Community-Based Rehabilitation's Effectiveness In Reducing Singapore Juvenile Recidivism (original) (raw)
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Editorial: Innovative Approaches in Community and Institutional Rehabilitation of Offenders
Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development, 2018
In his speech, he emphasized the importance of strengthening family support and addressing issues such as income and stigma in more effective rehabilitation. Professor Paul Cheung of the Social Service Research Centre drew attention to elderly prisoners in his welcome speech. In fast ageing societies, a different approach to rehabilitation of inmates older than 60 years of age is needed. These two opening speeches in the conference show how far offender work has come. From highly punitive systems focused on desistence and prevention (sending a strong signal against crime), the cumulative evidence today is that strong rehabilitative programs have shown greater effectiveness at decreasing crime through reduced recidivism. They also highlight the new challenges as society changes. For example, demographic shifts, labour market insecurities and stressed families are factors central to effective reintegration of ex-offenders. This special issue contains six articles on a variety of innovations. It comprises articles from presentations made at the conference and from an open call for papers. They show how far-reaching true rehabilitation can and should be. From the judicial system to in-prison work to diversionary or aftercare programs, the innovations are increasingly taking into account the circumstances of the exoffender and his/her ecosystem. "Court Processes and Orders for Positive Outcomes" by Judge Lim Keng Yeow analyzes how court processes can be more rehabilitative. It gives as example two initiatives in the Singapore court system, post-sentencing judicial monitoring and a pre-sentencing protocol, aimed at better supporting rehabilitation. "Enhancing corrections, transforming lives: a Singapore Perspective" by Desmond K.T. Chin and Neeti Iyer is excerpted from the keynote speech by Desmond Chin, the Commissioner of Prisons in Singapore. It gives a historical account of how the Singapore Prison System has become more rehabilitative, with positive outcomes: "the period of transformation coincided with a dramatic reduction in the prison population and recidivism rate". It also looks forward to the future, outlining the ways that the Singapore Prison System will move upstream towards prevention and
Contextualising Institutionalised Prevention of Recidivism among Malaysian Petty Criminals
Currently, Malaysian crime recidivism efforts are largely prison initiated. The practice is to incarcerate petty criminals for a stipulated time and enforcing offenders to undergo an institutionalised character strengthening programme covering religious or moral education and vocational training. Evidence suggests that such efforts do not reduce recidivism and may equip petty criminals with knowledge and skills to better carry out crimes. A review of current institutionalised programmes indicates that underlying psychological variables that may lead to recidivism are not addressed. This cross-sectional study compares a group of 191 incarcerated male prisoners and 392 male members of the public using a test battery representing nine psychological scales: aggression, self-discipline, morality, excitement seeking, anxiety, intrinsic motivation, caution, intellect and empathy. The findings indicate differences between normal and prison populations, implying that contextualising institut...
The Rehabilitation Theory in Adjudicating Child Offenders and Its Application in Malaysia
Asian Social Science, 2013
Children who find themselves on the wrong side of the law must bear the legal consequences to ensure that they obey societal norms. The question is: what theory forms the legal basis for legal action against these troubled young offenders? Will the courts apply the deterrence theory by sentencing them to harsher punishments, or will they apply the rehabilitation theory by passing lighter orders? The objective of this article is to debate one of the theories applied by the Court for Children in their adjudicating process-the rehabilitation theory, and its application. This article will also discuss two legal provisions in the Child Act 2001 Malaysia (Act 611) which are based on the rehabilitation theory. This study finds that the rehabilitation theory is the best and most suitable theory to be applied to child offenders because it focuses on individual rehabilitation by taking into consideration the aspects of education, societal integration and rehabilitating them of their criminal mentality. The two aforementioned provisions, namely, on ‘approved school’ and ‘community services’, are orders founded on the rehabilitation theory and can potentially prevent child offenders from involving themselves in criminal activities in the future. The importance of this study is paramount as it shows that Malaysia is clearly behind in assimilating rehabilitative values and theory into Act 611. Ultimately, the placement of specific legislative provisions regarding community service within Act 611 is an initiative that must be expedited.
Current Issues in Criminal Justice
The purpose of this journal article is twofold. First, it provides a discussion of the use of recidivism as a measure of effectiveness of criminal justice interventions, and, secondly, there is discussion of an evaluation of a juvenile post-release support program. The article argues that there has been a significant growth in recidivist studies, particularly as a measure of effectiveness. However there has been less and less attention placed on the limitations of measures of recidivism, or the nature of extraneous factors that influence re-offending. We use an evaluation study we conducted of the Post Release Support Program (PRSP) for juvenile offenders in New South Wales to explore these issues further. One of the interesting points to the study was that, while the statistical results on re-offending were not conclusive, the qualitative interviews among staff and offenders were overwhelmingly positive about the program. For us this raises the question: what value do we place on recidivism in evaluating a program when qualitative outcome information appears more conclusive?
Impact of Childhood Maltreatment on Recidivism in Youth Offenders
Criminal Justice and Behavior, 2015
The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of childhood maltreatment on youth offender recidivism in Singapore. The study used case file coding on a sample of 3,744 youth offenders, among whom about 6% had a childhood maltreatment history. The results showed that the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory 2.0 (YLS/CMI 2.0) ratings significantly predicted recidivism for nonmaltreated youth offenders, but not for maltreated youth offenders. Using propensity score matching, the result from a Cox regression analysis showed that maltreated youth offenders were 1.38 times as likely as their nonmaltreated counterparts to reoffend with a follow-up period of up to 7.4 years. The results implied that the YLS/CMI 2.0 measures were insufficient for assessing the risk for recidivism for the maltreated youth offenders, and that other information is needed to help assessors use the professional override when making the overall risk ratings.
