Criminal Psychology, and Recidivism: A Brief Study

According to Confronting Confinement, an article written in 2006 by The Commission on Safety & Abuse in America’s Prisons (COSAAP), more than 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States on any given day, and 13.5 million people spend time in prison or jail annually.  Within three years of their release, 67% of former prisoners are rearrested and 52% are re-incarcerated, a recidivism rate that calls  the effectiveness of America’s corrections system into question, at an annual expenditure $60 billion of annual taxpayer revenue.

With statistics like these, one is inclined to examine the cause, and to take heed of its source to prevent the  further decline of rehabilitation, and to increase the number of individuals who are able to successfully reintegrate themselves with society.

There is an unprecedented importance to paying attention not only to criminals that make the papers, but also to those who are serving time for less “glorious” crimes, and manage to avoid the limelight. What kind of attention, you ask? First off, a more stringent effort needs to be made to understand more than just the extemporaneous causes of crime. Correctional institutions need to examine what caused certain behaviors, and hoe to circumvent them in the future. Currently, the rate of recidivism across the US is increasing rather than decreasing.

Studies show that states that take time time to implement more than just standard parole-type settings for post-incarceration inmates see remarkably higher rates of success then their counterparts.  Statistics are encouraging in Tacoma Washington, where there is a focus not only on what happens after incarceration, but in learning how to prevent the events and situations that lead to initial incarceration in the first place. This program, which focuses primarily on adolescents, is certainly an example that states and their judicial and legal systems can definitely learn from.

For a taste of what must go through the minds of so many as they await release, take a moment to listen to what “Red” (Morgan Freeman) has to say about current prison “rehabilitation” methods in Castle Rock Entertainment’s The Shawshank Redemption.

(We apologize in advance for Red’s sentiments if you are offended by them… but we felt it best to leave the original movie lines and quotes intact in order to properly convey the meaning behind them as intended.

To learn more about YAFCA, and our developing Criminal Psychology program, visit yafca.org/available-services/criminal-psychology.