONSAlthough this type of analysis has important advantages suchas easy replication and its usefulness in documenting trendsover time several important limitations of this study shouldbe acknowledged In this study the analysis was limited bythe availability of newspaper articles and due to time-con-suming analysis it captured a small sample of the media con-tent Also it should be noted that the observed trends in themedia coverage of probation may not be an accurate reflec-tion of reality (eg more interestingpublicised events receivemore coverage than less interesting ones and under the influ-ence of the presence of other important (inter)national politi-cal and social events at the time) Also this descriptive methodmay not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pat-tern in media coverage and qualitative content analysis reliesat least partially on researcher readings and interpretationof media texts (eg subjectivity of interpretation of some vari-ables such as the tone of the article) Thus results collected inthis study as well as suggested interpretations should be readwith these limitations in mind In order to increase the relia-bility and validity as well as the generalisability of results infurther studies this method should be combined with otherdata sources and methods (eg interviews and observations)the data should be collected on larger samples over a longertime period Also media coverage of one issue should be com-pared to media coverage of similar issues in a particular medi-um and time-period Due to greater influence of virtual infor-mation it is recommended also to analyse the coverage ofissues on probation on different internet web-sites portalsand forums

CONCLUDING REMARKSThe Croatian probation service has a low level of visibility inCroatian society (Pilars barometer of Croatian society 2014)and as probation services in other jurisdictions relatively lowvisibility in the printed media (eg UK Ireland Belgium)Overall there is an impression that Croatian media were notinterested in probation and made inaccurate assumptions aboutthe (higher) level of knowledge on probation held by thetarget audience Probation themes were presented in rela-

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496

tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

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SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

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498

REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

cases Špero 2015) Community work was positively present-ed in the media particularly that which benefited the localcommunity Thus community work was usually describedas an effective response to probationers numerous problems anopportunity for societal redemption valuable work experience thatprobationers had rarely or never had before having more positiveeffect than prison increasing probationers dignity and a sentencethat did not isolate them from their communities and families Al-most a third of the analysed newspaper articles talked abouthome imprisonment and electronic bracelets even thoughthese types of supervision do not exist in probation practicein Croatia Thus the probation service was frequently criti-cised for the never-fulfilled promise to introduce electronicbracelets changes in Ministers (of Justice) disenabled the useof electronic monitoring because no one wanted to make thedecision about it hellipcountries in the region adopted the mo-del of electronic monitoring and used EU sources for it andnow there is no money left for electronic monitoring in the(Croatian) national budget (Borovac amp Zrinjski 2013 p 25)

General tone out of 390 articles

Positive 481Negative 247Negative and positive 10Neutral (only facts) 75Cannot be decided 07

Generally news articles that referred to probation wereconsidered positive in tone (Table 6) which is similar to themedias portrayal of probation in Ireland (Maguire amp Carr2013) but in contrast to the medias prevailing negative toneon probation in England (Fitzgibbon 2012) and Belgium (Bau-wens amp Mair 2012) It was interesting that when probation inCroatia was the main topic of the article the tone was deemedpositive in most cases (508) but when probation was thesecondary topic the articles tones were mostly deemed to benegative (655) Articles on the topics of probation predic-tions and expectations and probation system developmentwere more often deemed positive Positive portrayals of pro-bation were related to its promotion at both the individual(probationer) and societal levels but mostly in comparisonwith the negative aspects of the prison system The oppositewas found however for articles about laws and regulationsand about experiences ndash these articles were more often cate-gorised as negative in tone The negative aspects of the news-paper coverage critiqued the probation systems inadequatefunctioning in practice and much less often referred to the

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492

TABLE 6General attitudetowards probation innews articles

perceived leniency of probation orders Some of the critiqueswere The probation office has only one secretary phone andfax ndash probation is a dead letter (Cmok 2011 p 16) The prac-tice of alternative sanctions is rare so the law (on probation)is non-existent (Jakubin 2011 p 3) The purpose of the pro-bation law is just to rebalance the national budget Existingmeasures are already embedded in the law so it is hypocrisyto offer the same measure under a different name (Raić Kne-žević 2009 p 3) The course of probations development inCroatia was also criticised by EU politicians because of theinadequate storage of computers software delays shortagesof official cars and probation officers lack of space for proba-tion officers large numbers of unsolved cases decreased pro-bation sentencing because of case overload the failure to in-troduce electronic monitoring and the lack of furniture inprobation offices caused by the failure of two public procurementtenders (Raić Knežević 2011 p 4)

Only between one-fifth and one-quarter of the newspa-per articles included a description of cooperation with otherinstitutions andor professionals (256) or supervisionmechanisms and technologies (221) Typical descriptionsincluded collaborations with local firms and NGOs with whomthe Probation Service had signed contracts to provide com-munity work for offenders It was somewhat surprising thatcollaboration with other organisations and professionals (egjudges police local communities or social workers) was soscarcely mentioned in the media given that probation is not aclosed system guided by autonomous values but tends to bedeveloped or accomplished with other agencies and profes-sionals Especially in recent years the emphasis on the impor-tance of partnerships with other agencies and professionalshas increased (eg Maloić amp Rajić 2012 Rumgay 2007)

Journalists Ministers of Justice politicians and profes-sionals from the Probation Service and other politicians werethe actors who most frequently expressed their opinions ondifferent aspects of probation service6 (Table 7)

Journalists attitudes towards probation were mainly po-sitive (Table 7) especially in describing the development ofthe probation system predictions and expectations proba-tion duties and officers and offenders experiences But it isnot clear whether this was the result of probation workerscultivating local media contacts and succeeding in getting outgood news (Mawby amp Worrall 2011 p 18) ndash thereby pro-moting probation ndash or because they were members of teamsof professional journalists and public relations professionalswho were hired by the Ministry of Justice to publicly promoteprobation or whether they were expressing their genuine pro-fessional opinions Journalists main critiques were pointed493

