NCJ Number
216897
Date Published
2006
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This chapter explores the relationships between evidence, policy and practice in community-based intervention with young offenders.
Abstract
While community supervision in certain forms can be effective in reducing offending, its effectiveness is likely to be diminished rather than enhanced by the increasingly correctionalist digressive context of practice. It is suggested that the construction of community supervision begin not with evaluations of tools and programs, but with understandings of processes and transitions. The evidence that has been reviewed conveys three key messages: (1) relationships matter in influencing the outcomes of supervision; (2) social contexts are at least as significant to offending and desistance as individual problems and resources; and (3) in supporting desistance, social advocacy is at least as necessary as individualized responsibilities. It is seen that neglecting these messages will limit the effectiveness of community supervision, especially with young people involved in repeat and persistent offending. Ultimately, developing properly targeted and effective community supervision matters as much as it does because, in a punitive climate, any perceived failure of community supervision may unleash ever more coercive modes of correction and control. This chapter explores community supervision and argues that any considered reading of the research evidence indicates that context and relationships matter. References