Inquiry on Recidivism
This post was written by Martin Braun. He is currently a junior at WIU in the School of Law Enforcement and Justice Administration and minoring in pre-law. Martin reports he has always wanted to work in service to the community and hopes to advocate for people who have been impacted by serious crimes. He hopes to fulfill this through a career with the FBI. The following information is a synopsis from a larger manuscript Martin wrote for his Research Methods course at WIU . When asking how we reduce prison recidivism, we first must find out the who contributes to recidivism the most and how we can change their actions. Recidivism is defined as an arrest and conviction for an offense committed within two years after release from a previous conviction. Studies have found that the person most likely to contribute to the recidivism rate is an African American male, age 18-25 that has had prior prison convictions, is or was under government surveillance, has or has had a high use of nar