Topics
Our Priority Topics
Discover the key areas of focus for CEP, supported by expert groups and networks. This section highlights priority topics in probation, featuring research, presentations from CEP events, articles, and European regulations, driving innovation and collaboration across Europe.
Community sanctions and measures have a long history in Europe, spanning over a century. Community sanctions and measures are sanctions and measures which maintain suspects or offenders in the community and involve some restrictions on their liberty through the imposition of conditions and/ or obligations.
The overuse of pre-trial detention is a public policy concern capable of causing different dysfunctions of the criminal justice systems which can, in turn, undermine the rule of law, lead to various breaches of human rights.
We live in a rapidly changing world were technology plays an important role. Within a second, we have access to all the information we need and more. Technology in probation is rapidly changing and expanding as well. Nowadays, things like electronic monitoring, applications and virtual reality are used by probation officers in their daily work. Something we could have never thought of ten years ago. What sort of technology will we use in ten years?
Besides technology that probation officers can use in their daily work, the access to technology also created a new sort of offender: cybercriminals. Offenders that use technology to commit crimes.
In 2017 the European Commission Directorate General for Justice, highlighted its interest in the training of probation professionals. CEP was encouraged to work on creating a network of experts on the training of probation professionals at European level. This interest was formalized in the report prepared by the European Commission, “Evaluation of the 2011 European Judicial Training Strategy and preparation of the future 2019-2025 strategy”, which expanded the range of professional categories to be included in the new European Commission’s Judicial Training Strategy for the coming years and included probation professionals.
CEP members also highlighted their interest in the topic of education and training of probation staff. In a context of a rapid development of the criminal justice field and the growing importance of probation measures as more effective and with less economic cost, the training of Probation professionals has become crucial and challenging. In addition, the transfer of probation supervision orders between Member States has emphasised the need for comparable and equivalent practice across jurisdictions. In these circumstances, it is important to share knowledge and training expertise across Europe, train probation staff as specialized professionals and to share good practices, training methodologies and materials to assure quality training and practice.
CEP is working on the following objectives:
- to create a solid expert network in the field of education and training of probation staff at a pan-European level;
- to exchange experiences and best practices between countries and bodies in the field of education and training;
- to share knowledge updates in relation to legislative developments, intervention Guidelines from the European Commission and the Council of Europe and other research findings;
- to have an information data base and central resource point on innovation and good practices presented at CEP expert network and other meetings on the CEP website.
Electronic monitoring (EM) has matured into a commonplace penal tool used widely across Europe and beyond. Its applications appear to be limitless and its purposes diverse.
It is used in the areas of mental health, domestic violence, terrorism and immigration and diverse target groups including mental health patients, children and young people, victims of domestic violence as well as offenders.
EM also creates new challenges. For example, it leads to questions about whether, and in what ways, EM replaces, develops and/or improves the traditional roles of probation services; the extent to which the police and families are and/or should be involved in ‘supervising’ offenders; and the most effective and efficient ways of providing supervision and support for monitored individuals.
At the same time it creates opportunities to join up different areas of public and social policy and to act as a catalyst for meaningful multi-agency and multi-sector working thereby enabling a more holistic view of monitored individuals to be taken.
The dangers caused by violent extremism in European countries are paramount concerns of the criminal justice system. Prison and probation programs are two working fields where radicalisation, as well as deradicalisation meet. It is therefore important that prison and probation programs play an effective role in preventing violent extremism and raising knowledge regarding (de) radicalisation. Firstly, because people who are sentenced for executing radical acts, end up there. A part of them will remain hardboiled and are determined to be faithful to their ideology. Others might want to quit their radical activities or want to stop being a member of a radicalised group. A third group are prisoners who are at risk of being recruited and get radicalised during imprisonment.
CEP contributes to the EU Counter-Terrorism Strategy and the EU Strategy for Combating Radicalisation and Recruitment to Terrorism by playing an active role in the Prison and Probation Working Group of the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) of the EU Directorate-General Home Affairs and by raising awareness on these issues among its members by organising meetings and events.
According to the Council of Europe definition, Gender-based violence is violence directed against a person or group of people because of their factual or perceived sex, gender, sexual orientation and/or gender identity and that affects persons of a particular gender disproportionately (mainly women and girls but it can also affect men and boys). Gender-based violence can be sexual, physical, verbal, psychological (emotional), or socio-economic and it can take many forms, from verbal violence and hate speech on the Internet, to rape or murder. It can be perpetrated by anyone: a current or former spouse/partner, a family member, a colleague from work, schoolmates, friends, an unknown person, or people who act on behalf of cultural, religious, state, or intra-state institutions. Although women and girls are the main victims of GBV, it also causes severe harm to families and communities.
Probation bodies and practitioners across Europe and worldwide together with other criminal justice professionals are among those on the frontline of preventing violence by supervising and providing specialized treatment and programmes, guidance, and assistance to offenders. To support all aspects of rehabilitation and at the same time treatment process there is a need for cooperation among various actors and different European jurisdictions dealing with similar situations. CEP created the Expert group on Gender-based violence in the Probation field. The aim is also to improve management, to find and share good practices and inspiring examples around Europe as well as to advocate and act as the voice of this specific topic in the European Probation field.