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SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

towards the failure of developing a fully functional probationservice over a period exceeding four years They were espe-cially critical of the announced introduction of electronic mo-nitoring that had never started (and eg spent 12 million Eurofrom European funds on that project) and the lack of adequateresources reassurance for making probation offices functional(eg insufficient number of official cars probation officers con-tracts with institutions that will enable community work)

Attitudenegative

Actors negative and positive positive neutral Total

Journalists 17 14 57 6 95 252Ministers of Justice 1 1 83 4 90 239Probation Service(Sector for Probation) 2 0 40 2 44 117Politicians 14 1 13 1 29 77Probation officers 0 0 14 1 15 4Offenders 0 0 14 0 14 37Lawyers 6 1 6 0 13 34Firms 0 0 13 0 13 34Others 2 0 9 1 13 34Judges 1 4 6 1 12 32Scientists 0 0 12 0 12 32NGO 0 0 10 0 10 27Prison managers 2 2 4 0 9 24Foreign politicians 0 1 3 0 4 11Other professionals (psychiatristspolice officers social workers) 0 0 2 0 3 08Government 0 0 1 0 1 03

Total 45 24 287 16 377 100 119 64 761 42

It is indicative that the main spokesmen for probationaside from journalists were not probation officers themselvesbut politicians Ministers of Justice and politicians more fre-quently expressed opinions on probation laws and regula-tions and on predictions and expectations while the Pro-bation Service mainly discussed the development of the pro-bation system The attitudes expressed by the Ministers ofJustice the professionals from the Probation Service proba-tion officers and probationers towards different aspects ofprobation were almost all positive Politicians expressed posi-tive opinions on probation less frequently but their negativeopinions on probation were mainly the result of the critiquedirected towards their political opponents who were sup-porting probation For example the Croatian Minister of theInterior voted against amendments of the Law on Probation

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494

TABLE 7Main actors in news-paper articles andvalence of theirattitude towardsprobation

in order to protect police officers from getting more workand another politician commented that a similar law on pro-bation had already existed in Croatia for many years but wasnever put into practice due to a lack of financial means (F L2012)

Article topic Year ()2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Regulations and legislation 466 173 117 467 84Expectations from probation 663 427 412 272 254Employment 5 213 117 65 0System development 168 346 235 174 127Probation work tasks 198 334 392 304 24Experiences 5 27 176 272 591

Total media coverage per year 259 192 131 236 182Positive article tone 326 209 91 150 225Negative article tone 69 34 31 448 138

There are some variations in the number of articles onprobation over time but overall coverage within the newspa-pers did not increase (Table 8) Over the period of five yearsprobation was a somewhat more frequent theme in 2009 and2012 In 2011 and 2012 criticism of probation became some-what more pronounced most likely because supporters ofthe probation service were using the media to portray a posi-tive image of the service in the beginning but then dis-appointment when it finally came to putting words into ac-tions produced considerable negative criticism of probationin the media in the later years However during 2013 whenall probation offices became fully functional there were alsoa number of government initiatives (eg distribution of pro-motion leaflets and brochures presentations in the regionaloffices and in the media) aimed at increasing public knowl-edge on probation and providing more accurate and com-plete information about probation to the public (Ministry ofJustice 2014) and media portrayal of probation moved in thedirection of story-telling about probationers personal experi-ences Thus it seemed that those efforts stopped the trend ofnegative reporting about the probation system

Also it was interesting to observe how the focus of thenewspaper articles changed over time (see Table 8) Whileinterest in writing about predictions and expectations signifi-cantly declined over years interest in writing about personalexperiences increased Also the print media in Croatia wererecently more focused on examples of successful collabora-tion between the probation service and local firms and NGOsin carrying out community work Thus there were several495

TABLE 8General tone of thenewspaper articlestowards probationand theme coverageper year

examples of probationers success stories and how society thelocal community and the individual benefited from the workthe offenders had done Such approaches help probation offi-cers in their work becoming more understood by the generalpublic and less ignored or distorted by the media (Mawby ampWorrall 2011)

STUDY LIMITATIONSAlthough this type of analysis has important advantages suchas easy replication and its usefulness in documenting trendsover time several important limitations of this study shouldbe acknowledged In this study the analysis was limited bythe availability of newspaper articles and due to time-con-suming analysis it captured a small sample of the media con-tent Also it should be noted that the observed trends in themedia coverage of probation may not be an accurate reflec-tion of reality (eg more interestingpublicised events receivemore coverage than less interesting ones and under the influ-ence of the presence of other important (inter)national politi-cal and social events at the time) Also this descriptive methodmay not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pat-tern in media coverage and qualitative content analysis reliesat least partially on researcher readings and interpretationof media texts (eg subjectivity of interpretation of some vari-ables such as the tone of the article) Thus results collected inthis study as well as suggested interpretations should be readwith these limitations in mind In order to increase the relia-bility and validity as well as the generalisability of results infurther studies this method should be combined with otherdata sources and methods (eg interviews and observations)the data should be collected on larger samples over a longertime period Also media coverage of one issue should be com-pared to media coverage of similar issues in a particular medi-um and time-period Due to greater influence of virtual infor-mation it is recommended also to analyse the coverage ofissues on probation on different internet web-sites portalsand forums

