Towards an Empirical and Theoretical Understanding of Offender Reinforcement and Punishment

The role of the community supervision officer has evolved from a condition-driven brokerage and monitoring specialist to a risk-focused direct service interventionist using behavioral change strategies. To make their interactions with offenders more effective, officers need to better understand how offenders in general and individual offenders in particular regard particular reinforcements and punishments. The authors administered a survey to clients currently under supervision to begin the process of better understanding this.