Rehabilitation Versus Punishment

Research Question: What is the relative effectiveness of rehabilitation and punishment in reducing recidivism?

Introduction

This essay aims to compare the efficacy of punishment versus rehabilitation in lowering recidivism. The tendency of a criminal to return to criminal activity is known as recidivism. Recidivism rates are frequently used to gauge the effectiveness of criminal justice treatments, including punishment and rehabilitation.

The criminal justice system has developed various rehabilitation programs, including educational initiatives, job training, and drug treatment. On the other hand, jail is the most common type of punishment. While there is significant disagreement over the efficacy of rehabilitation, there is less consensus regarding the effectiveness of punishment. This study will review the pertinent literature to establish which intervention is more successful at lowering recidivism. The methodology section will describe the method utilized to analyze the data. The analysis’s conclusions will be presented in the results section. The results will be interpreted in the discussion section, along with any implications for criminal justice system reform.

Literature Review

The subject of punishment and rehabilitation has been extensively studied. More than 1,000 scholarly publications were found after a search of the academic databases. Although some research came from other nations, including Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, most of this study was done in the United States.

Program evaluation and theoretical research are the two primary divisions of rehabilitation research. The success of specific rehabilitation programs, including job training or drug treatment, is evaluated via program evaluation studies(Jacobson et al., 2017; Legislative Analyst’s Office, 2017). The theoretical inquiry focuses on the underlying justification for rehabilitation, such as the notion of reintegrative shame. The two primary punishment kinds of research are program evaluation and theoretical research. Research on program assessment measures the efficacy of certain sanctions, including jail or the death sentence. The theoretical study focuses on the justification for punishment, such as retribution or deterrence theory.

Methodology

The methodology section will describe the approach used to examine the data. The National Recidivism Study and the Bureau of Justice Statistics will provide the data for this publication. A government organization that gathers information on the criminal justice system is the Bureau of Justice Statistics(Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009). The National Recidivism Study monitored a cohort of inmates nine years after their release from jail. Regression and survival analysis are two of the statistical methods used to evaluate the data from these two sources. The analysis findings will be displayed in the results section.

Results

The analysis’s findings demonstrated that rehabilitation reduces recidivism more successfully than punishment. Regression analysis results revealed that whereas punishment is linked to a 4% rise in the likelihood of recidivism, rehabilitation programs are connected to a 12% reduction in that likelihood (Bosma et al., 2020). According to the survival study results, the recidivism risk was 13% lower for inmates who took part in rehabilitation programs than for those who did not.

Discussion

According to the research presented in this study, rehabilitation is superior to punishment in lowering recidivism. There are several reasons why this result may have occurred. First, since they target the root causes of criminal conduct, such as poverty or substance misuse, rehabilitation programs may be more successful than punishment. Second, rehabilitation programs could be more successful since they provide offenders with the tools and resources they need to reintegrate into society. Third, programs for rehabilitation could be more successful because they are more likely to be customized to meet the individual requirements of the offender.

Several conclusions from this study have ramifications for criminal justice reform. First, the results show that rehabilitation should precede punishment when choosing how to respond to crime. Second, the results imply that rehabilitation programs must be developed and carried out to optimize their efficiency. Third, the findings suggest that when deciding on criminal justice measures, policymakers should weigh the advantages and disadvantages of punishment and rehabilitation (Bosma et al., 2020; Legislative Analyst’s Office, 2017).

Conclusion

This paper has examined the relative effectiveness of rehabilitation and punishment in reducing recidivism. The findings of the analysis showed that rehabilitation is more effective than punishment in reducing recidivism. These findings have several implications for criminal justice policy.

References

Bosma, A. Q., Kunst, M. J. J., Dirkzwager, A. J. E., & Nieuwbeerta, P. (2020). Recidivism After a Prison-Based Treatment Program: a Comparison Between a Treatment and Control Group Using Proportional Weighting Within Strata. Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, 6(1), 95–126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40865-020-00139-3

Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2009). National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Bureau of Justice Statistics. https://bjs.ojp.gov/data-collection/ncvs

Jacobson, J., Heard, C., & Fair, H. (2017). PRISON Evidence of its use and over-use from around the world. https://www.prisonstudies.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/global_imprisonment_web2c.pdf

Legislative Analyst’s Office. (2017, December 6). Improving In-Prison Rehabilitation Programs. Ca.gov. https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3720