The Role of Neighborhood Context on Recidivism

• In Event: Population Density, Gun Violence, and Drug Trafficking on Community Rates of Crime and Recidivism

Abstract

For the current study, we examined the relationship between recidivism and the institutional context of neighborhoods in which ex-offenders are located upon release. We argued that ex-offenders located in neighborhoods with more effective mechanisms for social control, reflected in higher degrees of social capital and neighborhood organization, are more likely to be successful in completing their parole and integrating into neighborhood life, other things being equal. We evaluated this claim by integrating data provided by the Arkansas Department of Corrections on parole outcomes for ex-offenders who returned to Little Rock, AR from 2000-2014, with geocoded data on property values and neighborhood and property owner associations in Little Rock. We analyzed the resulting data using survival models that regress individual parole outcomes against individual and neighborhood-level factors over the 2000-2014 period.

Authors

• Tusty ten Bensel, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

• Michael Craw, University of Arkansas at Little Rock