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Characteristics of Community Service Programs and Probationers in Texas (open access)

Characteristics of Community Service Programs and Probationers in Texas

As a criminal sanction, community service involves unpaid labor on the part of convicted criminal offenders. Community service was created as an alternative to incarceration for low-level offenders. It now appears, however, that community service is rarely used as a true alternative to prison, but rather as an added condition of probation. The body of research on community service in the United States is modest, so relatively little is known about its characteristics and administration. Data were attained from 88 Texas probation professionals via self-administered written surveys in an effort to gather information about the use of community service as a criminal sanction in Texas. Frequency distribution analyses identified characteristics of both community service programs and offender participants in Texas.
Date: August 2002
Creator: Roberts, Darrin David
System: The UNT Digital Library