The Need for Behavioural Rehabilitation in Prisons among Youth
International Journal of Indian Psychology
Crime problem has resulted in material costs to the mental health and criminal justice system. In India, thousands of people enter the prison and juvenile homes each year, and very limited numbers are periodically released. There is a very limited opportunity to offer a corrective experience is completely lost in our system which looks at a time is a process of punishment and has the attitude that nothing works. That is certainly not the case. The present crime system serves as a ground to convert small-time offenders into permanent offenders. This also helps them in be a part of this crime world where limited opportunity is there for self-correction. The biggest failure of this system is limited opportunities for change in attitude and behavior in our society. There is a need to understand the present system of prison setting and rehabilitation systems.
CRIMINALITY AMONG YOUTH AND RECIDIVISM
The Journal of Development Practice, 2017
Criminality as a form of human behaviour is a phenomenon deserving continued study and research to enhance common weal, or at least to ensure trouble free society. The question of "nature" and "nurture", or role of biological factors and environmental factors in influencing human behaviour is relevant in the discussion of criminality as well. The rising trend of "youth in crime" calls for proper diagnosis of this social illness and search for viable remedies. It is against this background that the tendency of "young offenders" in the process of correction or having completed correctional treatment to fall back into crime is being studied. Is this on account of biological factors or has it more to do with the environment? Or is the correctional procedure itself the unwitting culprit criminalizing a "First Time Young Offender"? What are the ways and means by which the correctional procedure can be made meaningful, reforming and re-integrative? Focusing on these research questions, primary data on "Criminality among Youth and Recidivism" was gathered from the Young Offenders residing in Ernakulam District (Kochi Corporation area) of Kerala state, who have served a term in the prison in the age group of 18 to 35 years, police officials and prison staff and secondary sources of data were books, journals, newspaper articles, records and websites. In an attempt to identify the factors that generate and perpetuate youth criminality, the study focused on four major areas-(a) Socioeconomic background in the criminal behaviour of youth (b) Nature and recurrence of crime among youth (c) The influence of Alcohol/ Drugs in inducing criminal behaviour (d) The response of the police personnel regarding the first time offenders and their correction. The study is descriptive in nature and the tools administered were Interview schedule for the youth and interview Guides for the correction staff. The study revealed the major factors that contributed to the criminality of individuals. Evidences of negligence in the protection of human rights and failure in giving psychological support services have detrimentally affected the reformative behaviour of the offenders. The findings highlight the need for discussing the How"s and Why"s of recidivism and is really an eye-opener on how our correctional institutions become a breeding ground for intense criminalities. Article attempts to point out the implications for professional social work practice in criminal justice and reformation.
Offender Participation in Multiple Rehabilitation Programs to Reduce Recidivism
2020
Rehabilitation programs are critical for reducing recidivism rates and reintegrating offenders into the community. Despite the recognition that offenders face many challenges, few scholars have investigated the relationship between prisoners who receive more than 1 rehabilitation program and recidivism. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational cross-sectional study using archival data from a correctional facility in Barbados was to assess the relationship between age, education, employment, and multiple rehabilitation programs on recidivism. The conceptual framework of this study was grounded in the lifecycle theory, the social learning theory, the social cognitive theory, and the social disintegration theory. The primary research question examined how the variables of age, education, employment, and participation in more than 1 rehabilitation program predicted the dependent variable likelihood of recidivism at 1 year. Logistic regression was used to analyze data from 67 individuals. In this study, there were 3 major findings. First, participation in more than 1 rehabilitation program did not positively predict recidivism at 1 year. Second, the sociodemographic variables of age, education, and employment were not significantly related to recidivism at 1 year.
Gill (2017, this issue), based on a systematic review of 118 separate systematic reviews, the authors and their extensive research team have assembled the most compelling evidence to date that crime prevention and correctional programs work, and they often work extremely well. In fact, an amazing array of different approaches, including developmental and social prevention, community interventions, situational prevention, policing, sentencing/deterrence policies, correctional programs, and drug treatment, have surprisingly large effects on crime. Not only can we say that crime prevention and treatment " work, " we can say that many types of interventions have been shown to reduce crime or related problems by 50% or more, based on odds ratios derived from the average standardized effect size for each systematic review included in the seven review areas. These substantial impacts should have policy makers sitting up and taking notice especially because they are based on the result of analysis of thousands of primary evaluations.
Reducing Reoffending: Review of Selected Countries
2012
3. Official statistics and reoffending studies are the 4. 'Reoffending' and 'recidivism' of criminal justice system activity. In this review, 'reoffending' most often refers to recorded reconviction or reimprisonment rates and less often to re 5. Using this definition, the factors regularly found to be the most consistent predictors of reoffending are: age, gender, offence type, disposal (having a prison or community sentence), length of prison sentence, and length a 6. Direct comparisons of reoffending rates are not possible from the data presented here. Such comparisons would require thorough investigation to control for the many differences in definitions, reporting practices, enforcement cultures and political systems. presented may be useful, however, in comparing the kinds of factors that matter for reoffending and the impacts these have had on individual country rates. National Reoffending Trends 7. A 'typical' range of reoffending (measured via reimprisonment) in national studies is between 30% and 50%. 8. The countries included in this review define 'reoffenders' (all persons arrested, convicted, sentenced to particular sanctions) and 'reoffending' in diverse ways (re reimprisonment) but report rates of reoffending that mostly fall within the typical range. 9. Reconviction rates in Scotland show relative stabi 30-32% in one-year follow up studies and 43 inclusive of those offenders receiving fines, a category of sanction almost as large as all other sanctions combined and with a lower than average reoffending rate.