Jacqueline Bosker

Do intervention plans meet criteria for effective practice to reduce recidivism? How probation officers forget about social capital and basic needs

The increased use of instruments for assessing risks and needs in probation should lead to intervention plans that meet the criteria for effective practice. An analysis of 300 intervention plans from the Dutch probation service showed that the match between the assessed criminogenic needs and the goals and interventions in the intervention plan is fairly low. It was also found that the so-called risk principle is not fully applied by probation officers. In addition, personal goals that the offender values are often not taken fully into account. Finally, the intervention plans have a strong focus on improving human capital, while improving social capital and basic needs often is not part of the intervention plans, even if they were assessed as dynamic criminogenic needs.

Agreement about intervention plans by probation officers

Introducing instruments to structure risk assessment has been shown to improve agreement between probation professionals about the assessment of offenders’ risks and needs. The subsequent decisions about intervention plans, however, are to a large extent still unstructured. This article addresses the question of whether probation officers agree about intervention plans and whether agreement differs between experienced and less experienced probation officers. A group of 44 Dutch probation officers wrote intervention plans for four cases in which the risk and needs assessment was given. Results showed that the overall agreement about the intervention plan is poor. Looking at the different domains of an intervention plan, agreement about the advice on the sanction, conditions, criminogenic needs to be addressed, and programs is fair. On all other domains (instructions, control, intensity of supervision, and goals), agreement is poor. Experience of the probation officers did not influence the agreement about the intervention plans substantially.

Improving Agreement About Intervention Plans in Probation by Decision Support

Reliability in decision making about intervention plans is a necessary condition for evidence-based probation work and equal treatment of offenders. Structuring decision making can improve agreement between clinical decision makers. In a former study however, we found that in Dutch probation practice structured risk and needs assessment did not result in acceptable agreement about intervention plans. The Dutch probation services subsequently introduced a tool for support in decision making on intervention plans. This article addresses the question whether the use of this tool results in better agreement between probation officers. A significant and meaningful improvement in agreement was found on all domains of the intervention plan. Implications for probation practice are discussed.

Picturing probation: Exploring the utility of visual methods in comparative research

A previous review of research on the practice of offender supervision identified the predominant use of interview-based methodologies and limited use of other research approaches (Robinson and Svensson, 2013). It also found that most research has tended to be locally focussed (i.e. limited to one jurisdiction) with very few comparative studies. This article reports on the application of a visual method in a small-scale comparative study. Practitioners in five European countries participated and took photographs of the places and spaces where offender supervision occurs. The aims of the study were two-fold: firstly, to explore the utility of a visual approach in a comparative context; and secondly, to provide an initial visual account of the environment in which offender supervision takes place. In this article, we address the first of these aims. We describe the application of the method in some depth before addressing its strengths and weaknesses. We conclude that visual methods provide a useful tool for capturing data about the environments in which offender supervision takes place and potentially provide a basis for more normative explorations about the practices of offender supervision in comparative contexts.

Verslaafden en reclassering

Mensen die met justitie in aanraking komen en middelen gebruiken krijgen vaak te maken met de reclassering. Als er sprake is van middelenmisbruik komen zij in de meeste gevallen bij de verslavingsreclassering terecht. De reclassering kent vier kerntaken: diagnose & advies, toezicht, gedragsinterventies en de uitvoering van werkstraffen. Sinds enkele jaren werkt de reclassering in toenemende mate met bewezen effectieve interventies en instrumenten. Dit heeft geleid tot aanzienlijke verbeteringen op het gebied van screening, gedragsinterventies en toezicht. Het versterken van de continuiteit binnen en tussen de ketens is momenteel in ontwikkeling. Dat geldt ook voor het methodisch handelen van reclasseringswerkers: voor een effectieve uitvoering van reclasseringstoezicht is het belangrijk dat controlerende en begeleidende taken op een goede wijze worden gecombineerd. Met een meer dynamische formulering van de resultaatcriteria kan de effectiviteit van het reclasseringswerk nog beter zichtbaar worden gemaakt.