NCJ Number
118260
Date Published
1988
Length
22 pages
Annotation
The relationship between community characteristics and the behavior of offenders was examined in a series of research studies that used concepts from both risk assessment and ecological research and gathered data on the interactions between released offenders and neighborhoods in Baltimore.
Abstract
A preliminary study gathered information on all men released from State institutions to any of 90 randomly sampled neighborhoods in Baltimore from 1978 to 1980. Followup information was gathered in 1982 and included data on rearrests and subsequent sentences. Assessments were also made of the physical environments to which the offenders were released. Results of this study showed interactions of modest power, but a more extensive followup study showed no effect of the environment on the individual. At the neighborhood level, the research showed the effects of the environment on aggregate offender outcomes. Results may have been affected by several limitations, including the inability to track offenders and the nature of the outcome measures. Figure, tables, and 49 references.