NCJ Number
197302
Date Published
2002
Length
248 pages
Annotation
Drawing on an extensive range of research and data, this book examines the processes that occur during probation supervision that are either conducive to preventing recidivism or to contributing to its occurring.
Abstract
This book reviews research that began in 1997 under the sponsorship of six probation areas. The research focused on offenders who lived in some of the most deprived inner city areas in the country as well as in rural areas. It identified the common factors of poverty, unemployment, and unstable housing as significant problems in the experiences of the offenders studied. The first three chapters set the background for and describe the methodology of the study. Six chapters then focus on the motivation and social contexts for probation. Issues discussed in these chapters include the definition of success in probation, the focus of probation, the role of probation supervision, and the content and context of probation work. Two chapters then discuss how probation does and does not address the factors associated with offending. The book concludes that changes in family and employment circumstances were key factors in determining probation outcomes. Habitual use of drug and alcohol, a lack of satisfying employment, and the absence of a stable, positive relationship were associated with recidivism. Good motivation, gaining employment, mending damaged relationships, starting new relationships, and other positive social and economic factors were associated with desistance from offending. This suggests that probation is most likely to be effective when it assists in providing the resources to probationers that can facilitate their positive progress in targeted problematic social and economic areas of probationers' lives. This book provides detailed suggestions for a probation agenda that focuses on "what works." Chapter tables, figures, and notes; 220 references; a subject index; and appended table of variables associated with desistance