CONCLUDING REMARKSThe Croatian probation service has a low level of visibility inCroatian society (Pilars barometer of Croatian society 2014)and as probation services in other jurisdictions relatively lowvisibility in the printed media (eg UK Ireland Belgium)Overall there is an impression that Croatian media were notinterested in probation and made inaccurate assumptions aboutthe (higher) level of knowledge on probation held by thetarget audience Probation themes were presented in rela-

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496

tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

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SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

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498

REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

perceived leniency of probation orders Some of the critiqueswere The probation office has only one secretary phone andfax ndash probation is a dead letter (Cmok 2011 p 16) The prac-tice of alternative sanctions is rare so the law (on probation)is non-existent (Jakubin 2011 p 3) The purpose of the pro-bation law is just to rebalance the national budget Existingmeasures are already embedded in the law so it is hypocrisyto offer the same measure under a different name (Raić Kne-žević 2009 p 3) The course of probations development inCroatia was also criticised by EU politicians because of theinadequate storage of computers software delays shortagesof official cars and probation officers lack of space for proba-tion officers large numbers of unsolved cases decreased pro-bation sentencing because of case overload the failure to in-troduce electronic monitoring and the lack of furniture inprobation offices caused by the failure of two public procurementtenders (Raić Knežević 2011 p 4)

Only between one-fifth and one-quarter of the newspa-per articles included a description of cooperation with otherinstitutions andor professionals (256) or supervisionmechanisms and technologies (221) Typical descriptionsincluded collaborations with local firms and NGOs with whomthe Probation Service had signed contracts to provide com-munity work for offenders It was somewhat surprising thatcollaboration with other organisations and professionals (egjudges police local communities or social workers) was soscarcely mentioned in the media given that probation is not aclosed system guided by autonomous values but tends to bedeveloped or accomplished with other agencies and profes-sionals Especially in recent years the emphasis on the impor-tance of partnerships with other agencies and professionalshas increased (eg Maloić amp Rajić 2012 Rumgay 2007)

Journalists Ministers of Justice politicians and profes-sionals from the Probation Service and other politicians werethe actors who most frequently expressed their opinions ondifferent aspects of probation service6 (Table 7)

Journalists attitudes towards probation were mainly po-sitive (Table 7) especially in describing the development ofthe probation system predictions and expectations proba-tion duties and officers and offenders experiences But it isnot clear whether this was the result of probation workerscultivating local media contacts and succeeding in getting outgood news (Mawby amp Worrall 2011 p 18) ndash thereby pro-moting probation ndash or because they were members of teamsof professional journalists and public relations professionalswho were hired by the Ministry of Justice to publicly promoteprobation or whether they were expressing their genuine pro-fessional opinions Journalists main critiques were pointed493

DRU[ ISTRA ZAGREBGOD 25 (2016) BR 4STR 481-502

SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

towards the failure of developing a fully functional probationservice over a period exceeding four years They were espe-cially critical of the announced introduction of electronic mo-nitoring that had never started (and eg spent 12 million Eurofrom European funds on that project) and the lack of adequateresources reassurance for making probation offices functional(eg insufficient number of official cars probation officers con-tracts with institutions that will enable community work)

Attitudenegative

Actors negative and positive positive neutral Total

Journalists 17 14 57 6 95 252Ministers of Justice 1 1 83 4 90 239Probation Service(Sector for Probation) 2 0 40 2 44 117Politicians 14 1 13 1 29 77Probation officers 0 0 14 1 15 4Offenders 0 0 14 0 14 37Lawyers 6 1 6 0 13 34Firms 0 0 13 0 13 34Others 2 0 9 1 13 34Judges 1 4 6 1 12 32Scientists 0 0 12 0 12 32NGO 0 0 10 0 10 27Prison managers 2 2 4 0 9 24Foreign politicians 0 1 3 0 4 11Other professionals (psychiatristspolice officers social workers) 0 0 2 0 3 08Government 0 0 1 0 1 03

Total 45 24 287 16 377 100 119 64 761 42

It is indicative that the main spokesmen for probationaside from journalists were not probation officers themselvesbut politicians Ministers of Justice and politicians more fre-quently expressed opinions on probation laws and regula-tions and on predictions and expectations while the Pro-bation Service mainly discussed the development of the pro-bation system The attitudes expressed by the Ministers ofJustice the professionals from the Probation Service proba-tion officers and probationers towards different aspects ofprobation were almost all positive Politicians expressed posi-tive opinions on probation less frequently but their negativeopinions on probation were mainly the result of the critiquedirected towards their political opponents who were sup-porting probation For example the Croatian Minister of theInterior voted against amendments of the Law on Probation

DRU[ ISTRA ZAGREBGOD 25 (2016) BR 4STR 481-502

SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

494

TABLE 7Main actors in news-paper articles andvalence of theirattitude towardsprobation

in order to protect police officers from getting more workand another politician commented that a similar law on pro-bation had already existed in Croatia for many years but wasnever put into practice due to a lack of financial means (F L2012)

Article topic Year ()2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Regulations and legislation 466 173 117 467 84Expectations from probation 663 427 412 272 254Employment 5 213 117 65 0System development 168 346 235 174 127Probation work tasks 198 334 392 304 24Experiences 5 27 176 272 591

Total media coverage per year 259 192 131 236 182Positive article tone 326 209 91 150 225Negative article tone 69 34 31 448 138

There are some variations in the number of articles onprobation over time but overall coverage within the newspa-pers did not increase (Table 8) Over the period of five yearsprobation was a somewhat more frequent theme in 2009 and2012 In 2011 and 2012 criticism of probation became some-what more pronounced most likely because supporters ofthe probation service were using the media to portray a posi-tive image of the service in the beginning but then dis-appointment when it finally came to putting words into ac-tions produced considerable negative criticism of probationin the media in the later years However during 2013 whenall probation offices became fully functional there were alsoa number of government initiatives (eg distribution of pro-motion leaflets and brochures presentations in the regionaloffices and in the media) aimed at increasing public knowl-edge on probation and providing more accurate and com-plete information about probation to the public (Ministry ofJustice 2014) and media portrayal of probation moved in thedirection of story-telling about probationers personal experi-ences Thus it seemed that those efforts stopped the trend ofnegative reporting about the probation system

