The Reasons For Why Recidivism Occurs

This paper will discuss facts regarding the prosecution process, the concepts of incapacitation and deterrence as methods of reducing crime rates, the network of people that the prison system exposes criminals to, and the assimilation of criminals back into society as seen through recidivism rates, for the purpose of analyzing the ethical scope of the effectiveness of the process of remediation as a whole.

“Recidivism “is as to relapse in behavior; typically, in criminal behavior. Department of Justice Measurements of recidivism include new arrest, new convictions, returning to prison with a new sentence or reincarceration for rest of sentence. Astonishingly enough, with in a 5-year period in 2010 ,70% of offenders that were released had been reincarcerated, due to rescinding back to the life of crime.

By the lack of rehabilitation programs in the state and federal prison systems, the chances of convicts releasing and returning back to prison increases rapidly. The lack of rehabilitation is one of the most leading causes to an offenders relapse or to a new crime that will be committed within 3 years from the offender’s release. A rehabilitation program

his paper examines multiple factors that help determine reasons for why there is such a great amount of people relapsing back into criminal behavior once released, which only leads them into a federal or state prison. Recidivism can be perceived into different category’s based upon the why factor. Criminal acts that result in rearrests, and reconviction or return to prison with or without new a new sentence during a three-year period following the prisoner’s release is considered recidivism. There are many different reasons why a person goes back into prison once being released, whether by choice or force or even just nature of habit. Many studies have been conducted to find a pattern or reason on why recidivism is so common. Available

Prisons not only rehabilitate, but they also deter people from going to prison. The fear of going to prison is a great deterrence for a perspective criminal. Hard life styles along with loss of freedom tend to push the criminal away from the chance of being incarcerated. Numbers show that there are fewer rapes, and fewer murders, each year, all an obvious product of prison deterrence. After all, if a person has a friend who just got out of jail, and hears all of the war stories, that person would surely not want to go to prison and end up like his friend. By making life in prison hard, the prison is doing a great job in getting the word out. Prison is no joke! They are doing their job in deterring criminals from wanting to enter the gates of hell.

The revolving door of recidivism is extremely different than it was only just a few decades ago though. Nowadays there are so much more offenders being arrested and released from prison than there was in the past. Not to mention most of them nowadays have served significantly longer prison terms than those offenders in the past, which in turn contributes to recidivism and the increasing rates over the years. Very few and far in between ever really received the benefit of the vast rehab or even pre release programs in the prisons, so in turn they end up right back where there started. They go in without and education and they come out without an education; they go in with no social skills and come out with no skills, they go in criminal and come out an even better criminal. How does that all work?? Who knows but lock them up.

48% offenders risk to continuing offenses (Ryan, Joseph P.; Abrams, Laura S.; Huang, Hui, 2014). When you go to jail you have a fifty-fifty chance of getting arrested and going through the cycle again. The risk increases by over two times for juveniles (Ryan, Joseph P.; Abrams, Laura S.; Huang, Hui, 2014). If you’re a teen and you get committed for a crime, you are more likely to do it again, than not.

Since 2002, The United States has had the highest incarceration rate in the world, and many of those imprisoned within the U.S. will be released and rearrested within three years (Langan & Levin, 2002). Unfortunately, research has been mixed shown that the time spent in prison does not successfully rehabilitate most inmates, and the majority of criminals return to a life of crime almost immediately. Most experts believe that many prisoners will learn more and better ways to commit crimes while they are locked up with fellow convicts. There is a combination of programs and environmental conditions that impact the recidivism rates. The majority of prisons exist to protect the public and punish the offender (French & Gendreau, 2006; Langan &

Today, a countless number of Americans are being imprisoned in mass quantities and are receiving unjust sentences. For the many American who find themselves in the prison system, life is squalor and their experiences are often damaging to their ability to function properly in society. In the United States, our prisons are failing miserably at effectively rehabilitating criminals. Upon release, many find reintegration to be far too hard and in turn many turn back to a life crime as a result. This is trend is called recidivism and is characterized by a prisoner’s likelihood to recommit criminal offenses. The struggles that ex-convicts experience in regards to holding a job, maintaining personal finances, reconciling with

A serious problem with the prison sytem is how often recidivism occurs. A quote from the webisight National Institute of Justice explains what recidivism is “Recidicism is measured by criminal acts that resulted in rearrest, reconvtion, or return to prison” (National Institute of Justice).

Most studies vary on the rate of recidivism amongst releasees. This is mainly due to where the studies take place, the sample size of the study, and when the study takes place. A popular study often referenced to by sociologists and criminologists when studying recidivism rates is one that was conducted in 1994 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The sample of this study consisted on over 272,000 released individuals in 15 states. According to the study, over 67% of the individuals were rearrested, 47% were re-convicted, and 25% were re-sentenced to prison for the new crime (Langan & Levin, 1994). James Henslin breaks the study of re-entry into the correctional system down into even more by stating that 40-45% individuals relapse within one year of release, while 66-68% relapse within three years of release (Henslin). The image below illustrates the recidivism rates in United States prisons by each crime.

Recidivism is caused by criminals who have been through the courts and prison system and still refuse to turn away from crime; the causes of repeat crime may involve many social factors, such as society, the economic climate, or family issues that may affect the criminal in a negative manner. Perhaps the need for

The United States justice system can be described as a cycle, where people enter the prison system, are released, and upon failure to integrate into society soon find themselves back behind bars. Although the means in which the cycle is perpetuated can be argued, the rate of re-offenders is constantly trying to be reduced. One term used to define this type of convict is recidivism, which is the repeat criminal action of a convicted inmate. Recidivism is fastly becoming a issue in the United States as it has been shown that 70% of convicted offenders have been reconvicted within three years of release (Esperian, 2010, p. 322). As crime of any background can be detrimental to society, this high rate of reentry into the justice system has stimulated

Recidivism is the result of a former prisoner relapsing into criminal activity and returning to prison for a new offense. It is estimated that approximately two-thirds of

Convicting, sentencing, and imprisoning are just the first few steps of reducing crime. All the effort, time, and money that go into keeping criminals locked up and off the streets are really for nothing in the end if he or she commits the same crime again after release. James Haley, who is the book editor of “Prisons” points out, “Every year, close to six hundred thousand inmates are released from state and federal prisons around the country. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, two-thirds of former convicts commit new crimes and one-half are re-incarcerated within three years of being released from prison” (138). Are US prisons truly effective when so many prisoners are committing new crimes upon release? It is for the better interests of American safety that some prisoners are locked up for life, but this should not include the constant return of re-offenders. The life of most convicts involves committing a crime and being sentenced to jail only to repeat the same process again. Many re-offenders see incarceration as a ticket to a place to sleep and food to eat.