11. recidivism

What does recidivism mean?

The tendency for convicted criminals to reoffend

Recidivism rates in UK for adults reoffending within a year

45.5%

Recidivism rates for juveniles within a year

69%

Recidivism rates for those who have served less than 12 months

57.7%

What do these high recidivism rates suggest?

Custodial sentencing is not an individual deterrent for most offenders, particularly for the young and those who have committed minor crimes and suggests it is not rehabilitating these offenders

Why may recidivism rates not be completely accurate?

Some reoffences will go undetected or will never reach court

Rates will probably be even higher

AO3- psychological effects

P- one reason for recidivism= psych effects

E- likelihood of reoffending increased if so inmate’s mental health is unstable

This could be promoted by prison or research suggests that 42% of prisoners had a mental health condition before prison.

Poor mental health, especially addiction disorders, is related to crime rates - if the problem is not treated successfully in prison- offender is vulnerable to reoffending

E- Coid- offenders who had treatment for mental health issue 60% less likely to reoffend

L- not only highlights the importance of effective rehabilitation programmes in prison, but also raises questions as to whether custodial sentencing is the appropriate way of dealing with individuals with mental health issues

AO3- alternatives

P- high recidivism rates, especially for shorter sentences, questions the use of custodial sentencing

E- if poor mental health is made worse by prison and other effects of prison such as institutionalisation, make prison seem more appealing to offenders than the outside world, or brutalisation, meaning that prison acts as school for crime, make reoffending more likely, alternatives may be needed to reduce recidivism

E- 61% of people in prison have NOT committed a violent crime

Sherman found that alternative like restorative justice reduce reoffending (11% recidivism rates for those who carried out restorative justice compared to 37% for those who didn’t)

L- in Order to reduce recidivism we need to reduce custodial sentencing for those who are non-violent

AO3- external factors

P- recidivism rates may be due to the outside world rather than prison

E- until societal problems such as poverty and lack of support for mental health are addressed, it is likely that recidivism rates will remain high

E- significant lack of research into how these factors affect recidivism as most research is centred on the prison rather than the post-release environment

L- in Order to fully understand why inmates go on to reoffend and how this can be prevented, more emphasis needs to be placed in investigating post-release factors