Probation and Parole in Europe

Bibliographic Data

ID7987474
AuthorsFergus Mcneill (0000-0003-3547-6482), Miranda Boone (0000-0002-5333-4587), Nicola Carr (0000-0002-9075-269X)
Year2025
Volume54
Pages415-452
Publication date2025-10-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCrime and Justice (BOOK_SERIES)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0192-3234 • E-ISSN: 2153-0416
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/736991
OpenAlexW4414894734
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited80

In this essay, we review uses of and developments in probation and parole in Europe, and consider the prospects for such sanctions. Our analysis reveals huge variation across European jurisdictions in the extent to which supervisory sanctions are used and in how their uses relate to the uses of imprisonment. We find evidence of very large expansions in the numbers of people under supervision in several European countries, but little or no evidence that this growth has produced concomitant reductions in their use of imprisonment. We also reveal the diversity of legal forms that supervisory sanctions take across the continent, and the diversity of purposes that they pursue. Similarly, across Europe the organisations that deliver penal supervision also take many forms and construct their practices quite differently. These organisations have varying occupational and organisational cultures and practices, some influenced by policy transfer, both within Europe and from elsewhere. Noting that critical attention has begun to be paid to how penal supervision is experienced by those subject to it and, to a lesser extent, by those close to them (i.e., partners and families of supervisees), we elaborate the ‘pains and gains’ of supervision, and explore variations in experiences of supervision under different systems. With their diverse purposes and forms in mind, we also explore other ways in which the impacts and effectiveness of supervision have been examined, noting both the key findings and the limitations of reconviction studies. Finally, we suggest that, whatever the evidence of their impacts and effects, such sanctions may endure because their use reflects key European values and, more pragmatically, because prison population pressures create political, fiscal and social problems that require ‘alternatives’. That said, given the fragility of the European project, and the risk of authoritarian populism in Europe (and elsewhere), we argue that there is no room for complacency; especially where technological development might be seen as offering a different kind of ‘alternative

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