Empirical Study On The Effectiveness Of Measures In Community-corrections

As a non-custodial execution method,community-corrections is more and more important in the penal system and penal enforcement activities,but the following questions are difficult to confirm or falsify by relying on normative research:How is the implementation of the penalty for community-corrections?What is the actual effect of corrective measures in the community?How each corrective measure affects community-corrections subjects?The lack of answers to these questions has in fact become a serious constraint to the further development of community-corrections in China.Therefore,it is particularly urgent to use scientific empirical methods to test the effectiveness of community-corrections,and to measure and answer the function and value of community-corrections in theory.The current researches on the effect of community-corrections focus on the reflection of short-term imprisonment and the recognition of re-socialization.The understandings of the effect of community-corrections mainly come from the study of foreign institutional experience,the interpretation of the concept of re-socialization and the case analysis of practices.There are few literatures on the effects of measures in community-corrections through empirical methods.In recent years,some empirical studies in this field have focused on the degree of remorse,mental health,social participation,etc.Most of the research methods conducted are statistical descriptions,and a few are multiple linear regression analysis.The existing researches have different degrees of shortcomings:First,the researches based on comparative experience,concept interpretation and case analysis of practices have their own value,but lack solid practical arguments to support their views;Second,a few empirical studies lack systematic analysis of measures and effects,credible research methods,and systematic testing on practices;Third,there is few scientific and systematic research on the relationship between various measures and effects in China.This paper attempts to refine the different dimensions of various measures and effects of community-corrections.Through more scientific and rigorous empirical research methods,this paper tries to verify and explore the effects of community-corrections and the links between measures and effects,and to fill the blanks in current arguments and understandings of community-corrections in China.This paper mainly adopts literature research method,empirical research method and in-depth interview method.First,this study systematically sorts out the effects of community-corrections by reading a large number of relevant academic papers and works,and analyzing current measures and the effects of measures.Second,the study uses the empirical research methods,mainly including questionnaire survey,structural equation modeling,multiple linear regression and the variance analysis.This study distributes questionnaires to investigate various information on offenders of community-corrections,and conduct comprehensive analysis of the connection between measures and effects.Through the path analysis in the structural equation model,the effects of various measures and the regulation of various variables are explored;The effects of various measures on the effect were further analyzed by multiple linear regression;the variance analysis was used to study the particularity of the adolescent population.Third,this study conducted in-depth interviews on main participants to understand the practice,including but not limited to several community-corrections institution staffs,psychological counselors,and community-corrections subjects.Combining the practice circumstances learned from the interviews,the paper explores the rational interpretation of the data analysis conclusions.China's corrective measures for community-corrections education can be divided into three categories:help-support measures,development measures and compulsory educational measures.Among them,help-support measures contain providing psychological counseling for offenders,improving family relationships,providing legal support and life support.Development measures contain job skills training for offenders,providing employment information,and coordinating schooling for underage offenders.Compulsory educational measures include forcing offenders to participate in educational learning and community services.There is no disagreement about the relatively weak function of community prevention in general prevention,but whether it can achieve re-socialization to realize special prevention remains questionable.Therefore,the research in this paper is mainly aimed at the special prevention effect of community-corrections.Community-corrections is committed to re-socialization.Therefore,the evaluation of the effect of community-corrections should analyze the causes of crimes committed by offenders on a case-by-case basis,so that they reduce the motivation for re-offending,namely they are committed tore-socialization and realizing special prevention.In other words,the cause of crime and the goal of correction are two-sided.It can be argued that it is more likely to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing the possibility of recidivism,achieving special prevention and returning to society,if the corrective measures are taken against the offenders' motivation for offending.Therefore,this paper combs the existing researches and divides the effects of community-corrections into five categories:survivability,interpersonal ability,crime awareness,moral standards and self-awareness.In the selection of the questionnaire distribution area,the city B,which is a representative community-corrections work in China,was selected.Five types of districts were selected,including the city's central area,suburbs,and urban-rural mixed areas.With regard to the selection of the questionnaire distribution channels,they were first distributed to theoffices of justiceunder their jurisdiction through the district bureausof justice,and then the questionnaires were sent point-to-point to respondents.A total of 799 questionnaires were distributed and 684 valid questionnaires were recovered,with an effective recovery rate of 85.6%.A questionnaire database was established.On the basis of the database,this paper conducted an empirical test on the effects of community-corrections through structural equation models,multiple regression analysis,and analysis of variance,etc.The analysis results are as follows.First,help-support measures will reduce the ability of offenders to earn a living and reduce their independence.The impact of "psychological counseling" is not significant and has a negative effect;"improving family relationships" is conducive to improving the survivability and interpersonal skills of offenders;"providing legal support" and "providing life assistance" will reduce the survivability of offenders.Second,development measures have a positive impact on the survivability,crime awareness,and self-awareness of offenders,and have a negative impact on the moral level.Third,compulsory educational measures have no significant impact on community-corrections in all dimensions.However,"compulsory education learning"can significantly reduce the survivability and self-awareness of offenders;on the contrary,"compulsory community service" can significantly improve the survivability and interpersonal skills of community-corrections.At the same time,the results point out that different groups of offenders,such as adolescents,different genders,different marital status,different crimes recognitions etc.,have special characteristics in measures and effects of community-corrections.This paper applies empirical research methods to legal research,verifies that community-corrections measures promote the re-socialization of offenders and have special preventive effects,and provides empirical evidence for logical deduction;it also explores possible negative impacts,including that the introduction of too much help will lead to dependence,and that the same measures on different groups of offenders will produce various effects.Based on the research,three types of policy recommendations are proposed:In terms of macro institution,accelerate the legislation of community-corrections and development of supporting systems,and strengthen the building of community-corrections teams;In terms of meso concept,widely mobilize participation of social forces,fully apply technical means,improve the correcting methods,actively explore classification management,and improve the supervisory and incentive mechanism;In terms of specific measures,suggestions are put forward respectively for help-support measures,development measures,compulsory educational measures and measures for special groups and youth offenders.