Beth Huebner
Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Missouri-St. Louis
Key Findings
- Criminal history and age are important predictors of recidivism timing and desistance.
- Younger men and those with “more involved” criminal histories were more likely to fail on parole quickly and less likely to desist.
- Marriage delayed recidivism, and married men who were not drug-dependent were more likely to desist, while drug-dependent men failed on parole more quickly.
- Men who are released from prison and transferred to transitional housing or placed on intensive parole fail on parole more quickly and are less likely to desist.
- While differences remain across offender groups, the largest risk for recidivism comes in the immediate months of release.
Description
In the article, “Examining the Sources of Variation in Risk for Recidivism,” Huebner seeks to explain the diversity of recidivism patterns among reentering offenders by examining the data of 3,786 men released from prison from a single state in 1998 and follow-up data collected through May 2006. Huebner analyzes whether the influence of individual characteristics, criminal history, and community factors vary with patterns of recidivism. Huebner finds that men who failed within the first six months of release were younger, likely to be under intensive supervision probation, have had extensive criminal history records, and often a history of institutional misconduct records.