Also it was interesting to observe how the focus of thenewspaper articles changed over time (see Table 8) Whileinterest in writing about predictions and expectations signifi-cantly declined over years interest in writing about personalexperiences increased Also the print media in Croatia wererecently more focused on examples of successful collabora-tion between the probation service and local firms and NGOsin carrying out community work Thus there were several495

TABLE 8General tone of thenewspaper articlestowards probationand theme coverageper year

examples of probationers success stories and how society thelocal community and the individual benefited from the workthe offenders had done Such approaches help probation offi-cers in their work becoming more understood by the generalpublic and less ignored or distorted by the media (Mawby ampWorrall 2011)

STUDY LIMITATIONSAlthough this type of analysis has important advantages suchas easy replication and its usefulness in documenting trendsover time several important limitations of this study shouldbe acknowledged In this study the analysis was limited bythe availability of newspaper articles and due to time-con-suming analysis it captured a small sample of the media con-tent Also it should be noted that the observed trends in themedia coverage of probation may not be an accurate reflec-tion of reality (eg more interestingpublicised events receivemore coverage than less interesting ones and under the influ-ence of the presence of other important (inter)national politi-cal and social events at the time) Also this descriptive methodmay not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pat-tern in media coverage and qualitative content analysis reliesat least partially on researcher readings and interpretationof media texts (eg subjectivity of interpretation of some vari-ables such as the tone of the article) Thus results collected inthis study as well as suggested interpretations should be readwith these limitations in mind In order to increase the relia-bility and validity as well as the generalisability of results infurther studies this method should be combined with otherdata sources and methods (eg interviews and observations)the data should be collected on larger samples over a longertime period Also media coverage of one issue should be com-pared to media coverage of similar issues in a particular medi-um and time-period Due to greater influence of virtual infor-mation it is recommended also to analyse the coverage ofissues on probation on different internet web-sites portalsand forums

CONCLUDING REMARKSThe Croatian probation service has a low level of visibility inCroatian society (Pilars barometer of Croatian society 2014)and as probation services in other jurisdictions relatively lowvisibility in the printed media (eg UK Ireland Belgium)Overall there is an impression that Croatian media were notinterested in probation and made inaccurate assumptions aboutthe (higher) level of knowledge on probation held by thetarget audience Probation themes were presented in rela-

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SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

496

tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

DRU[ ISTRA ZAGREBGOD 25 (2016) BR 4STR 481-502

SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

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SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

498

REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

towards the failure of developing a fully functional probationservice over a period exceeding four years They were espe-cially critical of the announced introduction of electronic mo-nitoring that had never started (and eg spent 12 million Eurofrom European funds on that project) and the lack of adequateresources reassurance for making probation offices functional(eg insufficient number of official cars probation officers con-tracts with institutions that will enable community work)

Attitudenegative

Actors negative and positive positive neutral Total

Journalists 17 14 57 6 95 252Ministers of Justice 1 1 83 4 90 239Probation Service(Sector for Probation) 2 0 40 2 44 117Politicians 14 1 13 1 29 77Probation officers 0 0 14 1 15 4Offenders 0 0 14 0 14 37Lawyers 6 1 6 0 13 34Firms 0 0 13 0 13 34Others 2 0 9 1 13 34Judges 1 4 6 1 12 32Scientists 0 0 12 0 12 32NGO 0 0 10 0 10 27Prison managers 2 2 4 0 9 24Foreign politicians 0 1 3 0 4 11Other professionals (psychiatristspolice officers social workers) 0 0 2 0 3 08Government 0 0 1 0 1 03

Total 45 24 287 16 377 100 119 64 761 42

It is indicative that the main spokesmen for probationaside from journalists were not probation officers themselvesbut politicians Ministers of Justice and politicians more fre-quently expressed opinions on probation laws and regula-tions and on predictions and expectations while the Pro-bation Service mainly discussed the development of the pro-bation system The attitudes expressed by the Ministers ofJustice the professionals from the Probation Service proba-tion officers and probationers towards different aspects ofprobation were almost all positive Politicians expressed posi-tive opinions on probation less frequently but their negativeopinions on probation were mainly the result of the critiquedirected towards their political opponents who were sup-porting probation For example the Croatian Minister of theInterior voted against amendments of the Law on Probation

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TABLE 7Main actors in news-paper articles andvalence of theirattitude towardsprobation

in order to protect police officers from getting more workand another politician commented that a similar law on pro-bation had already existed in Croatia for many years but wasnever put into practice due to a lack of financial means (F L2012)

Article topic Year ()2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Regulations and legislation 466 173 117 467 84Expectations from probation 663 427 412 272 254Employment 5 213 117 65 0System development 168 346 235 174 127Probation work tasks 198 334 392 304 24Experiences 5 27 176 272 591

Total media coverage per year 259 192 131 236 182Positive article tone 326 209 91 150 225Negative article tone 69 34 31 448 138

