Supervision: A Behavioral Management Process to Reduce Recidivism

III. Behavior and Change

Step 1: Assessment and Case Planning to Engage the Offender in the Change Process. The transformation in the role of supervision staff from law enforcers or social workers to behavior managers requires a structured process that begins with assessment and case planning.

The initial assessment, and repeated assessments throughout the period of community supervision, allows staff to craft and modify supervision plans and behavioral contracts as necessary to maximize impact on offender behavior and recidivism reduction. The assessment should focus on diagnosing the offender's criminogenic factors and triggers, and then working with the offender to increase his/her own understanding of the diagnosis. During this phase, the goal is engagement through educating the offender of the triggers that increase the criminal conduct.

Under the behavior management model, this phase consists of four chief tasks:

  1. Identify or assess offenders' criminogenic traits and triggers;
  2. Diagnose the typology of offender (e.g. drug, alcohol, dissociated, violent, domestic violence, sexual predator, etc.);
  3. Develop a supervision plan for changing offenders' behavior that the offender and supervision staff mutually consent; and
  4. Implement the agreed-upon plan through a behavioral contract that facilitates change.

Not all offenders are alike, nor do the same combination of factors lead to offenders' involvement in crime.
The first critical role for staff is to pull together information from all possible sources:

  • criminal histories,
  • screening information,
  • specific assessments,
  • interviews with offenders,
  • contacts with family or community members,
  • and others.

Next they must make an informed judgment about the likely causes of the criminal conduct. It also requires an analysis of the offender's environment and triggers (e.g. situations, people, places, and things) that influence his/her behavior. Staff must be knowledgeable about each of the major types of conduct: substance use and abuse, mental health status, violence, domestic violence, sexual deviance, disassociation, gang membership, and so on. Often the supervision staff will draw upon the assessments developed in conjunction with subject-matter experts in these areas.