Stressors can contribute to (the repetition of) criminal behavior. Poverty, unemployment and a lack of fi nancial security are examples of these kind of stressors. The population of the Dutch probation services deal signifi cantly more often with these kind of life adversities than the general Dutch population. Using CBS Microdata, combined with data from the Dutch probation services, we determined that, of the clients receiving supervised probation (n = 9.748) more than half are not financially independent (54,8 %). Less than a quarter of this subgroup receives income from work (27,6 %), while 30,2 % is dependent on social assistance benefits. Poverty, unemployment and financial insecurity are hindering recovery and a pathway away from crime. With the help of the Dutch probation services, some clients gain employment and a better personal income. Using the combined data set we determined that over the course of three years after the start of probation supervision, employment rate including working as entrepreneur goes up from 24,6 % to 31,8 %. This is an increase of 7,2 %, which translates to about 70 million euros in societal benefi ts of which a yet to be defi ned portion can be attributed to supervised probation.