Prisons - Likelihood Of Re-offense By Type Of Crime Committed

Recidivism rates vary a bit by the type of crime for which a prisoner is serving time. In 1994 a total of 272,111 state prison inmates were released. On average, 68% of them were rearrested within three years of their release and just over half (52%) were back in prison. Although recidivism rates are high across all criminal categories, they are marginally lower for those serving time for the most violent crimes¹¹.

For the category that covers all violent crimes — homicide, rape, kidnapping, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault — the rearrest rate was 62% and the rate at which prisoners were returned to prison within three years was 49%. However, within this category it was the lesser violent crimes that had the highest rates of recidivism. Robbery and assault had high rearrest rates, 70% and 65% respectively. Of murderers released, a smaller percentage was rearrested, although still alarmingly high at 41%.

Burglars, check kiters, car thieves and swindlers, were all offenders for whom the highest rates of recidivism were seen in 1994. The property crime category overall saw a rearrest rate of 74%. Within three years more than half of all prisoners released after doing time for a property crime were back in prison¹² (56.4%). The offense category with the highest rearrest rate was motor vehicle theft (78.8%) and the offense category with the highest rate of return to prison was "other unspecified drug offenses" (71.8%), not possession or trafficking in other words.

These recidivism rates are simply high and little of a positive nature can be said about them other than the fact that the most violent offenders are recidivating at slightly lesser rates. We appear to be cultivating a segment of the population that is in a revolving door relationship with the law. They "do time" and then are released to wreak a bit more havoc before being sent back to prison for more of the same. This is an unpleasant cycle, and it suggest strongly that we should do everything possible to keep young people from entering this cycle, or "system," in the first place.

What do studies on the effectiveness of criminal rehabilitation programs say? Are there characteristics of the prison population that make certain types of rehabilitation programs more effective than others? These are the questions we will attempt to answer in our last panel.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 1994, June 2002, p. 8.