Community Service by Offenders: Agency Experiences and Attitudes

Abstract

Community service orders (i.e., sentences) enable convicted offenders to perform unpaid work for the benefit of their local communities. The present article describes the experiences and views of 172 nonprofit social service agencies in Scotland that offered placements to, and supervised, offenders on community service orders during 1989. The results of the survey indicated that such work was highly valued by most agencies. Although approximately one half of the agencies had experienced some problems when supervising offenders on orders, these were usually of a relatively minor nature and agencies were, with very few exceptiom, willing to continue making placements available. The implications of the findings for social service agencies are discussed.