NCJ Number
188355
Date Published
December 1999
Length
151 pages
Annotation
This report assesses the implementation process and its outcomes, as well as the short-term impact of the Champaign County, (Illinois), Enhanced Domestic Violence Probation Project (EDVP).
Abstract
The report contains a brief review of the literature; an overview of the EDVP and its operation, goals, and objectives; the program implementation process; preliminary impact evaluation, focusing primarily on progress towards specified EDVP objectives; and a proposed long-term impact evaluation of the project. Data sources included program documents maintained by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, case files maintained by EDVP, and interviews with EDVP staff, probation administrators, members of the local justice system, and treatment providers who interacted with EDVP. The report recommends that the probation and court services department and the EDVP program develop a set of criteria for sentencing to EDVP, in cooperation with the State's attorney's office. The criteria should leave some flexibility for discretionary decisions, but provide a broad framework to guide sentencing decision making. EDVP probationers (enhanced supervision) were considerably less successful than probationers under standard supervision. This finding was possibly a result of the fact that EDVP holds offenders responsible for their behavior and revokes probation for those unwilling or unable to meet conditions of probation. In addition, EDVP's intensive scrutiny may have identified more problems, resulting in more unsuccessful outcomes. Finally, it may reflect the assignment to EDVP of more serious offenders, judging from the ratio of felony to misdemeanor convictions. Tables, figure, references, appendixes