Suchergebnisse

If probation officers are to be involved in collecting data to compile prediction scores they must be aware of how the final data is to be used and interpreted. Tessa Webb, Probation Officer in Essex, argues that practitioners need to be able to place research findings in context and highlight their limitations, to ensure that their work is not evaluated and interpreted on narrow and unreliable grounds.

Recidivism belongs to the main categories of criminology, crime policy and criminal justice. If the target of preventing offenders from reoffending is taken seriously crime policy should be measured by success of certain penal sanctions in terms of relapses. Also institutions that deal directly with crime and offenders need to get basic information on the consequences of their actions; particularly general knowledge about offender groups at risk of reoffending. All these are reasons why representative recidivism studies are needed. Meanwhile a lot of European countries gather systematic and comprehensive information on recidivism, periodically and on a national level. This volume presents an exemplary collection of such endeavors: Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Switzerland and a comparative study of England and Wales, the Netherlands and Scotland. Rückfall gehört zu den zentralen Kategorien der Kriminologie, Strafrechtspraxis und Kriminalpolitik. Nimmt man den spezialpräventiven Anspruch des Strafrechts ernst, muss sich die Strafrechtspolitik daran messen lassen, wie gut es mit welcher Art von Sanktionen gelingt, Rückfälle zu verhindern. Aber auch die Institutionen, die unmittelbar mit Straftaten und Straftätern umgehen, bedürfen einer grundlegenden Information über die Folgen ihres Tuns, insbesondere allgemeine Erkenntnisse über rückfallgefährdete Tätergruppen. All dies sind Gründe, warum repräsentative Rückfalluntersuchungen benötigt werden. Systematische und umfassende Informationen zum Rückfall werden mittlerweile in vielen europäischen Ländern regelmäßig und landesweit erhoben. Der vorliegende Band will hierzu eine exemplarische Zusammenstellung dieser Bestrebungen bieten: Deutschland, Estland, Frankreich, Österreich, die Schweiz und eine Vergleichsstudie aus England und Wales, den Niederlanden und Schottland.

It is increasingly argued that vigorous enforcement improves probation outcomes and reduces reconviction rates. Based on a recent study of the link between enforcement and reconviction rates, this article argues that vigorous enforcement is not necessarily synonymous with effective enforcement. It also contends that ensuring compliance is at least as important as adherence to National Standards.

Abstract: Research is reviewed from Canada, Great Britain, and the USA, which suggests that offenders granted parole are reconvicted less than those not so released. The competing explanations for this uniformly observed difference are evaluated. It is concluded that the most likely explanation is in terms of a treatment effect rather than a consequence of the selection of better risk prisoners alone. Something about the grant or process of parole seems to work to reduce reconviction. This could be something as disreputable as the use of delaying tactics to postpone a further conviction until after licence expiry. There could also be a negative effect of parole denial to offset any positive effect of the grant of parole. Research is suggested which would clarify these points. Assuming remaining doubts are resolved in ways favourable to parole, there appears to be some grounds for optimism for parole schemes to develop into criminal justice procedures which have the net effect of crime reduction.

In recent years research has begun to establish 'what works' in probation intervention but effectiveness has largely been measured from the impact of groupwork initiatives, such as the STEP programme in Mid Glamorgan Probation Service. John Deering, Richard Thurston and Maurice Vanstone report an encouraging small-scale research venture to apply the same methods and insights to the supervision of individuals on standard probation orders.

Recent studies of probation's effectiveness have relied largely on reconvictions, but there is widespread interest in other possible measures of impact (for example, on attitudes or on social problems) which might provide more immediate and relevant evaluative information for practitioners. This paper reviews information generated by the CRIME‐PICS instrument in the Mid Glamorgan 'STOP' experiment and compares it with reconviction data. Some relationships are identified between components of CRIME‐PICS scores and subsequent reconvictions. The paper comments on the potential and feasibility of this kind of instrument in evaluation and makes suggestions about future research.

The authors argue that intermediate measures used for gauging change in knowledge and attitudes in motoring offending groupwork programmes had connections with, but were not indicative of two-year general or motoring reconvictions. They also draw attention to the different profiles of various motoring offender samples, and highlight the importance of establishing reliable baseline reconviction information on offenders undergoing offence-specific groupwork programmes before setting reconviction targets. The results indicate the need to take a multi-dimensional view, and consider the same set of data from different angles.

Despite claims that prison 'works', incapacitating offenders whilst performing no worse than community sentences in terms of reconviction rates, a follow-up study of the reoffending of all offenders placed on probation in Kent in 1991 demonstrates the positive impact of supervision upon subsequent offending patterns and the negative effects of previous custodial sentences. Mark Oldfield, Research Officer in Kent Probation Service, analyses the complexity of the findings and suggests that they provide a sustainable argument for the increased use of community penalties.