On Method Study Of Chinese Risk Assessment On Community-based Corrections

Since the 20 th century, with the development of the theories of humanitarianism of punishment, educational punishment, and etc, socialization of punishment becomes an important part of the modern punishment theory. Non-imprisonment penalty and probation have an increasing proportion in legislation and judicial practice in the world, and many conventions or documents issued by the United Nations are also encouraging to provide offenders with humanized sanctions. These measures all prompt the development of community correction for offenders not only in China but also in western countries, at the same time, they make the related research issues of community correction as very hot research fields in criminal policy and the execution of punishment. But in the research of community correction, scientific risk assessment theory is still in the initial stage, and relatively perfect risk assessment system of community correction has not yet been constructed. Therefore, based on the exploring of basic theory and connotation of community correction, combined with the experience and effect of Chinese community correction, this dissertation researches the scientific method, theory and implementation system on risk assessment of community correction. Through applying the research results with Fujian province, the dissertation also discusses the problems of legislation on community correction risk assessment and the empirical analysis. This research will provide great theoretical support and practical guidance for the further development of community correction in China.In addition to the introduction part, this dissertation is divided into five chapters, including more than 140,000 words.The first chapter describes the process of the socialization of penalty execution and the rise of community correction. As a key research field in the community correction, risk assessment contacts with penalty execution theory, the socialization of execution, and the development of community correction very tightly, and analysis and discussion on the related theories will help us to sort out the thinking and pulse of risk assessment of community correction. Execution is the key step in punishment implementation, along with the changing way of execution, the purpose and value theory of execution is varying. The purpose of execution determines the establishment of punishment system. With the development of some theories as retribution theory and utility theory, the modern prison reform movement is constructed and the socialization of execution is germinated, which requires people to pay more attention to the rights of criminals in the process of the execution, and the execution socialization theory arises at the historic moment. After the 19 th century, with the development of humanitarian theory, individualized punishment theory, label theory, and etc, community correction came into being and got great development in the countries of the world. Risk assessment of community correction has played a big role in the criminal management and social management, and John Augustus suggested risk evaluation of community-based correction firstly. Its essence is using some methods to measure the possibility of committing a crime again of an offender.The second chapter is the theoretical basis and practice overview of risk assessment on community correction. This chapter describes the concept analysis, theoretical bases, normal basis, and the main problems with Chinese risk evaluation of community correction. From the literal meaning, community correction and its risk assessment are some kinds of behaviors or measures, they need have specific actions to a specific object in a specific space and a specific time, and two dimensions as risk dimension and need dimension are existing in community correction risk evaluation. Quantitative scale tables are often utilized to evaluate the personal dangerousness of prisoners in the community. Based on the scores to classify and decide the ranks, and different supervise and corrective measures are adopted to the offenders. Community correction risk evaluation mainly includes three types as risk evaluation before community correction, risk evaluation in the course of community correction, and comprehensive assessment before corrective actions are unblock. The theory basis of community correction risk evaluation are community involvement theory, social responsibility theory, penalty individually theory, and etc. The current status and the problems of risk assessment on Chinese community correction are including: the evaluation subject is not clear, and the assessors are not qualified; the evaluation index and the evaluation method are not scientific and effective; works in risk evaluation system and judicial system have no good connections; the legislation of risk assessment on Chinese community correction is not perfect. According these situations, it's very necessary to explore scientific risk evaluation method and efficient evaluation procedure.The third chapter studies the method and the system of risk assessment on community correction, including the selection of evaluation indexes, the establishment of the scale, the model of risk assessment, the methods of assessment, and etc. Where is the danger from? This is the first issue of the criminals who are corrected in the community which should be considered. The influencing factors of community inmates personal risk consist of both external environment factors and internal factors, or static factors and dynamic factors. In the selection of evaluation indexes, the principles as scientific principle, systematic principle, independence principle, objective principle, and etc should be abided. Through analyzing the community inmates personal characteristics, studying the source and appearance of the risk, evaluation indexes of risk assessment on community correction can be provided. Combined with the experience of domestic and foreign mature community correction risk assessment, through interviews, experiment and the research of theoretical dimension, and asking for the opinions of the judicial administrative staffs and management personnel of community correction, five dimensions of risk assessment index system such as personal factors, family factors, social factors, crime situation, and correct situation are built. The reliability and validity of the evaluation index factors is tested. On the basis of the modeling analysis, computer and information techniques, a risk assessment system of community correction based on neural network method is proposed, and the classification method of community correction risk assessment is also analyzed in this chapter.The fourth chapter is the empirical analysis of risk assessment on community correction utilizing the cases of Fujian province. Since 2006, Fujian Province have done many jobs on community correction, and some innovative explorations in community correction risk evaluation are processing. But most of these evaluations are qualitative analysis, only a few regions make scales to measure the dangerousness of the offenders in the community. According to the problems in the risk evaluation of community corrections, research plan, questionnaire interviews, and experiments are designed to research the theory and methods of risk assessment on community correction in Fujian province. Among the research contents, utilizing risk evaluation factors and scales, and surveys of social support, a neural network to study community inmates is applied to the risk assessment of community correction system, and the assessment method and assessment mechanism is discussed. At home and abroad a large number of studies on community correction risk assessment are mostly to assess by the questionnaire survey, but the real attitude of people to things is implicit in most situation, and it is not easy to obtain individual's real attitude and idea. Thus, the application of implicit association test methods to help the empirical research of community correction risk assessment is very necessary.The fifth chapter researches how to construct the risk assessment system of community correction and the legislation exploration in China. This chapter is the foothold of this dissertation, and discusses some problems including the constructing of subject sovereign power, public participation, legislative effect, the reinforcement to evidences, and how to imply the regulations to different types of offenders in the community, etc. Risk assessment of community correction occupies a very important position in our country's community correction system. Who determines and implements the risk assessment of community correction, what kind of professional quality should these people have, what is the role of community in community correction risk assessment, and what procedure and supervision mechanism should community correction risk assessment have, are all the key issues to exploring risk assessment system of community correction. At the same time, the legislation of community correction risk assessment is the first problem to be solved currently. We need to seriously study the achievements of domestic and foreign legislation of community correction and its risk assessment, summarize the advantages and disadvantages of different penalty execution system, and then develop a community correction law from the national level height as soon as possible. If a specialized risk evaluation result of community correction is made by an authorized professional association according to regulated procedure, this result should have full force and be accepted by courts or related organizations. If no adequate cause, the courts or related organizations can't overturn the evaluation result or refuse to adopt it. The content of risk evaluation may be added to Chinese community correction law as special provisions or attachments. At the same time, full considerations should be given to various provinces and regions according to different economic, political, and cultural unbalanced development situation, as well as various aspects between urban and rural areas. The central government should allow the counties and cities to formulate the daily supervision and inspection system from the present situation and long-term consideration. Work liaison system and joint meeting system of risk assessment on community correction should be also regulated. When the existence of local laws or regulations is possible, a perfect legal system of community correction risk assessment by national state and local legislation is formed.