The European Union and the Council of Europe have become increasingly important players in the development of probation in Europe. CEP is not only the voice of probation in Europe, it also wants to stimulate and support initiatives of international cooperation on probation and on the implementation of EU regulations. Below you will find all the information about the implementation of Framework Decisions 2009/829/JHA and 2008/947/JHA.
Topics
Explore a wide range of materials on probation, including research, presentations from CEP events, articles, European regulations, and more. This section provides a comprehensive overview of key developments and resources in the field of probation.
Domestic Violence
A lot of European countries try to improve the work with domestic violence and share good practices, but there is still a lot to be done. It is important to identify those who are sentenced for other crimes, but possibly also have a background of problems with domestic violence. Attention needs to be paid to the differences in cultural and religious backgrounds and to increase the knowledge about this matter in order to tackle domestic violence in different contexts. Domestic violence is an issue that goes through both prison and probation.
Sexual Offenders
The reintegration of sex offenders usually causes a lot of commotion. They are unwelcome in every community. However, the recidivism rate of sex offenders in general is considerably lower than other types of offenders. The reaction of the criminal justice systems to sex offending in Europe varies greatly. CEP aims to share experiences between CEP-members and to produce an overview of the assessment tools, risk management, treatment and other interventions for sex offenders across the different probation organisations throughout Europe.
Restorative Justice
Restorative justice brings those harmed by crime or conflict and those responsible for the harm into communication, enabling everyone affected by a particular incident to play a part in repairing the harm and finding a positive way forward. This is part of a wider field called restorative practice.
Restorative practice can be used anywhere to prevent conflict, build relationships and repair harm by enabling people to communicate effectively and positively. Restorative practice is increasingly being used in schools, children’s services, workplaces, hospitals, communities and the criminal justice system.
Restorative justice is seen as a broad approach oriented towards repairing, as far as possible, the harm caused by crime or other transgressions. A core element of restorative justice is active participation by the victim, the offender and possibly other parties (the community).
Much debate exists about which other parties should be involved, and in particular whether criminal justice officials, as representatives of the community or the state, should play a direct role in restorative justice processes.
Assessment and Pre-sentence Reports
Effective risk and needs assessment tools serve as crucial data points for probation staff in identifying risk factors for criminal recidivism, protective factors and needs, thereby enabling the assignment of an appropriate level of supervision.
Juvenile Offenders
Over the last ten years approximately, the question of how to respond appropriately to the offending of young adults has emerged as a point of increased focus within international criminological research and criminal policy. Responding to juvenile offending is a unique policy and practice challenge.
While a substantial proportion of crime is perpetuated by juveniles, most juveniles will ‘grow out’ of offending and adopt law-abiding lifestyles as they mature. It is argued that a range of factors, including juveniles’ lack of maturity, propensity to take risks and susceptibility to peer influence, as well as intellectual disability, mental illness and victimisation, increase juveniles’ risks of contact with the criminal justice system. These factors, combined with juveniles’ unique capacity to be rehabilitated, can require intensive and often expensive interventions by the juvenile justice system.
Victim’s Rights
Probation practices must respect the interests and rights of crime victims while also working with people on probation to make them aware of the harm they have caused.
Interagency Cooperation
When considering the rehabilitation of persons who have committed a crime resulting in imprisonment, a critical stage of the process is when they are released to the community. This is an important moment of transition when the person needs support in several areas of his/her life. Research indicates that this transition management is crucial in the rehabilitation process. Interagency cooperation is necessary to make this process successful.
Diversity
Enhanced application and advancement of gender equality and non-discrimination mainstreaming, along with better-developed diversity management for both clients and staff are core values of probation.
Covid-19
The outbreak of the corona virus has an enormous effect on the work of probation in Europe. Organizations are forced to create new ways of working and to provide additional instructions for staff in managing their work and responsibilities.
Mental Health
European probation and prison services are nowadays faced with large numbers of mentally ill people. The reduction of community mental health services all over Europe over the past several decades has led to the criminalisation of the mentally ill. The prevalence of various mental health problems among probationers and prisoners is considerably higher than in the community. In that sense, CEP aims to share experiences and good practices between CEP-members, experts on mental health in probation, in order to improve programes, interventions and ways of working with people under probations suffering mental health problems.
Foreign Nationals in Prison and Probation
Realizing the complexity of mutual recognition legislation, a poor understanding on the part of many of the authorities concerned, and differences in national legislation concerning decisions that might fall within its scope CEP continues promoting and supporting the implementation of these EU instruments.
Core Documents
Explore the key international rules and gain insights into probation systems within and beyond Europe.
Key international rules
International rules such as The Nelson Mandela Rules, The Tokyo Rules and The Bangkok Rules are key documents representing minimum rules acceptable in contemporary society as well as the ethical and professional guidelines for practitioners and managers to follow in developing and ensuring good practice. They reflect a strong moral commitment founded on international consensus.
Probation in Europe
Operating in the field of European probation can be difficult with all the different and fast developing probation systems that are active in all the European countries. This part of the knowledgebase contains all sorts of information about the probation systems in the countries, the Framework Decisions, foreign nationals and the Council of Europe rules and recommendations on probation and more.
Probation outside Europe
This chapter provides information on probation systems outside Europe. Understanding how these systems operate, how community sanctions and measures are implemented within different criminal justice frameworks, and how these services are organised is vital for developing professional skills and broadening perspectives.
Subscribe to our bi-monthly email newsletter!
- Keep up to date with important probation developments and insights.