A Suppression Effect? Community Supervision and a Delay in Reoffending?

• In Event: Community Treatment and Supervision for Substance Use

Abstract

Previous drug court research has compared measures of recidivism across three disposition types and found limited differences in reoffending between probation and prison. One explanation posited suggested the time under community supervision – either probation or parole – suppresses participant criminal activity differently; thus, negating differences in reoffending across dispositions. The current study used a survival analysis to analyze a data set of 800 former drug court participants to assess differences in the criminal suppression effect of various forms of community-based supervision – drug court, probation, intensive supervision probation, and parole.

Authors

• Benjamin R. Gibbs, Ball State University

• Robert Lytle, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

• Ella Waldspurger, Ball State University