Criminal Recidivism Essay

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Criminal Recidivism is a global and contemporary social a phenomenon. It is considered as a situation of going back to a criminal behaviour after released from the prison (Maltz, 1984). Various studies have shown that offenders that have been to prison and released re-enter their societies with a considerable likelihood of reoffending and eventual reincarceration (Stahler et al. 2013). To be specific, studies on criminal recidivism found that two thirds of prisoners released were rearrested within 3 years and about one quarter of them were reincarcerated within that period (Langan & Levin, 2002). More recent studies show that criminal recidivism rates are still high. For instance, it was reported that 22% of a sampled of released offenders were reincarcerated within one year of their release (Visher, Yahner, & La Vigne, 2010). Other studies however, revealed that, about 80% of the released prison inmates were taken back as criminal recidivists (The Sentencing Project, 2011). On the other hand, many studies however, attributed criminal recidivism among the ex-prisoners as part of challenges faced by the ex-prisoners. It is established that, ex- prison are basically facing a number of obstacles in many areas of life:

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