Recidivism Essay ⋆ Criminal Justice Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Responses to interpersonal violence perpetration that are studied to determine their influence on recidivism include criminal justice responses, such as arrest, Recidivism is the act of a person repeating a behavior.

In regard to interpersonal violence, it might mean repeating the same act of interpersonal violence a second time (or third or fourth or more) or include committing another different act of interpersonal violence (e.g., a batterer who goes on to commit child abuse or rape). In a criminal justice system context, recidivism means a return to crime. This act may mean returning to repeat the same crime for which one was previously caught, or it may mean returning to repeat any criminal behavior. How one defines recidivism depends on the topic of interest. Differing definitions, measurements, and samples upon which studies are based contribute to the widely fluctuating recidivism rates reported in the field of interpersonal violence. When assessing recidivism findings it is important to know exactly how recidivism was defined and how it was measured. Understanding what factors, if any, affect recidivism and, more importantly, what factors reduce the rate of recidivism is a priority of those who work to prevent violence and to assess the effectiveness of criminal sanctions, interventions, and other responses.

The rate of recidivism is thought to vary depending on the characteristics of the offender and on others’ responses to the violence. In the field of interpersonal violence, most research has found that the best predictor of recidivism is a perpetrator’s past behavior, including the number and severity of prior offenses. Those who have repeated the behavior in the past are more likely to repeat it in the future. Those who committed more severe acts in the past (e.g., who committed injury producing acts) are more likely to reoffend. Perpetrators of interpersonal violence are a diverse group, and it is unlikely that any one characteristic alone will be highly predictive of recidivism. Factors that have been examined and shown to be of some use in predicting recidivism for some groups of offenders have been such things as personal history, including exposure to violence in family of origin; other aggression or offending behaviors; concurrent risks, such as substance abuse, unemployment, and access to victims; and disorders of mood and personality, such as depression and antisocial and borderline characteristics. It is important to recognize that offenders cannot be characterized by one set of dominant characteristics—personality, social, or otherwise. A wide range of perpetrators is reported. conviction, or incarceration; social responses, such as societal, family, and coworker disapproval or sanction; social service responses, such as a family intervention, therapy, or mental health treatment; and victim responses, such as shock, fear, removal of affection, divorce, disappearance, retaliation, or rejection.

Defining And Measuring Recidivism

It is important to understand how a study of interest or an author using the term recidivism defines it. Such definitions may vary considerably; one should know if recidivism in a particular study means any reoccurrence of the specific behavior or is defined as reoccurrence of a similar behavior or any new criminal acts. The definition is reflected in and dramatically affected by what one is able to reliably measure. To detect recidivism, reports obtained from a variety of sources are recommended. These include offender self reports, victim reports, and criminal justice or child protective system reports.

Given that most acts of interpersonal violence occur in private and are known only to the offender and the victim and because some of the victims may be children or may be incapacitated in ways that make them unable to detect the crime (e.g., unconscious or rendered unconscious by the perpetrator), the person who is ostensibly in the best position to know if a repeat of the behavior has occurred is the offender. Of course, there are many factors that make it unlikely that offenders will give accurate reports of their reoffending behaviors, although some steps can be taken to make self-report more likely, such as providing anonymity or confidentiality.

Often recidivism is measured by obtaining follow-up reports from the victim. To the extent that the victim is comfortable with such reporting and can be located, such reports may provide a good measure of recidivism, especially for crimes against intimate partners or against family members. This method of measuring recidivism, however, does not permit us to detect new offenses against others, such as a new partner, other children, acquaintances, or strangers.

Other, more traditional, methods for measuring recidivism have been to use official criminal justice system records of probation revocation, parole violation, re-arrest, or reconviction. In addition, some measures of recidivism in interpersonal violence, such as child or elder abuse, may use official records of a report or a substantiated new report to the state division of social services that handles such cases. Each type of measure is subject to biases in the application of these sanctions or processing of reports. When using either the criminal justice system or social services records one needs to decide whether a new report or arrest is sufficient to count as recidivism or if reconviction or substantiation of a new case is required. Such official records have limitations in measuring recidivism because new incidents of interpersonal violence known to agencies in other jurisdictions may not be detected.

Agency measures of recidivism present further difficulties in that such measures do not depend solely on the behavior of the offender, but also on the behavior of others, including the willingness of victims and others to report to these authorities. Recidivism— when it is measured as re-arrests, convictions, or substantiations—may reflect the policy of the police, courts, parole agents, or child protective services workers or administrators, and these policies may change over time.

Another important factor in understanding the meaning of information on recidivism is the period of time over which recidivism was measured—that is, what was the length of the follow-up period? Did it involve follow-up for 6 months, a year, 3 years, 10 years, or longer? Research has shown that a longer period (years, not months) of follow-up often is needed to detect recidivism for many acts of interpersonal violence. This, in part, may be because for some types of offenses or for some offenders the behaviors are infrequent, or it may be because the violence occurs but is frequently unreported or undetected.

Bibliography:

Marshall, D. B., & English, D. J. (1999). Survival analysis of risk factors for recidivism in child abuse and neglect. Child Maltreatment, 4, 287–296.
Murphy, C. M., Morrel, T. M., Elliott, J. D., & Neavins, T. M. (2003). A prognostic indicator scale for the treatment of partner abuse perpetrators. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18, 1087–1105.

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