NCJ Number
89059
Journal
Monatsschrift fuer Kriminologie und Strafrechtsreform Volume: 65 Issue: 6 Dated: (December 1982) Pages: 305-317
Date Published
1982
Length
13 pages
Annotation
West German parole boards, created by a 1975 criminal code reform, are charged with assessing candidates for release on the basis of prognoses of their ability to avoid further criminal involvement. This study is the first to examine factors most influential in parole board decisionmaking.
Abstract
Records of 230 prisoners who had been sentenced to at least 2 years' imprisonment for crimes against property were analyzed. Relationships between prison record information and parole decisions of the judicial parole boards were identified by log-linear models. Four items of information about the prisoner were found to be related to the parole decision: report of the correctional institution, number of prior convictions, frequency of job changes prior to imprisonment, and participation in educational activities during imprisonment. The most important item of information was found to be the institutional report: of the examined parole decisions, 79 percent followed the recommendations of the correctional institution. Currently, institutional reports incorporate prior criminal record and expected postrelease conditions in addition to behavior during institutionalization. To mitigate the effect of prior criminal record upon negative parole recommendations, this factor should perhaps be limited to consideration only by the parole boards. The study did not indicate the overpreponderance of bureaucratic factors in parole board decisions that American studies have found. Charts, tables, footnotes, and eight references are given.