Exploring the Issue of Criminal Offenders Recidivism

Abstract 

Recidivism, more often than not, is a sign of hopelessness, seeing as in the wake of being released from state custody, most people usually are uncertain of the courses that they should take with respect to their lives as free citizens. As such, incarceration could be said to be nothing more than a temporary fix for problems that are almost inherent to the existences of the individuals in question. The justice system does not allow prisoners access to programs that otherwise, would have aided their reabsorption into societies which they otherwise had offended. Thusly, it is easy for past criminal offenders to relapse into their criminal behaviors. Studies have established that in approximate, almost two-thirds of all inmates will have re-offended in a period of not more than three years after the release. Additionally, in more ways than one, these ex-convicts would sometimes violate their parole or probation agreements. Conversely, some other ex-convicts usually would even engage in totally new crimes, and this is reported to get them re-arrested and prosecuted. Notably, a sound majority of inmates reportedly can be associated with certain damaging characteristics including but not limited to: illiteracy, voluntary unemployment, and substance abuse. It should be noted that the fact that some of these convicts come hail from families with deeply rooted criminal histories further complicates the process that is their rehabilitation. Reportedly, also, truancy together with the dropping out from school are great contributors to the development of criminal tendencies. The majority of the offenders have been associated with a long history of abuse and neglect. Most adult inmates are associated with the history of both juvenile confinement and adult probation that is believed to have failed to offer them programming strategies and support to reform or even rehabilitate. A number of inmates have received both alcohol and drug treatment while outside the criminal justice system, however, they have remained addicted to drugs and re-offend. 

Introduction 

Recidivism as a concept, simply focuses on the comprehension of antisocial behavior and crime, together with their repetition. Thusly, by definition, it is the tendency of offenders to relapse into criminal behaviors against which they must have been previously cautioned (Firestone et al., 2000). Depending on the nature of the concerned offense, the rates of recidivism will tend to vary significantly. Quite a good number of criminologists consider recidivism to be the conceptualization of acts of crime that have, over time, been repeated. Studies point out that currently, a considerable number of detained inmates are repeat offenders. Consequently, a study by the Justice Department has established an upward trajectory in the tendency of ex-convicts to commit the same or closely similar mistakes as the ones for which they were formerly convicted (Sherman, Strang & Woods, 2000). 

A vast majority of all criminal offenders admit to have taken up their antisocial behaviors in their formative years as young adults (Firestone et al., 2000). There exists a very close and positive correlation between the ages of first-time criminal violation and subsequent recidivism. Generally, the persons who engage crime at fairly tender ages have the greatest predisposition to recidivism. Studies have pointed out that 70 percent of all first time offences are committed by 18 year olds (Greenberg et al., 2000). In general, first time offenders, depending on their age, either are likely or not likely to repeat these offences. In that, relatively older first time offenders tend not to repeat the offences for which they were convicted. 

Causes of increased Recidivism 

The rates of recidivism are high, and this can be owed to a multiplicity of factors, which include poverty, unemployment, and misuse of drugs, all of which highly contribute to the repetition of criminal offense. 

Seeing as studies have asserted the positive correlation that exists between poverty and criminal predisposition, poverty can be said to be a key influencer of recidivism (Lund, 2000). Poverty can be said to have been concentrated poverty if it happens that more that 40 percent of the members of any given community live below the poverty level (Greenberg et al., 2000). Poverty thus, pushes formerly convicted criminals to relapse into crime in an effort to compensate for the underprivileged states of their economic lives (Firestone et al., 2000). Poverty compromises the efforts that might have been made by the judicial system towards behavioral reformation, as it limits the economic choices that may be available to ex-convicts, almost entirely to crime. (Tengström et al., 2000). In most instances, a sound majority of inmates are released without having been equipped with skills that are relevant to the job markets within their localities, and this greatly contributes to recidivism. 

Also, unemployment is another major contributing factor to the development of recidivist tendencies. It has been established that more often than not, and owing to their prejudiced profiling, ex-convicts are denied legal and as well productive employment. According to Firestone et al., (2000), over 80% of all repeat offenders are believed to not have been in any well-defined occupation in the first place. This causes a major social issue, as having been denied economic opportunities, a majority of ex-convicts usually are compelled to take up criminal activities (Firestone et al., 2000). Secondly, whilst still in prison, these individual are not in any way equipped with skills that are attractive within the job market, which leaves them unemployed and highly predisposed to criminality even after their releases from prison. This lack of employment opportunities, thus is one of the major factors that have continuously led to an increase in the rates of recidivism, globally (Sherman, Strang & Woods, 2000). 

