An Application of General Strain Theory to Recidivism in Arkansas: A Multilevel Study

• In Event: Community Context and Prisoner Reentry

Abstract

Prior research has focused on individual- and community-level factors in examining recidivism and has not applied criminological theory to explain recidivism; however, community-level measures have been constructed from social disorganization theory on recidivism. With a spotlight on individual characteristics and the community, potential factors from the institutional environment are limited in research. This study examines the effects strain on recidivism and time to recidivism across prison in Arkansas by applying general strain theory. Specifically, the current study used male offenders released in 2011 who were housed at 16 prison institutions in Arkansas to examine recidivism four-years after release. Using a multilevel framework, individual-level and institutional-level strain measures were examined on the likelihood of recidivism, net of traditional, individual-level recidivism measures. The current study expands upon recidivism research and prison environment research by using measures from prison violence research (i.e., visitations, inmate misconduct, gang membership, custody-level) as strain that could predict ‘who’ returns to prison and ‘when.’ Results suggest that inmates who experiences strain while incarcerated were more likely to rectum to prison. Inmates who returned to prison were also affected by their structural environment while incarcerated. Implications will be discussed.

Author

• Brittani A. McNeal, University of West Georgia