Social bonds under supervision: Associating social bonds of probationers with supervision failure

Little is known about the role of social bonds and criminal bonds in relation to probation supervision failure. This study examined probation supervision failure in a sample of 13,091 discharged adult probationers in the Netherlands. We examined the relationship between supervision failure and probationers' demographic and criminal history factors, social bonds, and criminal bonds. As was hypothesized, probationers with weak conventional social bonds were more likely to fail their probation supervision program than probationers with strong social bonds. Probationers with strong criminal bonds or weak criminal bonds did not differ significantly with respect to their supervision outcome. However, probationers with weak involvement in conventional ties (e.g., work, school) and with strong criminal ties were particularly at risk of failing their supervision. These findings advance current knowledge on factors associated with probation supervision failure and may have important implications for probation practice. © 2013 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology.