The author focuses on the intentions of the Swedish legislature in passing statutes dealing with probation and conditional sentence, and the extent to which those intentions have been realized. The author has used a combined sociolegal and criminological approach in which the intentions of individual legislators are examined and compared with their subsequent implementation at the hands of the courts, professional probation officers, lay supervisors, and institutional staff. Quantitative data include recidivism rates for offenders given a conditional sentence, ordinary probation, and probation with institutional treatment. In addition, the analysis compares the perceptions of probationers and their supervisors regarding the effectiveness of the various treatment options. An in-depth study of a probation institution used participant observation and interviews with staff and inmates to collect data. Finally, the author outlines reasons for the partial failure of the probation treatment and presents ideas for reform. 2 appendixes, 399 references