Criminal procedure
Criminal trials and convictions
Rights of the accused
Fair trial  · Speedy trial  · Jury trial
Counsel  · Presumption of innocence
Exclusionary rule (U.S.)
Self-incrimination  · Double jeopardy (Not E&W)
Verdict
Acquittal  · Conviction
Not proven (Scot.)  · Directed verdict
Sentencing
Mandatory  · Suspended  · Custodial
Dangerous offender (Can., E&W)
Capital punishment  · Execution warrant
Cruel and unusual punishment
Post-conviction events
Parole  · Probation
Tariff (UK)  · Life licence (UK)
Miscarriage of justice
Exoneration  · Pardon
Related areas of law
Criminal defenses
Criminal law  · Evidence
Civil procedure
Portals: Law  · Criminal justice

Probation is the suspension of a jail sentence - the criminal who is "on probation" has been convicted of a crime, but instead of serving jail time, has been found by the Court to be amenable to probation and will be returned to the community for a period in which they will have to abide to certain conditions set forth by the Court under the supervision of a probation officer. Criminal procedure refers to the legal process for adjudicating claims that someone has violated Criminal law. The rights of the accused is a class of rights that apply to a person in the time period between when they are formally accused of a crime and when they are either convicted or acquitted The right to fair trial is an essential right in all countries respecting the Rule of law. Speedy trial refers to one of the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution to defendants in criminal proceedings Right to counsel is nowadays generally regarded as a constituent of the Right to a fair trial, allowing for the defendant to be assisted by counsel (i The presumption of innocence being innocent until proven guilty is a legal Right that the Accused in Criminal trials has The exclusionary rule is a legal principle in the United States, under constitutional law, that holds that evidence collected or analyzed in violation of Courts of the United States may refer both to the United States federal courts, which operate under the authority of the United States Constitution Self-incrimination is the act of accusing oneself of a Crime for which a person can then be Prosecuted. Double jeopardy (non bis in idem is a Procedural defense (and in many countries such as the United States, Canada, Mexico and India Her Majesty's Courts of Justice of England and Wales are the civil and criminal Courts responsible for the administration of Justice in England In Law, a verdict is the formal finding of fact made by a Jury on matters or questions submitted to the jury by a judge In Criminal law, an acquittal is a verdict of not guilty, or some similar end of the proceeding that terminates it with prejudice without a verdict In Law, a conviction is the Verdict that results when a Court of law finds a Defendant guilty of a Crime. Not proven is a Verdict available to a court in Scotland. Under Scots law, a criminal trial may end in one of three verdicts The civil, criminal and heraldic Courts of Scotland are responsible for the administration of Justice. In Law, a directed Verdict is ruling by a Judge presiding over a Jury trial typically made after the plaintiff has presented all of her evidence In Law, a sentence forms the final act of a Judge -ruled process and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function A mandatory sentence is a court decision setting where Judicial discretion is limited by Law. A suspended sentence is a legal construct Unless a minimum punishment is prescribed by law the Court has the power to suspend the passing of sentence (generally A custodial sentence is a judicial sentence imposing a punishment (and hence the resulting punishment itself consisting of mandatory custody of the convict either in prison In Canada, England and Wales, certain convicted persons may be designated as dangerous offenders and subject to a longer or indefinite term of imprisonment The court system of Canada is made up of many Courts differing in levels of legal superiority and separated by jurisdiction Her Majesty's Courts of Justice of England and Wales are the civil and criminal Courts responsible for the administration of Justice in England Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. An execution warrant or death warrant is a warrant which authorizes the execution of a judgment of death ( Capital punishment) on an individual Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system Under the criminal law of England and Wales, a tariff is the minimum period that a person serving an indefinite Prison sentence must serve before that person becomes The United Kingdom does not have a single unified Judicial system, but separate judicial systems serving England and Wales, Scotland and Northern In the British criminal justice system a life licence specifies the conditions under which a prisoner sentenced to life in jail may be released The United Kingdom does not have a single unified Judicial system, but separate judicial systems serving England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Exoneration occurs when a person who has been convicted of a Crime is later proved to have been innocent of that crime A pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the penalty associated with it The term criminal law, sometimes called penal law, refers to any of various bodies of rules in different Jurisdictions whose common characteristic is the potential The Law of evidence governs the use of Testimony (eg oral or written statements such as an Affidavit) and exhibits (e Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the process that Courts will follow when hearing cases of a civil nature (a " Civil action " as opposed to In the sociological field, crime is the breach of a rule or Law for which some governing authority or force may ultimately prescribe a Punishment A prison, penitentiary, or correctional facility is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned and usually deprived of a range of Probation officers and parole officers function as agents or officers of the courts General conditions may include maintaining employment, abiding to a curfew, living where directed, abstaining from unlawful behavior, following the probation officer's orders, not absconding, and refraining from contact with other individuals, who may include victims of the original crime (such as a former partner in a domestic violence case), potential victims of similar crimes (such as minors when the crime involves child sexual abuse), potential witnesses, or those who have partnered with the offender in the earlier crime. A curfew can be one of the following An order by a Government for certain persons to return home daily before a certain time SpecialShortpages.-- Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or spousal abuse) occurs when a family member partner or ex-partner attempts to physically or psychologically dominate Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual acts by one person upon another

Usually the offender is supervised by a probation officer, to monitor their performance during the probation period. The probation officer helps the offender to adapt to living in the community; to guide and help them to behave in a lawful and responsible way.

