Comparing the Effects of Community Service and Short-Term Imprisonment on Recidivism: A Matched Samples Approach

• NCJ Number: 231893
• Journal: Journal of Experimental Criminology Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2010 Pages: 325-349
• Author(s): Hilde Wermink; Arjan Blokland; Paul Nieuwbeerta; Daniel Nagin; Nikolaj Tollenaar
• Date Published: September 2010
• Length: 25 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined to what extent community service is either more or less effective than imprisonment in mitigating recidivism.

Abstract

This study uses longitudinal official record data on adult offenders in The Netherlands (n=4,246) to compare recidivism after community service to that after short-term imprisonment. To account for possible bias due to selection of offenders into these types of sanctions, the authors control for a large set of confounding variables using a combined method of 'matching by variable' and 'propensity score matching'. Our findings demonstrate that offenders recidivate significantly less after having performed community service compared to after having been imprisoned. This finding holds for both the short- and long-term. Furthermore, using the Rosenbaum bounds method, the authors show that the results are robust for hidden bias. Figure, tables, and references (Published Abstract)