Why Criminals Repeat Offenders

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According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2014), 3 in 4 former prisoners in 30 states are arrested within 5 years of release. One of the main questions about this issue is what cause criminals to repeat crime even though they know what the consequence will be. This topic is not something new for sociologist and criminologist, but this topic can be tracked back to the early school of criminology, where their main focus was to understand why good people did not commit any crime as compared to criminals (Walsh, 2016). So why is it criminals return back to prison within few years from being released? This research includes operational definitions of key terms and some theories that associate with criminal behavior, previous studies were done on this topic, and an interview with an ex-con who was a repeat offender, with the overall understanding on why criminals repeat the same crime even though they know what the consequences will be. …show more content…

Nobody is born to be criminals or to be repeat offenders. In fact, our society and our surroundings impact and shape our behavior. According to the US Legal (2016), “a repeat offender is a person who has already been convicted of a crime, and who has been caught again for committing the crime and breaking the law for which he had been prosecuted earlier.” The majority of the time the crime is the same, but there are some cases where repeat offenders, over time, pick up other types of crimes (Anderson, 2016). There are some theories that sociologist and criminologist use to explain why these type of behavior are seen in repeat offenders and what is it that triggers them to re-commit a crime for which they have been convicted for. Such theories are the labeling theory, social bond theory, social learning theory, social sentiments, and social structure

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