The Criminal Recidivism Process

Abstract

This book addresses how and why criminal offenders repeat their actions after being released from prison. It is part of an attempt to explain criminal behavior within the context of a contemporary psychological understanding of behavior, rather than more traditional theories of crime. Over 300 serious male criminal offenders were interviewed and tested after they returned to prison for new crimes. The results indicate that their new offenses may be the result of something like a 'breakdown'. From this, it can be argued that we could monitor released prisoners to predict or even to prevent their return to crime. This report, written for a general audience, has some important implications for release supervision, rehabilitation programs, and the prediction of recidivism.

The dynamic prediction of criminal recidivism: A three-wave prospective study.

“…Despite the lack of research in this area, the systernatic assessrnent and re-assessrnent of dynamic risk has been unconditionally accepted as the desired mechanism for irnproving the manner in which offenders are supervised in the community (Andrews & Bonta, 1998;Bonta, 1996;Jones, 1996;Monahan, 1996;Motiuk, 1999;Steadman et al, 1994;Zamble & Quinsey, 1997).…”

“…However, empirical support for this position is weak, based entirely on a scattering of retrospective studies (i.e., Groth & Bimbaum, 1979;Pithers, Kashima, Cumming, Beal, & Buell, 1988;Zamble & Quinsey, 1997).…”

“…Recently, correctional researchers (e.g., Grann, Belfrage, & Tengstrtim, 2000;Hanson & Hams, 2000;Quinsey, Coleman, Jones, & Altrows, 1997;Quinsey, Hams, Rice & Cormier, 1998;Wormith, 2000;Zamble & Quinsey, 1997) have begun to reformulate the conventional conceptualization of the nsk factor as dichotornous. Instead, the risk factor is now described as a continuous constnict that varies along four dimensions, specifically, the rate of change, the origin of change (i.e., within the individual versus the environment), the causal change agent (intentional manipulation versus natural fluctuations in the environment), and the degree of predictability associated with the change.…”

“…At the other extreme are risk factors that can change rapidly within days, hours or even minutes. These factors have been labeled precipitating labile events (Zamble & Quinsey, 1997), acute dynarnic risk factors (Hanson & Harris, 2000) and proximal anlecedents . Typically, these variables are difficult to predict, originate in the environment (e-g., wife dies in a car accident), and occur in close temporal proximity to the event of interest (e.g., recidivism) .…”

“…The first category is best descnbed as stable and slow changing. These factors include criminal history and enduring personality traits such as psychopathy (Hanson & Harris, 2000;Zamble & Quinsey, 1997).…”