NCJ Number
133516
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 35 Issue: 3 Dated: (Fall 1991) Pages: 235-247
Date Published
1991
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This study examines a total sample of 12,254 persons who, within a 3-month period, were either sentenced to a noncustodial sanction or were released or paroled from a prison sentence. Computerized data collected from 13 files in the Danish Bureau of Statistics are used to investigate changes in living conditions in connection with the sentence and to examine the relationship between recidivism and living conditions.
Abstract
The findings show that offenders have a worse position in the Danish labor market than the general population and are more than twice as likely to be unemployed. Most offenders outside the labor market are passive welfare clients; this number includes more than half of the penal law violators and nearly 90 percent of those released from prison. Almost 80 percent of the group recently released from prison belong to the "educational residual group" defined as persons with no vocational training. The findings reveal that, regardless of punishment or crime committed, all offenders live in poorer living conditions than the general Danish population. Furthermore, offenders who committed the most serious crimes and received the harshest sentences live in the poorest living conditions. These developmental trends describe a marginalization that affects offenders as well as other deviant groups including drug and alcohol abusers. 3 tables, 1 figure, 9 notes, and 16 references (Author abstract modified)