Criminal recidivism: Explanation, prediction and prevention

Criminologists and psychologists have always been interested in exploring the longitudinal patterning of criminal behaviour: how and why it begins, how and why it continues, and how and why it ends. Nonetheless we are still puzzled by the question: Why do individuals continue to offend? This book aims to summarise knowledge about persistent criminal behaviour within the context of criminal careers. It extends this analysis to the realm of criminological psychology and developmental and life-course theories of offending, by using data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD), which is a longitudinal study of 411 males whose lives have been followed up from age 8 to age 56. This book goes beyond previous recidivism analyses because the theoretical approach is an integrative one. It is based on an extensive range of longitudinal data on criminal careers, and also combines official and self-reported delinquency data with an array of psychological, psychiatric, family, school, social, and life-success data collected during a period of over 40 years. The scientific analysis of criminal recidivism is supplemented by case studies of chronic offenders who embarked on a life of crime, making the book groundbreaking in merging quantitative and qualitative analyses of criminal careers. The book identifies key factors that encourage recidivism. Risk assessment is a central issue because it helps to foster both an accurate evaluation of those criminogenic needs involved in a persistent criminal career, and an identification of those protective factors that aid in the treatment of offenders. Psychopathy and sex offending are studied according to the Risk-Need-Responsivity model that moves from the static measurement of risk to the dynamic assessment of who to target, and when and how to intervene to stop offenders persisting in their criminal careers.