The Criminal Recidivism Process

This book addresses how and why criminal offenders repeat their actions after being released from prison. It is part of an attempt to explain criminal behavior within the context of a contemporary psychological understanding of behavior, rather than more traditional theories of crime. Over 300 serious male criminal offenders were interviewed and tested after they returned to prison for new crimes. The results indicate that their new offenses may be the result of something like a 'breakdown'. From this, it can be argued that we could monitor released prisoners to predict or even to prevent their return to crime. This report, written for a general audience, has some important implications for release supervision, rehabilitation programs, and the prediction of recidivism.

Project Report from the year 2010 in the subject Law - Criminal process, Criminology, Law Enforcement, grade: A, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine (-), language: English, abstract: The term recidivism falls under the umbrella of Criminology, which “embraces environmental, hereditary or psychology causes of criminal behaviour, modes of investigation and conviction and the efficacy of punishment.” It is considered as a critical aspect of the Criminal Justice System and refers to ‘repeated or habitual criminal behaviour’ (Taylor, 1984). The assumption made here is that, when the crime rate increases, the number of individuals committing crimes increases. In other words the rate of recidivism is increasing. Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behaviour after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behaviour, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behaviour. It is also known as the percentage of former prisons who are arrested. Dr. Ken Pryce (1982), states that ‘recidivism simple means repetitive criminal or deviate behaviour among low income offenders and usually implies that the treatment or punishment has failed to bring about a permanent change or cure.’ Recidivism rates vary according to individual and contextual/social level risk factors. In this study the authors have identified only three individual level risk factors which include previous history dynamics, psychopathic disorder and educational performance and school discipline. The contextual or social (aggregate) level risk variables comprises of family factors, community factors and peer influence.

Criminal Recidivism intends to fill a gap in the criminological psychology literature by examining the processes underlying persistent criminal careers. This book aims to investigate criminal recidivism, and why, how and for how long an individual continues to commit crimes, whilst also reviewing knowledge about risk assessment and the role of psychopathy (including neurocriminological factors) in encouraging recidivism. It also focuses on the recidivism of sex offenders and on what works in reducing reoffending. At an empirical level, this book attempts to explain criminal persistence and recidivism using longitudinal data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD). At a psycho-criminological level it joins together quantitative and qualitative analyses, making its content a practical guide to explain, predict, and intervene to reduce the risk of criminal recidivism. The authors present quantitative analyses of criminal careers, as well as qualitative life histories of chronic offenders, in order to bring home the reality and consequences of a life of crime. The book is aimed not only at advanced students and academics in psychology, criminology, probation studies, social sciences, psychiatry, sociology, political science, and penology, but also at decision makers, policy officials, and practitioners within the realm of crime intervention and prevention, and also at forensic experts, judges and lawyers.

Over the past forty years, the criminal justice system in the United States has engaged in a very expensive policy failure, attempting to punish its way to public safety, with dismal results. So-called "tough on crime" policies have not only failed to effectively reduce crime, recidivism, and victimization but also created an incredibly inefficient system that routinely fails the public, taxpayers, crime victims, criminal offenders, their families, and their communities. Strategies that focus on behavior change are much more productive and cost effective for reducing crime than punishment, and in this book, William R. Kelly discusses the policy, process, and funding innovations and priorities that the United States needs to effectively reduce crime, recidivism, victimization, and cost. He recommends proactive, evidence-based interventions to address criminogenic behavior; collaborative decision making from a variety of professions and disciplines; and a focus on innovative alternatives to incarceration, such as problem-solving courts and probation. Students, professionals, and policy makers alike will find in this comprehensive text a bracing discussion of how our criminal justice system became broken and the best strategies by which to fix it.

The focus of this report is the 25,431 U.S. citizen federal offenders released from prison or placed on probation in calendar year 2005. Recidivism refers to a person's relapse into criminal behavior, often after the person receives sanctions or undergoes interventions for a previous crime. Recidivism is typically measured by criminal acts that resulted in the re-arrest, re-conviction, and/or re-incarceration of the offender over a specified period of time. Recent developments, particularly public attention to the size of the federal prison population and the cost of incarceration have refocused the Commission's interest on the recidivism of federal offenders. This report takes into account chapters four and two of the Guidelines Manual (ISBN: 9780160934896) in establishing the Commission's methods for evaluation. Scoring points for evaluation of the study group, and criminal history category identification. The Appendix comprised of tables and figures section offers the Study group's offender race, median age, re-conviction rates, re-incarceration rates, offenses categories, and more. Related products: United States Sentencing Commission Guidelines Manual 2016 is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/052-070-07703-4 Alternative Sentencing in the Federal Criminal Justice System is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/052-070-07686-1?ctid=1103 Federal Probation: A Journal of Correctional Philosophy and Practice print subscription available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/727-001-00000-0?ctid= Take Charge of Your Future: Get the Education and Training You Need can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/065-000-01446-7 Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, December 1, 2016 is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/federal-rules-criminal-procedure-2016

The United States incarcerates nearly one quarter of the world’s prison population with only five percent of its total inhabitants, in addition to a history of using internment camps and reservations. An overreliance on incarceration has emphasized long-standing and systemic racism in criminal justice systems and reveals a need to critically examine current processes in an effort to reform modern systems and provide the best practices for successfully responding to deviance. Global Perspectives on People, Process, and Practice in Criminal Justice is an essential scholarly reference that focuses on incarceration and imprisonment and reflects on the differences and alternatives to these policies in various parts of the world. Covering subjects from criminology and criminal justice to penology and prison studies, this book presents chapters that examine processes and responses to deviance in regions around the world including North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Uniquely, this book presents chapters that give a voice to those who are not always heard in debates about incarceration and justice such as those who have been incarcerated, family members of those incarcerated, and those who work within the walls of the prison system. Investigating significant topics that include carceral trauma, prisoner rights, recidivism, and desistance, this book is critical for academicians, researchers, policymakers, advocacy groups, students, government officials, criminologists, and other practitioners interested in criminal justice, penology, human rights, courts and law, victimology, and criminology.