Drug abuse, quite unarguably, is another one of the key contributing factors to the upward movement in terms of global recidivist rates. According to Firestone et al., (2000), a majority of inmates confess to having resorted to crime as an active source of finances to sustain their habitual drug-taking. Furthermore, in order to cope with the stigmatization that most often occasions their releases from prison, most ex-convicts are forced to engage in drug abuse and consequently, in crime. (Greenberg et al., 2000). Also, it should be noted that another cross-section of the recidivists relapse into criminality, largely owing to an ingrained lack of morality. (Tengström et al., 2000). 

Race and Recidivism 

Research has pointed out that of all the race groups, black males are the likeliest with regards to the repetition of past crimes. This can largely be explained social inequity, which has sidelined most black males to the underprivileged cross-sections of American society. Of these black males, recidivism is most commonly expressed amongst 18-year-old black males. According to Firestone et al., (2000), the prison population also is predominantly black. Additionally and in general, African Americans, compared to their white counterparts, are 16% more likely to be re-arrested on account of the same crimes as they previously had been prosecuted. Furthermore, the re-conviction rates, relative to the Black male population, are highest in the most economically underprivileged states. For instance, Florida, where racial inequality is very pervasive, is reported to have, in some years, registered 100 % recidivism rates for black offenders, released within the county (Tengström et al., 2000). 

Women and Recidivism 

Of all female ex-convicts who are released into the society, only one in every three women is able to successful complete her reintegration into this same society. According to Peters & Murrin, (2000), reintegration is an uphill task for most of these women, who have only basic job-market required skills, together with very little education. Primarily, the rates of recidivism are 2.3% lower for women than for men. Further, studies also have established that the pointers of criminality amongst women include homelessness, alcoholism, moral degradation and even, the loss of positive social connection (Firestone et al., 2000). Notably, public opinion tends to be more intolerant towards ex-convicted women as compared to men, such that in most cases, ex-convicted women, in the wake of their releases, stand deprived both of social interactions and human dignity (Sherman, Strang & Woods, 2000). 

Re-Entry Programs to Reduce Recidivism Rates 

Currently, there are numerous programs, which have been established to help ex-convicts and their families in as far as social reintegration and behavioral reformation is concerned. However, despite the existence of multiple re-entry programs, and even with increased government funding, these programs have attained very little successes, if any. 

According to Långström & Grann, (2000), in the year 2003, the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI), was developed by the federal government, specifically to facilitate the provision of funds for nationwide re-entry programs, which specifically, were to provide education, family counseling and even employment training services (Lund, 2000). On the contrary, most of these programs have shown no significant difference when it comes to the reduction of recidivism. However, there are a few persons who argue that the programs have been positively impactful, and that this is evidenced by a decline, even though slight, in the rates of recidivism. For instance, the adult drug courts, established in the wake of sharp increases in the rates of recidivism, have managed to reduce the rates of recidivism by approximately 11% in the case of past criminal drug offenders (Firestone et al., 2000). In quite a contradictory fashion, education and cognitive-behavioral treatment have been established to cause no significant reduction in terms of recidivism, especially for domestic violence offenders (Greenberg et al., 2000). Some of the most common programming strategies, incorporated into the criminal justice system to fight recidivism, include: 

Cognitive-behavioral drug treatment, 

Correctional industry programs, 

Drug treatment; 

Vocational education programs; 

General and specific cognitive-behavioral programs (Greenberg et al., 2000), and 

Cognitive-behavioral treatment for sex offenders 

Relatively, a few such like programming strategies exist within the community, outside the setting of the criminal justice system, and these include: 

Drug treatment; 

Treatment-oriented, intensive community supervision programs; 

Employment training and job assistance in the community (Långström & Grann, 2000). 

It is worth noting that even though these programs have helped with a reduction in the rates of recidivism, in general, this reduction is very small, almost negligible. For instance, the employment training and job assistance, both of which were established within the community, reduced recidivism only by about 5% (Lund, 2000). 

Conclusion 

A sound majority of repeat offenders have primary to no or very little secondary education. However, a few of these offenders have significant college and university degrees. Recidivism is almost a culture and to this end, it is very difficult to handle. Recidivists, psychologically speaking, tend to have issues with anger management, are emotionally unintelligent, and therefore, violent, vengeful, and self-unregulated. Most importantly, incarceration, in the case of recidivists, is almost inconsequential, as it places very little emphasis on the social-reintegration of ex-convicts. Offenders, as a population group, often experience challenges that make it greatly challenging for them to experience swift social reintegration. Various programs have been established to reduce the rates of recidivism, and even though not quite significantly, they can be associated with the reduction of recidivism. 

Bibliography 

Sherman, L. W., Strang, H., & Woods, D. J. (2000). Recidivism patterns in the Canberra reintegrative shaming experiments (RISE). Canberra: Centre for Restorative Justice, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. 

