Causes of Recidivism

Recidivism in the context of the criminal justice system refers to a return to incarceration in any penal institution after being released from such a facility. It can incorporate permanent reincarceration, parole revocation, new convictions, and court ordered returns to facilities (Bailey, 2006/2007). Recidivism is also interpreted by many in the criminal justice system as a failure rate, a clear reference to the argument that one of the key goals of incarceration is to rehabilitate offenders and thereby prevent them from reoffending and returning to prison. However, in the United States, recidivism is quite high. Reisig, Bales, Hay, and Wang (2007) reported that within three years of release, more than 60 percent of former inmates are rearrested, about 50 percent are convicted of a new crime, and 25 percent are returned to prison on a new sentence, Recidivism, therefore, is widely recognized as a problem of substance and significance and efforts to determine its causes have been ongoing in the scholarly literature.

Any number of explanations for high recidivism rates have been offered. Lilly, Cullen, and Ball (2007) suggest that for many decades, correctional observers did not give priority to the reality that offenders who reenter society face a varied assortment of daunting challenges that predictably lead to high recidivism rates. These researchers also commented that the data on recidivism and rearrest affirms the significance of the problem. Since about th

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education programs in prisons do not in and of themselves prepare offenders for economic success upon release. Further, prisoners are stripped of civil rights and are reluctantly absorbed into communities which leads to their further alienation and isolation. Latessa, Cullen, and Gendreau (2002) refer to many of the putative rehabilitation programs as little more than correctional quackery, consisting of treatment interventions that are based on neither existing knowledge of the causes of crime or existing knowledge of what programs are known to change offender behavior. Correctional quackery is exacerbated by the fact that many habitual criminals present behaviors and traits that are predictive of re-offending such as anti-social values, poor self-control, inadequate self-management, a lack of pro-social problem-solving skills, and family dysfunction (Latessa, et al, 2002). Such individuals are unlikely to respond to the most common rehabilitation programs that are offered in prison (Latessa, et al, 2002; Cullen, Blevins, Trager, & Gendreau, 2005). These include boot camps, punishment oriented programs, control oriented programs, wilderness programs, psychological interventions that are non-directed or insight oriented

Category: Psychology - C