Low-risk Offenders Research Articles

Women and the Criminal Justice System

Proportionately women offenders are growing among the ranks of those involved in the correctional system in the U.S. This paper presents an overview of the characteristics of women offenders, our state of knowledge about programs and services for women, and policy choices regarding how to handle the increasing number of women in the criminal justice system. Using the evidence-based practices literature, the needs of the women are compared to the research on effective practices using the Risk-Needs-Responsivity model. This model purports that low risk offenders should not be the priority for intensive services in the criminal justice system; instead high risk offenders should receive such services. Based on this model, the paper discusses whether services in the criminal justice system are the best option given the consequences of involving the correctional system to assist women who are poor, underskilled, and undereducated to become productive citizens.

How effective is the “Reasoning and Rehabilitation” programme in reducing reoffending? A meta-analysis of evaluations in four countries

This article aims to review the effectiveness of the “Reasoning and Rehabilitation” programme in reducing recidivism. Sixteen evaluations (involving 26 separate comparisons) were located in which experimental and control groups were compared. A meta-analysis showed that, overall, there was a significant 14% decrease in recidivism for programme participants compared with controls. This programme was effective in Canada, the USA, and the UK. It was effective in community and institutional settings, and for low risk and high-risk offenders. Smaller and larger evaluation studies, and older and newer studies, concluded that the programme was effective. Future evaluations should use larger samples, randomized controlled trials and better measures of recidivism (including self-reports, numbers, types and costs of offences committed).

An Empirical Modeling Approach to Recidivism Classification

A nonlinear, exemplar-based empirical modeling methodology was applied to the problem of classifying relative levels of recidivism risk in a population of released offenders from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Issues related to extracting relatively pure classes of exemplars from relatively ambiguous data are detailed. Risk was defined as the associative match to one of two exemplar groups; higher or lower risk offenders. The area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve for 620 offenders examined in the initial subgroup was .94. Comparable results were found with a smaller validation sample of 408 offenders known to be higher risk. Implications of controlling for risk factor patterns are discussed.

Punishment Evidence in the Child Abuse Case

ABSTRACT Risk assessment, especially in child abuse cases, has become a fairly standard procedure. Using this information in the punishment phase of the trial can help the judge or jury have a better understanding of the probability of recidivism. Research over the past 30 years has resulted in the development of actuarial methods that can separate high risk from low risk offenders. Clinical judgment, which was the standard in the past, has a much poorer record and should not be the primary basis for making a risk assessment. This article provides added knowledge and reference points for the negotiator.

Thinking about the Demand for Probation Services

This article explores three questions. First, it considers who does and should determine the demand for probation services; second, why the pattern for the demand and supply of probation services is as it currently is; and finally, it considers how the future demand and supply of probation services might be altered. The author argues that the ‘silting up’ of probation caseloads with low risk offenders is a major problem for an already over-stretched workforce and suggests a number of measures which could be taken to address this problem–these include the ‘up-tariffing’ of community service, more use of restorative justice approaches, a more effective strategy to inform sentencers of the effects their sentencing decisions are having, and a return to a greater reliance on financial penalties.

Recidivism in stalking and obsessional harassment.

Despite the rapidly growth of mental health attention focused on the phenomenon of stalking, no empirical research to date has attempted to assess the frequency of repeat offending or attempted to identify predictors of recidivism. A total of 148 stalking and harassment offenders who were court-ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation were followed for a period of 2.5-13 years in order to assess the frequency of repeat offenses and the variables that differentiated high versus low risk offenders. Recidivism data were obtained from a variety of sources, including criminal justice records, mental health records, and reports from probation officers and victims. A number of potential "predictor" variables were selected on the basis of the existing recidivism literature in other criminal justice populations. Frequency analysis were used to identify variables that significantly differentiated offenders who did and did not reoffened while survival analysis was used to analyze the impact of these covariates on time to reoffense. A total of 49% of the offenders reoffended during the follow-up period, 80% of whom reoffended during the first year. The strongest predictors of recidivism included the presence of a personality disorder, and in particular, a "Cluster B" personality disorder (i.e., antisocial, borderline, and/or narcissistic). In addition, those offenders with both a personality disorder and a history of substance abuse were significantly more likely to reoffened compared to either of these risk factors alone. Surprisingly, the presence of a delusional disorder (e.g., erotomania) was associated with a lower risk of reoffender. The findings are discussed in terms of the legal system and treatment implications.

Male and female offending trajectories.

This paper uses a latent class modeling approach to examine gender related variations in offending trajectories from adolescence to young adulthood. This approach is applied to data gathered over the course of a longitudinal study of 896 New Zealand children studied from birth to age 21 years. The analysis identified five trajectory groups: a group of low-risk offenders, three groups of adolescent-limited offenders who varied in the timing of the onset of offending (early, intermediate, and late onset), and a group of chronic offenders. Identical offending trajectories applied for males and females. However, probabilities of trajectory group membership varied with gender, with females being more likely to exhibit low-risk or early onset adolescent-limited offending and males later onset and chronic offending. Examination of social, family, and individual factors associated with these trajectories suggested the presence of a series of common etiological factors relating to family functioning and early adjustment that discriminated between trajectory groups. These risk factors appeared to operate in a similar fashion for both males and females. Implications of these findings for trajectory theories of offending are discussed.

