Understanding Recidivism:
Recidivism is a concept in the criminal justice field that refers to an offender’s “relapse” into criminal behavior after being in prison or jail or after undergoing an intervention or treatment plan for a previous crime or offense. Recidivism can be measured by criminal acts and is separated by offender status such as violent and nonviolent as well as victim trauma and when a person becomes subjected to recidivism, it can lead to re-arrest, reconviction and a return to a prison or jail or recommitment into an intervention or treatment program. The question that is presented is if the treatment programs are effective, feasible to show positive results, following legal admissibility and complying with ethical principles and guidelines as well as federal laws and if so, can there be an improvement in after care plans for repeat offenders to avoid recidivism?
Currently to date, there are a lot of programs readily available for violent and nonviolent offenders that assist in modifying behavior and getting offenders to recognize their wrong doings while recognizing the signs before acting on them. Models and interventions such as The Duluth Model, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Eye-Desensitizing are among those programs and treatments even for trauma related victims. The most commonly used intervention toward recidivism is the Duluth Model.