Probation Systems: a Comparison Between the United States and Europe

"The course aims to address the evolution and characteristics of probation systems in Europe and the United States with particular attention to the sentencing phase and the relationship between the judge of cognition and the sentence.
Through a comparison between the United States and other European countries with a deep-rooted tradition in the use of these instruments, the course will examine the different 'probation models', also dwelling on the risks and possible causes of so-called mass probation, i.e. the tendency towards an excessive extension of penal control outside prison. Finally, with a view to comparison, the instruments of the Italian legal system will be analysed, which, as is well known, has recently been affected by the reform of the contents and application systems of substitutive penalties."