Offender Management?

• NCJ Number: 100720
• Author(s): P G Ward
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 9 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: Proceedings of the Institute of Criminology, N 60, May 1984, P 39-47

Annotation

This paper considers the impact of crime-detection probability, rewards for lawful behavior, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and the corruption of public officials on crime reduction.

Abstract

Crime rates, as measured by victim surveys, are associated more with arrest probability than with other factors. Although rewards for lawful behavior have not been generally used, the Japanese system of monetary incentives for law abiding behavior is apparently effective. The employment benefit scheme might provide for increments for every year the recipient is crime free. An analysis of crime rates for 1973-81, years when the imprisonment rate dramatically increased in the United States, does not indicate that the incapacitation of a large number of offenders has a significant effect on the crime rate. Although rehabilitation efforts have not yielded impressive results in reducing recidivism to date, efforts to replicate treatment techniques proven effective with particular offender types should continue. Offenders' perception of corruption among corrections officials does provide a rationalization for inmates to persist in crime. The fair and humane treatment of inmates is important in presenting a role model. 8 footnotes.