Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Probation Statistics Part 1 Crime, Justice & Security Statistics Produced in Collaboration between

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved.

Probation Statistics

Part 1

Crime, Justice & Security Statistics

Produced in Collaboration between World Bank Institute and the Development Data Group (DECDG)


Relation to other Modules

• Probation Statistics do not exist on their own. They are closely related to statistics from other agencies of the justice system: especially the courts and the prisons and to the general principles for statistical governance.

• As a consequence, other Modules in this area could also be studied with benefit:– Module 1 (Governance)– Module 5 (Courts)– Module 7 (Prisons)

2


Probation process

• Police catch offenders: prosecutors ensure evidence is good enough: courts find many offenders guilty of the crime

• The probation service works with the court in dealing with offenders:• It supervises offenders that have been given community sanctions• It supervises prisoners who have completed their sentence, or are

serving some of their sentence in the community• It advises the court on the social consequences of sentencing • In many countries its role goes wider than the justice system itself,

dealing with problems to do with vulnerable children

3


Structural Position of the Probation Service

• Most developed countries and a growing number of developing countries have a probation service but some do not yet

• Different ministries supervise the probation service in different countries

• Sometimes this is a stand alone service: • Sometimes it lies within another justice service, such as the prisons

service or even the courts service.• Sometimes it lies within ministries dealing with children’s issues.

4


More common

• Probation Order• Community Service Order• After-care following release

from prison• Supervision instead of

imprisonment• Attending offender programs

as a condition of supervision

Less common

• Electronic tagging• Curfew• Intensive supervision• Restorative or Community

Justice

Types of probation supervision(Statistics on workload/outcomes)

5


Other roles of Probation Service

• Giving social reports to the court• Advising the courts on sentencing• Dealing with young people at risk of offending:

• Orphans• Those from criminal families• Those being placed for adoption

• Statistics needed on all these where relevant

6


Types of Probation Statistics

Whatever aspect of the Probation Service we are monitoring, there are three basic types of statistics that will be useful for managing and reporting on the Probation service.

1. Workload Statistics, which show the number of cases that the probation service is faced with

2. Outcome Statistics, which show the outcomes of supervisions that the Probation service has been dealing with.

3. Resource Statistics, including staff, buildings, and equipmentTargets could be set for each of these types of statistics: case-load per probation officer

7


Sources of Probation data

• Data-collection should be designed for the local probation office starting when an offender has his name entered on the Probation Service’s books.

• Probation Staff open a file for each new case. • Case files should contain information on

• Unique case identifier for each offender (criminal)• Offence convicted of and date of conviction• Type of probation supervision given and Length of

supervision • Basic characteristics of each offender (eg. age and sex)• Outcome of supervision order: eg completed

satisfactory/breached.

8


Workload Statistics – General

• Workload Statistics show the amount of work that the probation service has dealt with over a particular period

• These will usually be about the supervision cases that the probation service deals with

• But other work will need to be recorded (eg advice given by the probation service to the court on social background or sentencing possibilities) as they use up resources and are often considered separately from the main case

• Data should be collected on a monthly basis from each probation office

• Statistics of numbers of staff employed should also be collected with workload statistics

9


Workload Statistics – Probation supervision example

Probation Office…….

Month……

Caseload at start of month

Cases received

Cases ended

Successfully

Caseload at end of month

Main type of supervision

Probation Order

Community Service Order

After-Care

Instead of prison

Attending offender programmes

10


Workload Statistics – Classifications

• The probation service does not need to collect a large amount of detailed workload statistics

• But it will need to ensure that the classifications used are the same as those used by the police, the courts and the prison service

• This is to make sure that data can be compared uniformly across all agencies

• An example is the broad offence classification, which will need to be agreed at a Crime Statistics Committee usually chaired by the CSO

• The procedure for this is covered in Module 1.

11


Probation workload trends

National Data 2004 2005 2006 2007

Caseload at start of year

Cases received during year

Cases concluded

Caseload at end of period

Change in workload during year

12


Outcome statistics – general

The probation service works to ensure all types ofsupervision are completed satisfactorily: This involves monitoring:

1. Cases supervised that conclude satisfactorily: 2. Supervisions that fail because the offender commits another offence3. Supervisions that fail due to bad offender behavior4. Supervisions that fail because offenders do not attend as required.5. Supervisions referred again to the court.

13


Outcome Probation Statistics

Type of supervision…..

Month….

Homicide Assault Robbery Theft Sexual, ……

Cases completed satisfactorily

Offender re-offends

Offender behaves badly

Offender does not attend

Case referred to court again

Fails for other reason

14


Outcome Trends

Probation Office……..

2006 2007 2008 2009

Outcome of supervisions

Cases completed satisfactorily

Offender re-offends

Offender behaves badly

Offender does not attend

Case referred to court again

Fails for other reason

15

Documents

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Probation Statistics Part 1 Crime, Justice & Security Statistics Produced in Collaboration between