The Supervision of Offenders - What Works ?

There is a considerable amount of research evidence that some supervision practices in community corrections are more effective than others. This study considers the impact of a supervision model which is based on practices which the research has found to be effective, in particular a focus on high risk offenders, the use of problem solving, a pro-social approach and the use of empathy. The first report indicated that those who were trained in the model and agreed to make use of it with their clients were in fact more likely to use the model in supervision and their clients had lower recidivism rates when measured after one year and after 20 months, in comparison to a randomly selected control group. This paper reports on a follow up of the clients after four years and finds that on most of the recidivism measures the supervision has continued to have a positive impact.