Serving Time or Serving the Community? Exploiting a Policy Reform to Assess the Causal Effects of Community Service on Income, Social Benefit Dependency and Recidivism

Andersen, Signe Hald

doi:10.1007/s10940-014-9237-2

Cited by 25 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…A better comparison group will be individuals who were convicted of the same crimes/ violations but asked to serve prison time/probation instead of volunteering or community service. This was examined in a study from Denmark where the author found that community service sentences were associated with lower violent crimes, higher incomes, and lower social services dependency after the completion of sentences (Andersen, 2015) and lower reconvictions (Klement, 2015), suggesting that these individuals became more responsible members of the society and contributed to the society.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other cross-sectional studies have examined the association of delinquency with community service in conjunction with school sports involvement and extracurricular activities, and found that community service is associated with fewer delinquent behaviors in adolescents (Hoffman and Xu 2002; Crean 2012). In addition, two recent longitudinal studies from Denmark suggest that convicts who received community service sentences as opposed to prison terms were less likely to be involved in violent crime (Andersen, 2015) or reconvicted (Klement 2015). However, there have been no long term follow up studies that address how volunteering during adolescence may affect illegal or criminal activity during adulthood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Volunteering in adolescence and young adulthood crime involvement: a longitudinal analysis from the add health study

2016

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BackgroundExperiences in adolescence may have a lasting impact on adulthood. The objective of this study is to evaluate the association between adolescent (12–18 years of age) volunteerism with the incidence of illegal behaviors, arrests, and convictions in adulthood (>18 years of age).MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study using secondary data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Students from grades 7–12 were recruited in 1994–1995 (n = 20,745), and then followed in 2001–2002 (n = 14,322) and in 2008–2009 (n = 12,288). In 2000–2001, participants were retrospectively asked about their volunteering experience from 12 to 18 years of age. Consequently, participants were divided into non-volunteers, self-volunteers, adult-required volunteers, and court-ordered volunteers. Groups were compared for rates of illegal behaviors, arrest, and convictions in adulthood (>18 years of age) using weighted generalized linear mixed negative binomial models while accounting for sampling design.ResultsRelative to non-volunteers, self-volunteers reported 11 % fewer illegal behaviors (RR: 0.89, 95 % CI: 0.80, 0.99), 31 % fewer arrests (RR: 0.69, 95 %: 0.57, 0.85), and 39 % fewer convictions (RR: 0.61, 95 % CI: 0.47, 0.79) by age 18–28 years, and 28 % fewer illegal behaviors, 53 % fewer arrests, and 36 % fewer convictions by age 24–34. In comparison the adult-required volunteers also reported fewer arrests and convictions; however, they reported more illegal behaviors than the non-volunteers. The court-ordered volunteers reported higher rates of criminal involvement than the non-volunteers, throughout.ConclusionThis study suggests that volunteering in adolescence may reduce crime involvement in adulthood.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40621-016-0091-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Volunteering in adolescence and young adulthood crime involvement: a longitudinal analysis from the add health study

2016

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“…Besides the question regarding the crime preventive effectiveness of different versions of CS and imprisonment, it remains to be explored further whether or not subgroups of offenders react differently to CS compared to imprisonment, as suggested by some previous studies (Van der Werff 1979;Clausen 2007;Andersen 2012). Additional research is also needed to shed light on differences in time to failure following sentences of CS as compared to imprisonment, as well as on the relationship between the time spent in CS and its crime preventive effect.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The only clear-cut study intended to be a randomized controlled study on the relative effects of CS and prison is hampered by an arguably non-comparable control setting, a compromised design and a small, homogeneous sample primarily consisting of one type of offender (Killias et al 2000(Killias et al , 2010. The three most convincing studies in the area also suffer serious drawbacks, most notably a failure to account for individual information on offenders' life circumstances other than basic demographics and official criminal history (Clausen 2007;Wermink et al 2010;Andersen 2012). 1 The primary strength of the current study as compared to previous studies is that the threat of selection bias has been substantially reduced.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing the effects of community service and imprisonment on reconviction: results from a quasi-experimental Danish study

