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Recidivism among participants of an employment assistance program for prisoners and offenders

journal contribution
posted on 2014-03-01, 00:00 authored by Joe Graffam, Alison Shinkfield, Barbara Lavelle
Recidivism outcomes were examined over a 2-year postrelease period for participants of an Australian employment assistance program. The voluntary 12-month program operated from 17 Victorian correctional locations, 7 prisons, and 10 community corrections locations, targeting participants at moderate to high risk of reoffending. Recidivism outcomes included simple rates of reoffending for the whole program (N = 3,034 registered participants) and analyses of rate and seriousness of reoffending and extent of poly-offending for a random sample of 600 program participants and 600 nonparticipants. Offending among program participants' pre- and post-registration was also investigated. Results showed a very low rate of reoffending (7.46%) for the entire program participant group while engaged in the program. As well, program participants had significantly lower levels of recidivism than nonparticipants, and postregistration offending was significantly lower than preregistration offending. Findings indicate that long-term postrelease employment support programs provide positive benefits in terms of reduced reoffending.

History

Journal

International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology

Volume

58

Issue

3

Pagination

348 - 363

Publisher

Sage Publications

Location

Thousand Oaks, CA

eISSN

1552-6933

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article; C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2014, Sage Publications