Alternative Probation Strategies in Baltimore, Maryland (ICPSR 8355)

Principal Investigator(s): Collins, James J.

Summary: The purpose of this study was to assess the relative cost-effectiveness of supervised probation, unsupervised probation, and community service. Data were collected from several sources: input-intake forms used by the State of Maryland, probation officers' case record files, Maryland state police rap sheets, FBI sources, and interviews with Maryland probationers. Non-violent, less serious offenders who normally received probation sentences of 12 months or less were offered randomly selected ... (more info)

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Collins, James J. Alternative Probation Strategies in Baltimore, Maryland. ICPSR08355-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2002. doi:10.3886/ICPSR08355.v1

Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08355.v1

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This survey was funded by:

• United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (81-IJ-CX-0005)

Summary:   The purpose of this study was to assess the relative cost-effectiveness of supervised probation, unsupervised probation, and community service. Data were collected from several sources: input-intake forms used by the State of Maryland, probation officers' case record files, Maryland state police rap sheets, FBI sources, and interviews with Maryland probationers. Non-violent, less serious offenders who normally received probation sentences of 12 months or less were offered randomly selected assignments to one of three treatment methods over a five-month period. Baseline data for probationers in each of the three samples were drawn from an intake form that was routinely completed for cases. An interim assessment of recidivism was made at the midpoint of the intervention for each probationer using information drawn from police records. Probationers were interviewed six and twelve months after probation ended. Demographic information on the probationers includes sex, race, age, birthplace, marital status, employment status, and education.

Subject Terms:   alternatives to institutionalization, community service programs, cost effectiveness, criminal justice system, inmate release plans, offenders, postrelease programs, probation services, probationers, program evaluation, recidivism, sentencing

Geographic Coverage:   Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Time Period:  

• 1981

Universe:   Non-violent criminal offenders who committed less serious crimes in Maryland.

Data Types:   administrative records data, survey data

Data Collection Notes:

Data for two interviews with each of the 371 probationers are contained in Parts 5-8.

For Parts 5-8, the number of records per case varies, with each part having at least five records per case.

Produced by the Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, NC, 1981.

Data Source:

Maryland State Police records, FBI records, probation officers' records, and personal interviews

Original ICPSR Release:  1985-03-18

Version History:

• 2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 9 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.
• 2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 9 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

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