NCJ Number
90350
Date Published
1983
Length
23 pages
Annotation
An evaluation of the experimental use of community service in the Netherlands revealed information on the characteristics of the offenders involved, the decisionmaking process leading to use of community services for particular offenders, program operation, and outcome success.
Abstract
The offender found to be suitable for community service is a 20 year-old male of low socioeconomic status. He is usually sentenced for property offender, traffic offender, or offender convicted of aggressive acts. Most offenders are recidivists. Prosecutors tend to propose community service more often for the younger offenders involved in a first offense than do judges. Modalities most often used are the suspended sentence and unconditional dismissal after completion of the work. Judges and prosecutors tend to consider 150 hours community service to correspond to about 3 months of prison. Community service work consisted mostly of maintenance duties, repairing, painting, and jobs in the field of social work. The mechanics for reporting back to the judiciary on the progress of an offender's community service have not been made uniform. Nearly 90 percent of the community service cases were completed satisfactorily, with sex, age, employment, the nature of the offense, and the kind of job not being related to outcome. Community service orders of less than 30 hours and more than 150 hours failed significantly more often than those within the advised range of 30-150 hours. From the data that have been analyzed thus far, community service appears to have a place among available sanctions. Graphic and tabular data are provided.