Guiding Principles

• To change offender behavior, supervision should focus on altering an offender's dynamic factors to achieve better results. Dynamic factors include criminal thinking, substance abuse, poor family relations, low internal controls, criminal or antisocial peer associations, and antisocial personality.
• To change offender behavior, the goal should be to improve offender decision-making in pro-social arenas and to reduce distorted thinking patterns.
• To change offender behavior, high-risk offenders should receive intensive (and structured) programs and/or services.
• To change offender behavior, supervision staff should focus on understanding the offender's prior and current behavior. And, the supervision staff should work with the offender to increase his/her own understanding of their behavior patterns and the consequences of engaging in negative and/or antisocial behavior.
• To change offender behavior, the emphasis should be on criminogenic needs (dynamic factors) to reduce the offender's risk of recidivism.