There are some variations in the number of articles onprobation over time but overall coverage within the newspa-pers did not increase (Table 8) Over the period of five yearsprobation was a somewhat more frequent theme in 2009 and2012 In 2011 and 2012 criticism of probation became some-what more pronounced most likely because supporters ofthe probation service were using the media to portray a posi-tive image of the service in the beginning but then dis-appointment when it finally came to putting words into ac-tions produced considerable negative criticism of probationin the media in the later years However during 2013 whenall probation offices became fully functional there were alsoa number of government initiatives (eg distribution of pro-motion leaflets and brochures presentations in the regionaloffices and in the media) aimed at increasing public knowl-edge on probation and providing more accurate and com-plete information about probation to the public (Ministry ofJustice 2014) and media portrayal of probation moved in thedirection of story-telling about probationers personal experi-ences Thus it seemed that those efforts stopped the trend ofnegative reporting about the probation system

Also it was interesting to observe how the focus of thenewspaper articles changed over time (see Table 8) Whileinterest in writing about predictions and expectations signifi-cantly declined over years interest in writing about personalexperiences increased Also the print media in Croatia wererecently more focused on examples of successful collabora-tion between the probation service and local firms and NGOsin carrying out community work Thus there were several495

TABLE 8General tone of thenewspaper articlestowards probationand theme coverageper year

examples of probationers success stories and how society thelocal community and the individual benefited from the workthe offenders had done Such approaches help probation offi-cers in their work becoming more understood by the generalpublic and less ignored or distorted by the media (Mawby ampWorrall 2011)

STUDY LIMITATIONSAlthough this type of analysis has important advantages suchas easy replication and its usefulness in documenting trendsover time several important limitations of this study shouldbe acknowledged In this study the analysis was limited bythe availability of newspaper articles and due to time-con-suming analysis it captured a small sample of the media con-tent Also it should be noted that the observed trends in themedia coverage of probation may not be an accurate reflec-tion of reality (eg more interestingpublicised events receivemore coverage than less interesting ones and under the influ-ence of the presence of other important (inter)national politi-cal and social events at the time) Also this descriptive methodmay not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pat-tern in media coverage and qualitative content analysis reliesat least partially on researcher readings and interpretationof media texts (eg subjectivity of interpretation of some vari-ables such as the tone of the article) Thus results collected inthis study as well as suggested interpretations should be readwith these limitations in mind In order to increase the relia-bility and validity as well as the generalisability of results infurther studies this method should be combined with otherdata sources and methods (eg interviews and observations)the data should be collected on larger samples over a longertime period Also media coverage of one issue should be com-pared to media coverage of similar issues in a particular medi-um and time-period Due to greater influence of virtual infor-mation it is recommended also to analyse the coverage ofissues on probation on different internet web-sites portalsand forums

CONCLUDING REMARKSThe Croatian probation service has a low level of visibility inCroatian society (Pilars barometer of Croatian society 2014)and as probation services in other jurisdictions relatively lowvisibility in the printed media (eg UK Ireland Belgium)Overall there is an impression that Croatian media were notinterested in probation and made inaccurate assumptions aboutthe (higher) level of knowledge on probation held by thetarget audience Probation themes were presented in rela-

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SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

496

tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

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SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

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498

REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

in order to protect police officers from getting more workand another politician commented that a similar law on pro-bation had already existed in Croatia for many years but wasnever put into practice due to a lack of financial means (F L2012)

Article topic Year ()2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Regulations and legislation 466 173 117 467 84Expectations from probation 663 427 412 272 254Employment 5 213 117 65 0System development 168 346 235 174 127Probation work tasks 198 334 392 304 24Experiences 5 27 176 272 591

Total media coverage per year 259 192 131 236 182Positive article tone 326 209 91 150 225Negative article tone 69 34 31 448 138

There are some variations in the number of articles onprobation over time but overall coverage within the newspa-pers did not increase (Table 8) Over the period of five yearsprobation was a somewhat more frequent theme in 2009 and2012 In 2011 and 2012 criticism of probation became some-what more pronounced most likely because supporters ofthe probation service were using the media to portray a posi-tive image of the service in the beginning but then dis-appointment when it finally came to putting words into ac-tions produced considerable negative criticism of probationin the media in the later years However during 2013 whenall probation offices became fully functional there were alsoa number of government initiatives (eg distribution of pro-motion leaflets and brochures presentations in the regionaloffices and in the media) aimed at increasing public knowl-edge on probation and providing more accurate and com-plete information about probation to the public (Ministry ofJustice 2014) and media portrayal of probation moved in thedirection of story-telling about probationers personal experi-ences Thus it seemed that those efforts stopped the trend ofnegative reporting about the probation system

Also it was interesting to observe how the focus of thenewspaper articles changed over time (see Table 8) Whileinterest in writing about predictions and expectations signifi-cantly declined over years interest in writing about personalexperiences increased Also the print media in Croatia wererecently more focused on examples of successful collabora-tion between the probation service and local firms and NGOsin carrying out community work Thus there were several495

TABLE 8General tone of thenewspaper articlestowards probationand theme coverageper year

examples of probationers success stories and how society thelocal community and the individual benefited from the workthe offenders had done Such approaches help probation offi-cers in their work becoming more understood by the generalpublic and less ignored or distorted by the media (Mawby ampWorrall 2011)

STUDY LIMITATIONSAlthough this type of analysis has important advantages suchas easy replication and its usefulness in documenting trendsover time several important limitations of this study shouldbe acknowledged In this study the analysis was limited bythe availability of newspaper articles and due to time-con-suming analysis it captured a small sample of the media con-tent Also it should be noted that the observed trends in themedia coverage of probation may not be an accurate reflec-tion of reality (eg more interestingpublicised events receivemore coverage than less interesting ones and under the influ-ence of the presence of other important (inter)national politi-cal and social events at the time) Also this descriptive methodmay not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pat-tern in media coverage and qualitative content analysis reliesat least partially on researcher readings and interpretationof media texts (eg subjectivity of interpretation of some vari-ables such as the tone of the article) Thus results collected inthis study as well as suggested interpretations should be readwith these limitations in mind In order to increase the relia-bility and validity as well as the generalisability of results infurther studies this method should be combined with otherdata sources and methods (eg interviews and observations)the data should be collected on larger samples over a longertime period Also media coverage of one issue should be com-pared to media coverage of similar issues in a particular medi-um and time-period Due to greater influence of virtual infor-mation it is recommended also to analyse the coverage ofissues on probation on different internet web-sites portalsand forums