The study used information from 1300 offenders and specifically focused on four types of offenders including violent offenders, drunk drivers, juvenile property offenders, and the shoplifters. The results from this study established that the diversionary conferences led to a decline of 38 crimes per 100 offenders annually in offending rates by violent offenders. Offending caused by drunk drivers as established to have significantly dropped by six crimes per 100 offenders annually. It was concluded that multiple randomized experiments should be adopted to test a new method of justice and further, restorative justice is much effective but not be effective for all types of offenses. 

Långström, N., & Grann, M. (2000). The risk for criminal recidivism among young sex offenders. Journal of interpersonal violence, 15(8), 855-871. 

The authors of the article emphasized the need to use the empirically derived instrument to assess reoffending risk among the young offenders. A literature review was performed focusing on sex offenders for potential clinically or empirically motivated variable that can be related to the criminal recidivism. Several factors were established as predictive of general recidivism including previous criminality, psychopath, and death threats in addition to an early onset conduct disorder. Further certain factors believed to be indicative of sexual deviance in addition to poor social skills have thus been associated with an elevated risk of reoffending. 

Tengström, A., Grann, M., Långström, N., & Kullgren, G. (2000). Psychopathy (PCL-R) as a predictor of violent recidivism among criminal offenders with schizophrenia. Law and Human Behavior, 24(1), 45. 

This study was also important in the study and aims at establishing whether psychopath is a predictor of violent recidivism especially among offenders with schizophrenia. The study used Hare's Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) was employed to test the hypothesis that psychopathy predicts violent recidivism. The study was conducted on 202 male violent offenders with schizophrenia. Survival analysis was established that psychopathy was strongly associated with violent recidivism. 

Peters, R. H., & Murrin, M. R. (2000). The effectiveness of treatment-based drug courts in reducing criminal recidivism. Criminal justice and behavior, 27(1), 72-96. 

The study examined the results of the two-treatment-base drug court program within a period of 30 months. The authors then contrasted the drug court graduates and non- graduates comprising of offenders placed o probation supervision and did not access any drug court services outcomes. The results of the study established that drug court graduate from the two programs was less likely to get arrested and further had few arrests during the follow-up comparison to the matched non-graduates and the probationers. Further, for the two drug courts, the arrest rates in the 30 months follow-up declined significantly in indirect relationship to the period of drug court involvement. Therefore, the drug court graduates were established to have lower rates of drug abuse compared to the treated offenders. 

Greenberg, D., Bradford, J., Firestone, P., & Curry, S. (2000). Recidivism of child molesters: A study of victim relationship with the perpetrator. Child abuse & neglect, 24(11), 1485-1494. 

This article was important to the study and it specifically compared the rates of recidivism among the convicted child molesters who had offended against biological children, their relationship or even stepchildren and strangers. Four hundred males who were of age 18 and above were used as the sample size. Their criminal arrest records together with their conviction were also obtained from the national Royal Canadian Mounted Police data. The result showed that the strangers’ category had a higher risk for re-offense.the risk of the acquaintance group is higher risk category. Sexual recidivism appears to be presented in relatively large proportions among all child molesters where the stranger group was at the highest risk level. 

References 

Firestone, P., Bradford, J. M., McCoy, M., Greenberg, D. M., Curry, S., & Larose, M. R. (2000). Prediction of recidivism in extrafamilial child molesters based on court-related assessments. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment , 12 (3), 203-221. 

Greenberg, D., Bradford, J., Firestone, P., & Curry, S. (2000). Recidivism of child molesters: A study of victim relationship with the perpetrator. Child abuse & neglect , 24 (11), 1485- 1494. 

Långström, N., & Grann, M. (2000). Risk for criminal recidivism among young sex offenders. Journal of interpersonal violence , 15 (8), 855-871. 

Lund, C. A. (2000). Predictors of sexual recidivism: Did meta-analysis clarify the role and relevance of denial?. Sexual Abuse: a journal of research and treatment , 12 (4), 275-287. 

Peters, R. H., & Murrin, M. R. (2000). Effectiveness of treatment-based drug courts in reducing criminal recidivism. Criminal justice and behavior , 27 (1), 72-96. 

Sherman, L. W., Strang, H., & Woods, D. J. (2000). Recidivism patterns in the Canberra reintegrative shaming experiments (RISE) . Canberra: Centre for Restorative Justice, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. 

Tengström, A., Grann, M., Långström, N., & Kullgren, G. (2000). Psychopathy (PCL-R) as a predictor of violent recidivism among criminal offenders with schizophrenia. Law and Human Behavior , 24 (1), 45.