NCJ Number
209817
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2005 Pages: 172-184
Date Published
May 2005
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This article explores the rationale for organizing the work of probation officers by place rather than case.
Abstract
The tenet that smaller caseloads will produce greater chances of detecting rule violators is an accepted axiom. Researchers who have studied intensive control-based methods now posit higher rates of failure at worst and no difference in rates of failure at best. Apparently, research has shown that the best that can be expected from smaller caseloads is a reduction in the volume of criminal activity due to tighter surveillance. There is no research tradition that has justified caseload management as an effective mechanism of probation service delivery. The three most interesting new concepts in probation are restorative justice, community justice, and community partnerships. None of these concepts requires a caseload. These concepts parallel social scientists' rediscovery of "place," i.e., community or neighborhood, as a significant variable in residents' views of life and their prospects for a good life. Neighborhood became a new level of analytical focus for sociological inquiry in the 1980s and 1990s. In making community characteristics the focus of probation, probation officers would become involved in working with other community agencies in making criminogenic places safer and more constructive places for people to live and raise their families. The three hallmarks of "placeload" probation are geographic specialization that would involve opening offices and concentrating services in places where most probationers live; the development of community partnerships that focus on improvements in community environments and social influences; and priority for officer activities that address community variables empirically linked to delinquent and criminal behavior. 15 references