Alternatives To Imprisonment: Intentions And Reality - Hardcover

Inhaltsangabe

Despite current interest in alternatives to imprisonment, little is known about their effectiveness. In this book, Professor Bondeson undertakes a unique socio-legal and criminological study of the impact of three alternative sanctionsconditional sentence, ordinary probation and probation with institutional treatment. Beginning with the goal of resocializing offenders, Bondeson uses sophisticated methods to determine whether current legislation is having positive results. She examines in a recidivism study the effects of different treatments in order to assess the outcome of various sentences. She also analyzes the factors that lie behind a judges choice between sentencing possibilities.The findings show considerable and surprising differences among the rates of recidivism even when selection bias is held under control. Conditional sentences had the lowest rate of criminal relapse; probation had higher rates, and probation with institutional treatment had markedly higher rates. An in-depth study of probation consistently shows that probation was perceived by supervisors as providing help whereas most offenders perceived it as a stigmatizing means of control. The author shows that despite the legislators intent to improve the possibilities for resocialization, the opposite result was achieved. Bondeson concludes by describing two general principles for effective reform: a theory of least possible intervention and a general welfare ideology.

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