The Role of Place in Probation and Parole

Abstract

In order for probation and parole authorities to reduce recidivism among their supervisees, they must target the known causes of crime: opportunity and propensity. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of community supervision agencies fail to reduce offenders’ inclinations to commit crime, and even more so, ignore the role of offenders’ environments in providing chances to commit crime. This chapter discusses ways of combating these shortcomings through “environmental corrections,” a framework that applies the tenets of environmental criminological theories to probation and parole supervision. We identify two routes through which offender supervisors can reduce recidivism, organized around the role of place. First, probation and parole agencies can knife off the crime opportunities of their supervisees, developing case plan stipulations that reorganize offenders’ routine activities so that criminogenic settings are avoided and replaced with prosocial influences. Second, probation and parole agents can provide cognitive skills training to their supervisees to get them thinking about places differently, such that remaining crime opportunities are avoided and resisted.