Klement

2015

J Exp Criminol

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Objective This study compares reconviction rates for Danish offenders sentenced to community service and imprisonment. A large general sample of offenders (n=1602) is examined. Methods The study relies on a quasi-experimental design and uses propensity score matching as well as logistic regression models to analyze the data. Models are differentiated in terms of length of observation period and control variable combinations. The study stands out as compared to previous studies due to the unprecedented assortment of individual background data available. These data, obtained from community service eligibility assessments and registry databases, provide powerful controls over potential selection mechanisms in the multivariate analyses. Furthermore, contrary to previous studies, the current study limits itself to subjects officially assessed and deemed eligible for community service sentences. Results Imprisonment is associated with a higher rate of recidivism and the result is statistically significant at conventional statistical levels. Conclusions Community service (CS) compared to imprisonment appears to cause a lower reconviction rate in general. Additional research is needed to shed light on differences in time to failure, the effect of different types of CS and imprisonment, the relationship between time spent in CS and effect as well as the seriousness of offending following sentences of CS as compared to imprisonment.

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“…Det vil sige de belastninger, som lovbryderen oplever under frihedsberøvelsen, men også de muligheder og den sociale position, som lovbryderen må forholde sig til efter faengslingen. Både danske og amerikanske studier peger på, at ledighed og et fald i indkomst bliver en realitet for mange tidligere straffede (Tranaes & Geerdsen 2008;Wakefield & Uggen 2010;Western 2006;Andersen 2012). Samfundets formelle straf, faengsling, ledsages af en uformel straf i form af reducerede muligheder i samfundet efter endt afsoning.…”

Section: Foraeldres Faengslingunclassified

Forældres fængsling – en stratificerende livsbegivenhed?

Olsen¹

2015

DKSOC

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Denne artikel handler om den gruppe af børn, der i løbet af deres opvækst må undvære en forælder i en kortere eller længere periode, fordi forælderen skal afsone en fængselsdom. Artiklen argumenterer for nødvendigheden af at inddrage et børneperspektiv i vurderingen af, hvilke konsekvenser det har, at et stigende antal personer indsættes i de danske fængsler. Artiklen undersøger, om flere børn som følge heraf oplever forældres fængsling, og om nogle børnegrupper i stigende grad oplever forældres fængsling. Resultaterne viser for det første, at der er en absolut stigning i antallet af børn, der oplever forældres fængsling, når årgangene 1982-1990 sammenlignes, og for det andet peger resultaterne på, at forældres fængsling i nogle henseender kan være med til ikke kun at opretholde, men også at intensivere i forvejen eksisterende uligheder mellem børn i Danmark og dermed bidrage til den sociale stratifikation. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Rikke Fuglsang Olsen: Parental Imprisonment: a Stratifying Life Event? In this article I analyze parental imprisonment as a social phenomenon, and stress the importance of incorporating analyses of children’s situation in the assessment of the wider societal consequences of the increasing imprisonment rate in Denmark. The article examines the extent to which an increasing number of children experience parental imprisonment, and the extent to which children from families with fewer resources are over-represented in this increase. The results show that the absolute number of children experiencing parental imprisonment increased among birth cohorts born in 1982-1990. In addition, the results suggest that parental imprisonment not only contributes to maintaining existing social inequalities, but in some respects also reinforces them and thus contributes to the stratification of the Danish society. Keywords: imprisonment, vulnerable children, social stratification.

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Serving Time or Serving the Community? Exploiting a Policy Reform to Assess the Causal Effects of Community Service on Income, Social Benefit Dependency and Recidivism

Cited by 25 publications

References 14 publications

Volunteering in adolescence and young adulthood crime involvement: a longitudinal analysis from the add health study

Volunteering in adolescence and young adulthood crime involvement: a longitudinal analysis from the add health study

Comparing the effects of community service and imprisonment on reconviction: results from a quasi-experimental Danish study

Forældres fængsling – en stratificerende livsbegivenhed?

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