Use of Community Based Social Services to Reduce Recidivism in Female Parolees

ABSTRACT As the political pendulum swings toward increased incarceration, low-risk, non-violent offenders arc being targeted for community punishment in order to make cell space available for serious offenders. Women are a logical constituency for many community punishment alternatives. The decarceration of low risk offenders however, is only a short term solution to the problem of the overuse of prisons. In order to effect a long term solution, rehabilitative components must be built into community punishment with the goal of reducing recidivism. The current study uses survival and discriminant analyses to explore therelationship between the use of community based social services by female parolees in Boston, Massachusetts and the subsequent reduction of recidivism.

Predictive Utility of the LSI for Incarcerated Female Offenders

The Level of Supervision Inventory (LSI), an objective risk evaluation instrument based on social learning theory, was administered to 526 provincially incarcerated adult females. The average LSI score was 15.5, compared to average scores ranging from 20.9 to 25.1 for samples of provincially incarcerated adult males from the same jurisdiction. Data on three outcome measures were collected over a 39-month period. Use of LSI scores for prediction produced relative improvement over chance scores for 1-and 2year recidivism, parole failure, and halfway house noncompliance ranging from 54.5% to 71.5%. Across all types of discharge, offenders defined by the LSI as high risk were consistently more likely to fail on release than were low-risk offenders. Recommended cutoff scores for low- and high-risk female offenders are given, and the implications for classification and rehabilitation are explored.

Prescriptions for punishment: Official ideologies and jall overcrowding

This study assesses key actors’ “worlds of fact” regarding jail overcrowding in California through an examination of their perceptions of causes and effects, support for different solutions, and adherence to major punishment ideologies. How policymakers define and structure a specific problem Gail overcrowding), can influence how policy options are differentially weighed as well as how existing policy processes can be improved. A mail survey was sent to two key decision making groups who largely regulate the intake and outflow of local jails: sheriffs and chief probation officers of the 58 California counties. Group differences in responses were predicted from the perspectives of blame avoidance, domain dissensus, and punishment theory. Relationships were examined among perceived causes, effects, solutions, and punishment ideologies. While both sheriffs and probation chiefs advocated highly similar “control-oriented” punishment ideologies, probation chiefs advocated more “progressive” solutions to jail overcrowding. Perceived causes and effects of jail overcrowding, along with support for deterrence ideology, were strongly related to elite support for three potential solutions: building more institutions, passing tougher laws to deter potential offenders, and using shorter sentences for low-risk offenders. Implications of these results for understanding jail overcrowding and policy processes are discussed.

Effectiveness of citizen volunteers functioning as counselors for high-risk young male offenders.

This research evaluated a counseling program utilizing citizen volunteers in 1:1 relationships with young male offenders placed on probation for 12 mo. 100 high-risk offenders were randomly assigned to either citizen counseling with regular probation or to regular probation only. A random sample of 50 low-risk offenders assigned to regular probation served as a comparison group. Low-risk offenders were superior to the high-risk groups on measures of behavior, personality functioning, and social competence. Citizen-counseled high-risk offenders, compared to other high-risk offenders, committed fewer and less serious criminal offenses, were employed more regularly, made better educational progress, and appeared to be somewhat less rebellious, less impulsive, and more responsible as measured on the California Psychological Inventory at the end of probation. The implications and unique features of the programming, which may limit the generality of the findings to other settings, were discussed. Potentially limiting conditions included the stringent selection and matching procedures, the high caliber of the volunteers, the severe demands imposed on the time (weekly meetings over about 10 mo.) and talents (crisis counseling, tutoring, advocacy, friendship, and resource brokerage) of the unpaid citizen volunteers, and the availability of vital community resources, such as vocational and educational opportunities.

Preventive Detention in Canada

The current investigation traces the development of special legislation for sexual offenders. Unlike many American jurisdictions, Canada continues to use preventive detention as a means of control for both physically and sexually violent offenders. Survey data on all 97 persons held as dangerous sexual offenders in Canada were used to evaluate complaints found in the literature. Charges of inconsistent application were substantiated in that regional and socioeconomic disparity was revealed. The disproportionate use of DSO designations for child molesters was also noted. Complaints of poor reliability were supported, both in terms of sexual assessment results and clinical opinions about the status of individual DSOs. Findings pertaining to the difficulty of predicting future behavior were mixed. Predictive instruments suggested that DSOs were low-risk offenders compared to the general inmate population. However, those who were incarcerated at the time of the study were uniformly high-risk DSOs. Moreover, a simple retrospective psychometric clinical prediction strategy was reasonably accurate (77%) in predicting postrelease recidivism. Objections to the lack of treatment in prison and the community were partially supported. Preventive detention is also discussed in its sociopolitical context.