CONCLUDING REMARKSThe Croatian probation service has a low level of visibility inCroatian society (Pilars barometer of Croatian society 2014)and as probation services in other jurisdictions relatively lowvisibility in the printed media (eg UK Ireland Belgium)Overall there is an impression that Croatian media were notinterested in probation and made inaccurate assumptions aboutthe (higher) level of knowledge on probation held by thetarget audience Probation themes were presented in rela-

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SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

496

tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

DRU[ ISTRA ZAGREBGOD 25 (2016) BR 4STR 481-502

SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

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SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

498

REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

examples of probationers success stories and how society thelocal community and the individual benefited from the workthe offenders had done Such approaches help probation offi-cers in their work becoming more understood by the generalpublic and less ignored or distorted by the media (Mawby ampWorrall 2011)

STUDY LIMITATIONSAlthough this type of analysis has important advantages suchas easy replication and its usefulness in documenting trendsover time several important limitations of this study shouldbe acknowledged In this study the analysis was limited bythe availability of newspaper articles and due to time-con-suming analysis it captured a small sample of the media con-tent Also it should be noted that the observed trends in themedia coverage of probation may not be an accurate reflec-tion of reality (eg more interestingpublicised events receivemore coverage than less interesting ones and under the influ-ence of the presence of other important (inter)national politi-cal and social events at the time) Also this descriptive methodmay not reveal the underlying motives for the observed pat-tern in media coverage and qualitative content analysis reliesat least partially on researcher readings and interpretationof media texts (eg subjectivity of interpretation of some vari-ables such as the tone of the article) Thus results collected inthis study as well as suggested interpretations should be readwith these limitations in mind In order to increase the relia-bility and validity as well as the generalisability of results infurther studies this method should be combined with otherdata sources and methods (eg interviews and observations)the data should be collected on larger samples over a longertime period Also media coverage of one issue should be com-pared to media coverage of similar issues in a particular medi-um and time-period Due to greater influence of virtual infor-mation it is recommended also to analyse the coverage ofissues on probation on different internet web-sites portalsand forums

CONCLUDING REMARKSThe Croatian probation service has a low level of visibility inCroatian society (Pilars barometer of Croatian society 2014)and as probation services in other jurisdictions relatively lowvisibility in the printed media (eg UK Ireland Belgium)Overall there is an impression that Croatian media were notinterested in probation and made inaccurate assumptions aboutthe (higher) level of knowledge on probation held by thetarget audience Probation themes were presented in rela-

DRU[ ISTRA ZAGREBGOD 25 (2016) BR 4STR 481-502

SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

496

tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

DRU[ ISTRA ZAGREBGOD 25 (2016) BR 4STR 481-502

SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

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SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

498

REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

tively brief forms and only superficially elaborated Issues onprobation were usually not the main topic in newspaper arti-cles and the media only tended to provide lengthy news ordocumentary coverage when problems or issues occurredthat were not representative of routine probation work (seeMawby amp Worrall 2011)

Legislations and regulations and expectations from pro-bation were the two main topics regarding probation thatwere usually promoted in the Croatian media by politiciansand professionals from the Ministry of Justice and ProbationService As expected they were more dedicated to promotingthan criticising the introduction of the probation serviceConsequently stories on probation were mostly positive orneutral in tone Reduction of prison overcrowding reductionof financial costs lessening human rights violations in pris-ons and benefits from offenders resocialisation were the mostfrequently mentioned expectations from probation In advo-cating the introduction of the service the Croatian govern-ment and politicians also placed considerable emphasis onprobations rehabilitative role Over the years the focus onthe potential benefits of probation shifted somewhat fromprobation as a means of combating prison overcrowding toprobation as a means of offenders resocialisation But per-sonal experiences cooperation with other institutions andprofessionals and mechanisms and technologies of supervi-sion still remained covered in a small portion of the newspa-per articles Also the trend of positive reporting on probationdid not last for long since issues concerning probation evenover this five-year period became politicised and criticiseddue to the obstacles the service experienced in becoming fullyoperational

For public attitudes to probation to become more positiveandor lasting and for the expansion and further developmentof Croatian probation more initiatives and research that willraise public awareness and enhance visibility of the ProbationService are needed The overall level of knowledge on proba-tion should be raised in public by reporting on probation morefrequently defining probation more thoroughly and givingmore in-depth presentation of the goals and tasks of proba-tion service and its interrelatedness to the criminal justice sys-tem Probation should be promoted as a political responsethat aims to increase public security minimise recidivism andrestore public confidence in criminal justice Rational appealsabout benefits of various justice options should not be used inpromoting probation to the public since it was clearly shownthat (a) there is difficulty in selling probation that capturesa number of interventions against the singular easily under-stood concept of imprisonment (Allen 2006) and (b) the pub-497

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SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

