Theories Of Recidivism

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One of the main functions of today’s prison system worldwide is the rehabilitation of prison inmates with the hope that they will not continue to live a life of crime after release. Unfortunately, there are some criminals who commit crime habitually. This practice is known as recidivism, which is the recurrence of criminal activity after an individual criminal has served prison term for a prior crime. It can be a measurement of a person's return to crime, or of repeated arrest or conviction (Schubert, 2016). According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, recidivism comes from the Latin root words re, meaning back, and caedere, meaning to fall or literally to fall back. The word is frequently used to refer to the relapse rate of offernders who have served their sentence and have been discharged. It means going back to a previous behaviour, especially criminal behavior. Recidivism is criminal justice term which means a situation in which a person go back into criminal activity, especially after …show more content…

Rational Choice Theory claimed that individuals make rational choices to commit crime after weighing up the potential risks of being caught and punished against the rewards. To other individuals, according to Social Disorganized Theory, criminal activity is as a result of disorganized society. Stresses or stressors might be responsible for some individuals to commit and relapse into crime. Imitation or modelling could be a reason why others commit crime. Labeling theorists claim that others have no intention of committing crime in the first instance but if such persons are tagged ‘criminal’ even for the offence that is not intentional and should have been overlooked by the people in power, it could alter the person’s self-concept whereby he/she thinks of him/herself as a criminal and thus promoting a self-fulfilling prophecy. Criminal activities to other individuals is simply

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