Bewirkt – Universität Innsbruck

BeWirkt - Impact evaluation of the Austrian Probation Service

Probation services help offenders to come to terms with the crime they have committed and to avoid reoffending. Assistance further aims to support probationers in securing their own livelihoods and help them implement constructive changes in various areas of their lives. In German-speaking countries or in comparable legal systems, there is a lack of comprehensive impact evaluation of probation services. The aim of this project is therefore to examine the effects of probation on the living, educational, family, income and housing situation, on the health status and on the development of prosocial attitudes and competencies of the probationers and to analyze the interaction of these factors with recidivism. For this purpose, two research institutes cooperate to implement an elaborate study design together with NEUSTART, which is the only provider of probationary services in Austria. The first step is to identify the complex impact factors of probation services and to operationalize impact indicators.From this, a questionnaire will be developed and telephone interviews will be conducted with at least 400 clients.Second, the respective probation officers will be interviewed using an online survey, and information from theNEUSTART documentation will be integrated into the evaluation. From this multi-perspective study design, factors such as methods, course, duration, intensity of probation services are examined in terms of their effect on clients.The data analysis will be based on a comparative design where different sub-samples will be compared to generate findings about cause-effect relationships. Regression-modelling will help identify impact factors, and hypotheses about correlations will be tested. Finally, deeper insights will be gained from qualitative interviews, which will finally be analyzed together with the quantitative data. From these findings, evidence-based recommendations for the improvement of probation services will be developed in collaboration with NEUSTART in order to inform both practice and scientific discourse at different levels.

The project is funded by the Austrian Security Research Programme KIRAS of the Austrian Ministry of Finance.