Did ”Everyone Come Back”?: A Longitudinal Study of Recidivism at a Medium-Size Probation Office

• In Event: Posters I

Abstract

Much to our surprise many medium-sized probation offices have no means to study their recidivism rate which translates to office policies and programming that are not necessarily evidence-based. This longitudinal study of recidivism was an answer to a call for help so that “Creekview” Adult Probation administration could create evidence-based policies, but also so they could simply know their recidivism rate and just exactly who it is that comes back to probation. One officer believed “they all come back”. This quantitative study of recidivism includes 4 waves of data (0 months, 18 months, 3 year, 4 years) for the probationers (N=461) who were randomly sampled from the probation population (N=1,253) in September 2011. This probation population is typical in that it is characterized by substance abuse and socio-economic disadvantage. We were not surprised to find out that not all probationers come back and early waves of recidivism data demonstrate numbers below typical averages. Using t-tests and binary regression we will present the three waves of recidivism data, as well as predictors of who is most likely to come back to probation.

Authors

• Shannon I. Smithey, Westminster College

• Kristenne M. Robison, Westminster College