DRU[ ISTRA ZAGREBGOD 25 (2016) BR 4STR 481-502

SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

498

REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

lic has been largely unconvinced by rational appeals and sta-tistical argument in favour of probation based on the highcosts of imprisonment or the growing numbers of incarcerat-ed citizens (prison over-crowding) (Stead MacFadyen ampHastings 2002 Maruna amp King 2004) Negative portrayal ofprobationers should also be avoided since this type of report-ing increases exclusion and negative attitudes towards proba-tion in general (Maruna amp King 2008) and promotes a pop-ulist model of penal policy-making (Johnstone 2000) Affir-mative and personalised stories and a trend towards moreaffective reporting should be used instead for a more proac-tive promotion of the probation service7 (Maruna amp King2008) Newspaper articles should be more focused on person-al experiences transformed offenders and offender redemp-tion and redeemability in order for the probation service totake advantage of emotional appeal in promoting confidencein the criminal justice system in engaging the public (Maru-na 2007 Maruna amp King 2004) and focusing less on publicprotection (McCulloch amp McNeill 2007) Also through pro-bations links to social work and other institutions the pro-motion of social inclusion guidance care and assistance of-fered to offenders is achieved (Bauwens 2011 Maloić amp Ra-jić 2012) The Croatian Probation Service like other criminaljustice services should devote resources to research and me-dia campaigns and increase the use of media to disseminatethe message that probation works (Doyle 2006) Also it shouldbe the role of all employees in probation as a reliable sourceof information to take part in promoting probation by report-ing accurately on community sentences and the role of pro-bation and by explaining successes correcting inaccurateinformation and increasing the understanding of probation

NOTES1 Although research about its true utility has been somewhat mixed(Maruna amp King 2004)2 In the 2012 survey in Northern Ireland just over two-thirds ofrespondents (68) had heard of the PBNI (McGreevy 2013)3 Which was again expected because the only system the countrywas familiar with at the time was the prison system4 According to professionals one day in prison costs the state asmuch as three days on probation (Rosić-Zrinski 2012 p 8)5 Negative offenders experiences were related to rare examples inwhich they had breached their probation orders (eg Raić Knežević2011)6 A total of 15 different categories of actors were identified in theanalysed newspaper articles7 But not at the expense of the wishes of victims (McGreevy 2013)

DRU[ ISTRA ZAGREBGOD 25 (2016) BR 4STR 481-502

SUČIĆ I PORTRAYAL

498

REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

REFERENCESAllen R (2006) What works in changing public attitudes to prisonLessons from rethinking crime and punishment In P Mason (Ed)Captured by the media Prison discourse in popular culture (pp 65ndash83)Cullompton Willan

Ball-Rokeach S J amp DeFleur M L (1979) A dependency model ofmass-media effects Communication Research 3(1) 2ndash21

Bašić B (2012 February 13) They should monitor offenders but donot have a single official car Vjesnik 12

Bauwens A amp Mair G (2012) Probation work and the media CEPNewsletter Available at httpwwwcep-probationorgnews254868probation-work-and-the-media

Bauwens A (2011) Organisational change increasing managerial-ism and social work values in the Belgian Houses of Justice Depart-ment of Offender Guidance European Journal of Probation 3(3) 15ndash30httpsdoiorg101177206622031100300302

Borovac M amp Zrinjski M (2013 January 5) Probation ndash electronicbracelets for prisoners monitoring do still not exist even four yearsafter announcement of their introduction in practice Večernji list 13

Braun V amp Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychologyQualitative Research in Psychology 3(2) 77ndash101 httpsdoiorg1011911478088706qp063oa

Brians C L amp Wattenberg M P (1996) Campaign issue knowledgeand salience Comparing reception from TV commercials TV newsand newspapers American Journal of Political Science 40(1) 172ndash193httpsdoiorg1023072111699

Butter R Hermanns J amp Menger A (2013) Simultaneous predic-tion of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards pro-bation An ecological approach Probation Journal 60(1) 24ndash39httpsdoiorg1011770264550512470190

Cheliotis L K (2010) The ambivalent consequences of visibilityCrime and prisons in the mass media Crime Media Culture 6(2)169ndash184 httpsdoiorg1011771741659010378629

Cheung C-L (1988) A critical analysis of probation service in HongKong MSc Thesis University of Hong Kong China

Ciglenečki D (2013 August 11) Redemption in public kitchen Novilist 13

Cmok V (2011 July 29) Approved 24 sata (večernje izdanje) 11

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1432012 Available athttpwwwzakonhrz234Zakon-o-probaciji

Croatia Law on probation Official Gazette 1532009 Available athttpnarodne-novinennhrclancisluzbeni2009_12_153_3741html

Doyle A (2006) How not to think about crime in the mediaCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 48(6) 867ndash885httpsdoiorg103138cjccj486867

Fitzgibbon W (2012) Probation and social work on trial London Pal-grave Macmillan499

