Prediction of Violent Versus Nonviolent Recidivism From Prior Violent and Nonviolent Criminality

• NCJ Number: 83269
• Journal: Journal of Abnormal Psychology Volume: 91 Issue: 3 Dated: (1982) Pages: 178-182
• Author(s): T R Holland; N Holt; G E Beckett
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 5 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Frequencies of prior violent and nonviolent criminal convictions among 198 adult male felony offenders were dummy coded and analyzed in relation to probation outcome, defined as success, nonviolent failure, or violent failure.

Abstract

Only the results for prior nonviolent offenses were statistically significant, and although nonviolent failures on probation were nearly four times more common than were violent failures, the nonviolent predictor set was equally sensitive to the two types of recidivism. The association between prior nonviolent offenses and probation outcome was attenuated by the influence of age; however, neither the interaction between age and prior nonviolent convictions nor between this latter variable and prior violence was statistically significant. In accounting for the findings, it was concluded that persistent nonviolent criminality usually reflects a generalized propensity for social deviance and is therefore of some predictive value with heterogeneous groups of offenders. In contrast, because violence is often due to transitory psychological states that emerge in response to atypical circumstances, it is a relatively poor indicator of the likelihood of future similar behavior. (Publisher's abstract)