NCJ Number
176906
Date Published
1998
Length
93 pages
Annotation
This final report examines the amount of time it takes Illinois probation officers to supervise juvenile probationers and to conduct intakes and social investigations; it also reports on the types of activities performed by probation officers in their supervision functions.
Abstract
A much larger number of supervision cases (n=867) were included in this study than either social history (n=85) or intake cases (n=33). Although there are data limitations, the data show that supervision level has a significant impact on the amount of time officers spend in supervising juvenile probationers, and the number and types of activities performed during supervision varies considerably across supervision level. The data also indicate there are differences in supervision across jurisdictions. Although the data set is not large enough to identify specific county impacts on supervision practices (except for Cook County), there is a notable level of variation among Cook County, large counties, medium-sized counties, and small counties in the average length of supervision time and what is done within that time. In addition, the data show that the completion of social histories is a time-consuming task and that counties of different sizes exhibit distinct patterns in how probation officers conduct social investigations. The number of juvenile intake cases in this study is so low that an understanding of juvenile intake processes in Illinois has not been significantly enhanced by this study. 35 tables, 2 figures, 5 references, and appended data-collection instruments and a table of average monthly supervision time by county and supervision level for supervision cases