Citation

Nunes KL, Firestone P, Wexler AF, Jensen TL, Bradford JMW. Law Hum. Behav. 2007; 31(3): 305-318.

Affiliation

School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1007/s10979-006-9065-5

PMID

17203411

Abstract

The relationship between incarceration and recidivism was investigated in a sample of 627 adult male sexual offenders. Incarceration for the index offense was unrelated to sexual or violent recidivism. This was the case whether incarceration was examined as a dichotomous variable (incarceration vs. community sentence) or as a continuous variable (length of incarceration). Risk for sexual recidivism was assessed with a modified version of the Rapid Risk Assessment for Sexual Offense Recidivism. There was no evidence that the relationship between incarceration and recidivism was confounded or moderated by risk or that length of incarceration and recidivism were non-linearly associated. Sentencing sexual offenders to terms of incarceration appears to have little, if any, impact on sexual and violent recidivism following release.

Language: en