Aspects of the Recidivism of Career Offenders According to Different Forms of Correction and Release from Prison (From Crime and Criminal Justice: Criminological Research in the 2nd Decade at the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg, P 137-185, 1988, Gunther Kaiser and Isolde Geissler, eds. -- See NCJ-1

• NCJ Number: 116136
• Author(s): F Dunkel; B Geng
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 49 pages
• Sale Source: Max-Planck-Institute Fur Auslandisches und Internationales Strafrecht
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: West Germany (Former)

Annotation

This study investigated the course taken by the registered criminal careers of a random sample of 510 inmates serving sentences in a Berlin, West Germany, prison at the beginning of the 1970's.

Abstract

The inmates averaged 33 years of age and were career offenders. A primary study objective was to examine the beginning, duration, and possible discontinuation of criminal careers, paying special attention to different conditions of imprisonment and release (social therapy, regular prison, parole, and aftercare by a probation officer). The observation period after release from prison between 1971-1974 averaged 10 years. All data in prison files, including court sentences and extracts from the register of convictions were evaluated. The 510 career offenders were divided into three subsamples: 160 prisoners released from a special therapeutic treatment unit; 27 prisoners withdrawn from a therapy program due to lack of therapy motivation or breach of regulations; and 323 prisoners released directly from regular prison. Recidivism was investigated in terms of new court sentences after the risk period of about 10 years. Study findings revealed different distributions according to the various forms of treatment and release. Inmates serving the last part of their sentences in a social therapy unit were significantly less likely to be reconvicted. Reimprisonment occurred in 47 percent of the cases, whereas 70 percent of the offenders who were comparable on legal-social-biographic features but released from regular prison were sentenced to imprisonment without probation for new offenses. Reconviction risk was 38 percent lower for the social therapy group than for the regular prison group. It is suggested that social therapy treatment in prison has a moderate beneficial effect on recidivism. 51 references, 2 tables, 13 figures.