Crime-Specific Recidivism in Criminal Justice Clients with Substance Use—A Cohort Study

Abstract

Criminal recidivism is a major global concern. There is a well-known association between substance use disorders and offending. Yet, little is known about crime-specific recidivism. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between specific substance use and crime-specific recidivism. The study is based on 4207 Swedish prison clients with substance use assessed with Addiction Severity Index interviews between 2001 and 2006. Clients were followed for an average of 2.7 years. Risk factors for criminal recidivism were assessed with the Cox regression analysis. Sixty-eight percent of the clients returned to the criminal justice system. Apart from well-known risk factors such as male gender and young age, amphetamine, injection drug use, prior prosecution for violent and property crime, as well as homelessness and psychiatric problems, were risk factors for criminal recidivism. Sedatives and cannabis were, in this setting, negative risk factors for general recidivism. Age, heroin and injection drug use elevated the risks of recidivism to property and drug crime. Alcohol was associated with violent recidivism. When analysing different categories of crime separately, risk factors differed substantially. This further highlights the need for crime-specific research. Identifying crime-specific risk factors should be an important part of improving rehabilitation into society after imprisonment and hopefully decrease recidivism.

Psychiatric disorders and comorbidity in a Spanish sample of prisoners at the end of their sentence: Prevalence rates and associations with criminal history

“…Multivariate regression analyses were then performed to identify significant variables for repeat incarceration (continuous variable) and violent offending (yes, no). Potential predictors included factors which have been previously addressed in the literature ( Lewis et al, 1980 ; Lindgren et al, 2002 ; Harris et al, 2006 ; Macciò et al, 2015 ; Alevizopoulos and Igoumenou, 2016 ; White et al, 2016 ; Kim et al, 2017 ; Krona et al, 2017 ; Román-Ithier et al, 2017 ; Garofalo et al, 2018 ; Nacher et al, 2018 ; Fernández-Pacheco Alises et al, 2022 ; Karlsson and Håkansson, 2022 ; Streb et al, 2022 ); namely, gender (men, women), age (continuous variable), nationality (Spanish, foreign origin), educational level (less than compulsory education, compulsory education or higher), number of lifetime diagnoses (continuous variable), history of any mood disorder (yes, no), psychotic disorder (yes, no), SUD (yes, no), anxiety disorder (yes, no), and ADHD (yes, no), any current learning disorder (yes, no), and personality disorder (yes, no). However, given its limited sample size, the present study was not sufficiently powered to test all potential predictors simultaneously.…”