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Community Supervision (community + supervision)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Psychology	50%

Selected Abstracts

The probabilities of sex offender re-arrest

CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR AND MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2003
Roderic Broadhurst Associate Professor
Background Estimates of the probabilities of re-arrest for sex offenders apprehended in Western Australia between April 1984 and December 1994 are reported. Population and method Of the 116,151 distinct male persons arrested for the first time from 1984,94, 2785 were identified with at least one sex offence. Subjects on average were followed up for 5.7 years and assessed by criminal record, Aboriginality, bail status, age, occupation and penal intervention. Three criteria, rearrest for any, repeat sex or a violent offence are used to summarize the ,careers' of sex offenders. Results Overall ultimate probabilities of rearrest for any offence were 0.61, for a repeat sex offence 0.33 and for a violent offence 0.51. Probabilities of re-arrest for non-Aboriginal offenders were lower for all definitions. Younger offenders, Aborigines and those with prior arrest for non-sex offences had higher probabilities for any or violent rearrest but older offenders tended to have higher probabilities of repeat sex offending. Community supervision and imprisonment significantly reduced the ,rate' or speed of re-arrest. Discussion Actuarial risk assessments for low-probability high-consequence events such as dangerous recidivism are useful for identifying groups with a high probability of rearrest, assisting management of these groups and evaluating penal interventions. Copyright © 2003 Whurr Publishers Ltd. [source]

Forecasting murder within a population of probationers and parolees: a high stakes application of statistical learning

JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY: SERIES A (STATISTICS IN SOCIETY), Issue 1 2009
Richard Berk
Summary., Forecasts of future dangerousness are often used to inform the sentencing decisions of convicted offenders. For individuals who are sentenced to probation or paroled to community supervision, such forecasts affect the conditions under which they are to be supervised. The statistical criterion for these forecasts is commonly called recidivism, which is defined as a charge or conviction for any new offence, no matter how minor. Only rarely do such forecasts make distinctions on the basis of the seriousness of offences. Yet seriousness may be central to public concerns, and judges are increasingly required by law and sentencing guidelines to make assessments of seriousness. At the very least, information about seriousness is essential for allocating scarce resources for community supervision of convicted offenders. The paper focuses only on murderous conduct by individuals on probation or parole. Using data on a population of over 60000 cases from Philadelphia's Adult Probation and Parole Department, we forecast whether each offender will be charged with a homicide or attempted homicide within 2 years of beginning community supervision. We use a statistical learning approach that makes no assumptions about how predictors are related to the outcome. We also build in the costs of false negative and false positive charges and use half of the data to build the forecasting model, and the other half of the data to evaluate the quality of the forecasts. Forecasts that are based on this approach offer the possibility of concentrating rehabilitation, treatment and surveillance resources on a small subset of convicted offenders who may be in greatest need, and who pose the greatest risk to society. [source]

Cognitive-Behavioural Work with Offenders in the UK: A History of Influential Endeavour

THE HOWARD JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, Issue 2 2000
Maurice Vanstone
Programmes premised on the cognitive-behavioural theoretical model have become an important feature of work with people who offend, and the model itself has become a cornerstone of the ,what works' enterprise in the United Kingdom. This has not occurred without critical attention from commentators in both the academic and practice worlds. This article attempts to draw together the strands of that debate, and provide a critical account of the recent history of the model's development and application within the criminal justice system that accords more significance to pioneering work in the United Kingdom than has been hitherto recognised. It is argued that one of the features of the response of the probation service to the pessimistic conclusions of research into the impact of community supervision in the 1970s was a divergence of policy and practice, the former redirecting the efforts of the service towards diversion from custody and the latter retaining its commitment to rehabilitation. While acknowledging the limitations of the cognitive-behavioural model, it is argued that by contributing positively to evidence-based, rehabilitative effort it has given impetus to a reunification of the focus of policy and practice. [source]

Medical and psychiatric problems among men and women in a community corrections residential setting

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW, Issue 5 2009
Tracy D. Gunter M.D.
Though the medical and mental health morbidity of incarcerated offenders has been discussed in a number of recent reports, very few data have been published concerning medical and mental health problems facing those on community corrections supervision. In this study of community corrections offenders utilizing residential facilities, we found that frequencies of substance use disorders, other mental health disorders, and medical problems exceeded frequencies found in the community and, in some cases, were higher than frequencies found in incarcerated individuals. Of particular concern were the high frequencies of substance use disorders, traumatic brain injury, anxiety states, suicidal ideation, and prior self-harm. While the level of self-reported medical and mental health service utilization was higher than expected, it appeared low relative to the disease burden reported by this special population. We conclude that concurrent evaluation and treatment of medical and psychiatric problems during the process of community supervision is indicated in this population. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]