Pathways to Recidivism: Do Behavioral Disorders Explain the Gang-Recidivism Relationship during Reentry?

Abstract

Current scholarship on gang involvement and behavior has focused on several individual and environmental factors believed to drive the use of violence, yet limited research has explored the potentially confounding role of behavioral disorders. Using a sample of youth who completed a long-term residential placement within the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (FDJJ), this study extends the recent findings of DeLisi et al. to determine whether the presence of a conduct disorder or other behavioral disorder renders the effect of gang involvement on recidivism spurious. Using a series of logistic regression models, behavioral disorders were associated with rearrest, but for males only. Furthermore, behavioral disorders did not render the effect of gang membership on rearrest or readjudication spurious, as the main effect of gang involvement held across all models estimated. Gang-involved adjudicated youth present with myriad mental health, temperamental, and individual risk factors.

Exploring Variation in the Strength of Association of a Validated Recidivism Risk Score With Seven Common Measures of Juvenile Recidivism: A Research Note

“…Risk score was a significantly stronger predictor of referral than of adjudication and commitment. This is consistent with the findings of Narvey et al (2021) and Wolff et al, (2020) that some individual risk factors are more strongly associated with rearrest than with re-adjudication. These two studies, however, did not conduct significance tests for differences in effects across the different outcomes.…”

“…Three recent studies examined the predictors of different marker events. Wolff et al (2020) examined whether gang involvement and behavior/cognitive disorders predicted rearrest and re-adjudication among a sample of previously committed youth. Both focal predictors appeared to have larger effects on rearrest.…”

Towards more accurate classification of risk of arrest among offenders on community supervision: An application of machine learning versus logistic regression

“…Meta‐analytic research has reported that mental health needs, substance use, association with antisocial peers, employment problems, marital status, income, age, sex and most importantly, criminal history influence whether individuals on community supervision continue offending (Yukhnenko et al., 2020). Further, many studies indicate that personality disorders, especially antisocial personality disorder and substance use disorders, violence history, neighbourhood instability and more extensive criminal history and incarceration experiences are associated with greater likelihood of recidivism wholly under community supervision (Chamberlain & Wallace, 2016; Fazel et al., 2016; Grann et al., 2008; Hochstetler et al., 2016; Trulson et al., 2016; Wolff et al., 2020). By contrast, other factors, including stable, legitimate employment, strong familial ties and social supports, sobriety and lower psychopathology, are associated with lower recidivism and greater success on supervision (Berg & Huebner, 2011; Cobbina et al., 2012; Hlavka et al., 2015; Hochstetler et al., 2010; Silver et al., 2021).…”

Streamlining out-of-court disposals: Assessing the impact on reoffending and police practice

“…In England and Wales, about 29% of offenders reoffend within 1.5 years of release from custody or receiving a non-custodial sentence or caution (Ministry of Justice (MOJ), 2020). Recidivism or reoffending is caused by many factors, such as experience of criminality, unemployment or employment challenges, accommodation problems, substance misuse, mental health issues, behavioural disorders and biological factors, peer pressure or wrong association, family issues and upbringing (Brunton-Smith and Hopkins, 2013; Van der Put and De Ruiter, 2016; Wolff et al, 2020). The prison system in England and Wales is also problematic given its failure to successfully rehabilitate a substantial number of prisoners who reoffend following their release from prison.…”