History of probation: origins and evolution

The concept of probation, from the Latin word probatio - meaning testing period - has historical roots in the practice of judicial reprieve. In English Common Law the Courts could temporarily suspend the execution of a sentence to allow the defendant to appeal to the Crown for a pardon. A pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the penalty associated with it Probation first developed in the United States when John Augustus, a Boston boot maker, persuaded a judge in the Boston Police Court in 1841 to give him custody of a convicted offender, a "drunkard," for a brief period and then helped the man to appear rehabilitated by the time of sentencing. John Augustus (1785-June 21 1859 was a Boston boot maker who is called the "Father of Probation " in the United States because of his pioneering Even before John Augustus, the practice of suspended sentence was used as early as 1830, in Boston, Massachusetts and became widespread in U. S. Courts, although there was no statutory authorization for such a practice. At first, judges, most notably Peter Oxenbridge Thatcher of Boston, used "release on recognizance" or bail and simply failed to take any further legal action. In 1878 the mayor of Boston hired a former police officer, one "Captain Savage," to become what many recognzie as the first official probation officer. By the mid-19th century, however, many Federal Courts were using a judicial reprieve to suspend sentence, and this posed a legal question. In 1916, the United States Supreme Court held that a Federal Judge (Killets) was without power to suspend a sentence indefinitely, which is known as the Killets Decision. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. This famous court decision led to the passing of the National Probation Act of 1925, thereby, allowing courts to suspend the imposition of a sentence and place an offender on probation.

Massachusetts developed the first state wide probation system in 1880, and by 1920, 21 other states had followed suit. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. With the passage of the National Probation Act on March 5, 1925, signed by President Calvin Coolidge, the U. John Calvin Coolidge Jr (July 4 1872 January 5 1933 was the thirtieth President of the United States (1923–1929 S. /Federal Probation Service was established to serve the U. The Federal Probation Service or United States Probation Service is an agency that services the United States district court in all 94 judicial Federal districts S. Courts. On the state level, pursuant to the Crime Control and Consent Act passed by Congress in 1936, a group of states entered into agreement by which they would supervise probationers and parolees for each other. Known as the Interstate Compact For the Supervision of Parolees and Probationers, the agreement was originally signed by 25 states in 1937. In 1951, all the states in the United States of America had a working probation system and ratified the Interstate Compact Agreement. In 1959, the newly adopted states, Alaska and Hawaii, in addition the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and the territories of Guam and American Samoa ratified the act as well. Alaska ( Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent The State of Hawaii ( or həˈwaɪʔiː Hawaiian: Mokuāina o Hawaii) is a state in the United States located on an Archipelago in the Puerto Rico (ˌpwertoˈriko officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ("Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico" {{lang-en|"Associated Free State of Puerto Rico"}} The United States Virgin Islands is a group of Islands in the Caribbean that are an Insular area of the United States. Guam ( Chamorro: cha Guåhån) officially the Territory of Guam, is an island in the western Pacific Ocean and is an organized unincorporated American Samoa (Amerika Sāmoa or sm ''Sāmoa Amelika'' is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast

Probation began as a humanitarian effort to allow first-time and minor offenders a second chance. Humanitarianism is an active belief in Humanism (the idea of the value of human life whereby Humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans Early probationers were expected not only to obey the law but also to behave in a morally acceptable fashion. Officers sought to provide moral leadership to help shape probationers' attitudes and behavior with respect to family, religion, employment, and free time. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos They aimed to ensure that this was enforced as well, and early probationers were given the opportunity to prove themselves and possibly even reduce their sentence.

During the 1920s through the 1950s, the major developments in the field of psychology led probation officers to shift their emphasis from moral leadership to therapeutic counseling. Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and This shift brought three important changes. First, the officer no longer primarily acted as a community supervisor charged with enforcing a particular morality. Second, the officer became more of a clinical social worker whose goal was to help the offender solve psychological and social problems. Social work is a discipline involving the application of Social theory and research methods to study and improve the lives of people groups and societies Third, the offender was expected to become actively involved in the treatment. The pursuit of rehabilitation as the primary goal of probation gave the officer extensive discretion in defining and treating the offender's problems. Officers used their judgment to evaluate each offender and develop a treatment approach to the personal problems that presumably had led to crime. Many states offered to dismiss or expunge the conviction if the probationer fulfilled the terms of the probation. In the Common law legal system, an expungement proceeding is a type of Lawsuit in which the subject of a prior criminal investigation or proceeding

During the 1960s, major social changes swept across the United States. These changes also affected the field of community corrections. Rather than counseling offenders, probation officers provided them with concrete social services such as assistance with employment, housing, finances, and education. This emphasis on reintegrating offenders and remedying the social problems they faced was consistent with federal efforts to wage a "War on Poverty. The War on Poverty is the name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B " Instead of being a counselor or therapist, the probation officer served as an advocate, dealing with private and public institutions on the offender's behalf. Psychotherapy is an Interpersonal, relational intervention used by trained psychotherapists to aid clients in problems of living

In the late 1970s the orientation of probation changed again as the goals of rehabilitation and reintegration gave way to "risk management. " This approach, still dominant today, seeks to minimize the probability that an offender will commit a new offense. Risk management reflects two basic goals. For non-business risks see Risk or the disambiguation page Risk analysis. First, in accord with the deserved-punishment ideal, the punishment should fit the offense, and correctional intervention should neither raise nor lower the level of punishment. Second, according to the community protection criterion, the amount and type of supervision are determined according to the risk that the probationer will return to a life out of compliance with the law.

See also

• Probation Officer