Recidivism, Redemption, and Desistance: Understanding Continuity and Change in Criminal Offending and Implications for Interventions

Abstract

As the US incarceration rate has reached an unprecedented level, so has the number of people leaving prison and returning to the community. Faced with the prison population growth together with the economic downturn and budget crises, many states are seeking ways to break the increasing cycle of recidivism. Although research on recidivism and desistance has not always learned from each other, recently, there is an increasing convergence of these two streams of research. This convergence has been stimulated by a variety of factors, but most notably, it draws from emerging research on redemption, which focuses on the inverse relationship between recidivism risk and time since previous contact with the criminal justice system. Although the concepts of recidivism, desistance, and redemption are all about continuity and change in criminal offending over time, the relationship between the three has not been examined. In this paper, we discuss the interface between recidivism and desistance research with a particular focus on redemption research; point out one emerging consensus from both recidivism and desistance research, namely, the importance of offenders' motivation and individual internal change; and discuss new ideas to effectively improve our approaches of reducing recidivism and facilitating desistance.

Non-Specialization of Criminal Careers Among Intimate Partner Violence Offenders

“…In particular, IPV offenders may provide an interesting opportunity for investigation of the concept of “good marriages” (e.g., Laub, Nagin, & Sampson, 1998). That is, settling into marriage and work is thought to represent a turning point in the life course, whether as a structural change in offenders’ lives that promotes desistance from a criminal career or as a signpost of psychological change associated with readiness to desist (e.g., Laub et al, 1998; Nakamura & Bucklen, 2014). Research is needed to determine whether this applies to men who assault their intimate partners, particularly considering that a majority of their non-violent offending involved an intimate partner victim.…”

From Prison to Work: Job Patterns for Women in Chile

“…Characterizing these two groups better may shed light into the role of motivation to change when analyzing the nature of employment after incarceration. This is aligned with research on correctional programming suggesting internal change would be a "pre-requisite" to make opportunity-based programs successful in preventing re-offending (MacKenzie 2006;Nakamura and Bucklen 2014). Thus, to avoid the consequences of unobserved heterogeneity, we recommend future studies to include offending when exploring sequences of employment among ex-inmates.…”

Intersectional needs and reentry: Re-conceptualizing ‘multiple and complex needs’ post-release

“…Where such scholars have considered frameworks that recognize both the individual and community as agents of the reentry process, others have focused on single factors (Johns, 2014). For example Nakamura and Bucklen (2014: 392, emphasis added) argue that internal cognitive change is the main motivating factor for successful reintegration, and that the provision of housing assistance, education and employment support ‘ may be justified on the grounds that they meet the basic needs of released prisoners’. The implication is thus that meeting an ex-prisoner’s basic needs should be a secondary consideration, or at least be conditional upon the presence of motivational factors.…”