F L (2012 November 22) Ranko Ostojić two times voted againstSlobodna Dalmacija 12Furnham A Gunter B amp Green A (1990) Remembering scienceThe recall of factual information as a function of the presentation modeApplied Cognitive Psychology 4(3) 203ndash212 httpsdoiorg101002acp2350040305Gerbner G (1998) Cultivation analysis An overview Mass Com-munication and Society 1(3-4) 175ndash194 httpsdoiorg1010801520543619989677855Greer C amp Reiner R (2012) Mediated mayhem Media crime cri-minal justice In M Maguire R Morgan amp R Reiner (Eds) The Ox-ford handbook of criminology 5th edition (pp 245ndash278) Oxford OxfordUniversity Press httpsdoiorg101093he97801995902780030009Hayes D (2013) Reading between the lines English newspaper re-presentations of community punishment European Journal of Proba-tion 5(3) 24ndash40 httpsdoiorg101177206622031300500303Jakubin H K (2011 March 28) Arrested director of INA does notseek house detention instead of doing his time in Remetinec prisoncell Slobodna Dalmacija 11Johnstone J (2000) Penal policy making Elitist populist or partici-patory Punishment and Society 2(2) 161ndash180 httpsdoiorg10117714624740022227935Kokoruš I (2013 July 25) Villain is chopping wood adulterator ismowing grass and smuggler is cleaning horse stables Bjelovarac 13Macnamara J (2005) Media content analysis Its uses benefits andbest practice methodology Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal 6(1)1ndash34Maguire N amp Carr N (2013) Changing shape and shifting bound-aries ndash the media portrayal of probation in Ireland European Journalof Probation 5(3) 3ndash23 httpsdoiorg101177206622031300500302Maloić S amp Rajić S (2012) Potreba i značaj razvoja suradnje pro-bacijskog sustava i sustava socijalne skrbi u RH (The need and im-portance of the development of cooperation between probation andthe social care system in Croatia) Ljetopis socijalnog rada 19(1) 29ndash52Maruna S (2007) The probation story One hundred years of pro-bation in the media Vista Perspectives on Probation Criminal Justice andCivil Renewal 11(2) 113ndash119Maruna S amp King A (2008) Selling the public on probation Bey-ond the bib Probation Journal 55(4) 337ndash351 httpsdoiorg1011770264550508096491Maruna S amp King A (2004) Public opinion and community penal-ties In A Bottoms S Rex amp G Robinson (Eds) Alternatives to prisonOptions for an insecure society (pp 83ndash112) Cullompton Willan Pub-lishingMason P (2006) Lies distortion and what doesnt work Monitoringprison stories in the British media Crime Media Culture 2(3) 251ndash267httpsdoiorg1011771741659006069558

Mawby R C amp Worrall A (2011) Probation workers and their occupa-tional cultures Available at httpwww2leacukdepartmentscriminologydocumentsFinal_report_Nov_201120-1720Nov202011pdf

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500

McCulloch T amp McNeill F (2007) Consumer society commodifica-tion and offender management Criminology and Criminal Justice 7(3)223ndash242 httpsdoiorg1011771748895807078863McGreevy G (2013) Probation and the role of public relations IrishProbation Journal 10 90ndash103McNeill F (2009) Probation rehabilitation and reparation 2nd An-nual Martin Tansey Memorial Lecture Irish Probation Journal 6 5ndash22Michaelson D amp Griffin T L (2005) A new model for media contentanalysis Available at httpwwwinstituteforprorgwp-contentuploadsMediaContentAnalysispdfMirrlees-Black C (2001) Confidence in the criminal justice systemFindings from the 2000 British crime survey Home Office ResearchFindings No 137 London Home OfficePhillips J (2014) Probation in the news Transforming rehabilita-tion British Journal of Community Justice 12(1) 27ndash48Pilars barometer of Croatian society (2014) Zagreb Institut društvenihznanosti Ivo Pilar Available at httpbarometarpilarhrRaić Knežević A (2009 June 29) Eyes wide shut (in Croatian) Novi List 3Raić Knežević A (2011 December 4) They are supervising offend-ers on parole but do not have cars Glas Istre 4Roberts J V amp Hough M (2005) Understanding public attitudes tocriminal justice Maidenhead Open University PressRosić Zrinski M (2012 February 16) They enacted the law estab-lished offices but forgot the equipment Bjelovarac 12Rumgay J (2007) Partnerships in probation In L Gelsthorpe amp RMorgan (Eds) Handbook of probation (pp 542ndash564) CollomptonWillanStead M MacFadyen L amp Hastings G (2002) What do the public reallyfeel about non-custodial penalties London Esmee Fairbairn FoundationŠimpraga D Maloić S amp Ricijaš N (2014) Croatia In A van Kalmt-hout amp I Durnescu (Eds) Probation in Europe (pp 1ndash32) UtrechtCEP Confederation of European ProbationŠpero J (2015) The sector for probation in the Republic of CroatiaIrish Probation Journal 12 131ndash140Teague M (2002) Public perceptions of probation Criminal JusticeMatters 49(1) 34ndash35 httpsdoiorg10108009627250208553499

Prikaz razvoja hrvatske probacijskeslužbe kroz objave u tiskanim medijimaInes SUČIĆInstitut društvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar Zagreb

Istraživanja načina prikaza probacije u medijima relativno surijetka posebno u zemljama u kojima probacija ne postojiod davnina Ciljevi ovog istraživanja bili su ispitati koje temedominiraju u konstrukciji slike probacije u javnosti tko suglavni promotori probacije te je li se s vremenom promijenila501

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slika probacije u medijima Analizirano je 390 članakavezanih uz probaciju objavljenih u hrvatskim novinama ičasopisima između 2009 i 2013 godine Analiza jepokazala da su članci o probaciji najčešće kratki da čestoprobacija u njima nije glavna tema te da su teme vezane uzprobaciju uglavnom površno prikazane Pokazalo se daprobacija u Hrvatskoj ima relativno slabu medijsku vidljivosta zakoni odredbe i očekivanja od probacije glavne su temeo kojima se pisalo U početku su smanjenje prenapučenostizatvora i smanjenje financijskih troškova bile najčešćespominjane prednosti probacije ali s vremenom se pažnjanešto više usmjerila na povlastice povezane s resocijaliza-cijom i rehabilitacijom osuđenika Ton novinskih članaka oprobaciji uglavnom je bio pozitivan ili neutralan a političarisu najgorljivije podupirali njezino uvođenje Interes medijaza probaciju varirao je tijekom vremena Probacija se sadau odnosu na prijašnje godine više kritizira vjerojatno zbogmnogih zapreka s kojima se probacijski sustav susreo prijeno što je oživio u praksi

Ključne riječi analiza tiska probacija novine nadzorosuđenici

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502

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