Between probation and revocation - A study of intermediate sanctions decision-making

There is growing recognition that intermediate sanctions are essential to t he establishment of accountability and proportionality in punishment decisi on-making. These emphases are overlooked in most research on intermediate s anctions, which focuses nearly exclusively on their impact on public safety and prison crowding. The present study addressed this deficit by exploring the extent to which proportionality and accountability influenced the use of intermediate sanctions in response to probation violators in a large urb an county. Using discriminant analyses, the study found that indicators of proportionality and accountability helped to predict which violators remain ed under traditional supervision, graduated to intermediate sanctions, or g ot revoked. Stronger results emerged in analyses that took both technical v iolations and new arrears into account than in analyses involving new arres ts only. The article considers the findings' implications for probation pol icy and practice, and for research on intermediate sanctions as tools for f acilitating proportionality and accountability. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science L td. All rights reserved.