INTRODUÇÃO: A reinserção do indivíduo na sociedade, após ele ter cometido um ato anti-social, iniciou-se com o Iluminismo. Atualmente várias pesquisas têm sido realizadas para se verificar a eficácia de trabalhos de reinserção social para criminosos. Entretanto na realidade brasileira não existem trabalhos sistematizados para a população prisional. Como decorrência disto, pensou-se em sistematizar uma intervenção terapêutica para prevenção de reincidência penitenciária e verificar sua eficácia. MÉTODOS: A terapia cognitivo-comportamental para prevenção à reincidência penitenciária é composta por 10 sessões estruturadas. O grupo de sujeitos foi formado por sentenciados, que cumpriam pena no regime semi-aberto, presos, no mínimo, pela segunda vez (reincidentes penitenciários); o tempo máximo de pena que teriam que cumprir deveria ser inferior a quinze anos e já deveriam ter cumprido tempo suficiente para requisitar progressão de regime. Os 43 sujeitos que iniciaram a pesquisa foram divididos em dois grupos grupo de trabalho e grupo controle. Foram feitas entrevistas e aplicações de escalas antes e depois da intervenção. RESULTADOS: Como resultado do trabalho não se percebeu diferença estatisticamente significativa entre os sujeitos que estavam no grupo de trabalho e no grupo controle em relação a reincidência penitenciária. Em relação às escalas aplicadas, os sentenciados que terminaram o programa apresentaram um escore maior no Questionário de Pensamentos Automáticos, comparado com aqueles que desistiram. Os que concluíram a pesquisa e estava no grupo de trabalho percebemos que o Programa de Prevenção a Reincidência Penitenciária reduz o medo de avaliação negativa. Os que estavam no grupo controle apresentaram um decréscimo na Escala de Estresse e Fuga Social. Após 12 meses de intervenção, entre os sentenciados que iniciaram a pesquisa, os reincidentes mostraram uma tendência a ter um escore menor no Questionário de auto-estima antes da intervenção. Os reincidentes que estavam no grupo de trabalho apresentaram uma tendência a já terem cumprido mais tempo de suas penas e os do grupo controle, uma tendência a ter um escore menor na Escala de Medo de Avaliação Negativa antes do início do programa e um escore menor na escala de Estresse e Fuga Social depois da intervenção. Entre os sentenciados que terminaram o programa e reincidiram, pôdese perceber que a intervenção causou uma redução nos resultados no escore da Escala de Estresse e Fuga Social e uma tendência em diminuir o escore no Questionário de Pensamentos Automáticos. Dentre os não reincidentes existe uma diminuição no escore da Escala de Medo de Avaliação Negativa depois do programa; os que estavam no grupo de trabalho, apresentaram uma tendência de redução do medo de avaliação negativa e os que estavam no grupo controle apresentaram uma diminuição no escore da escala de estresse e fuga social. CONCLUSÕES: A partir deste estudo pôde-se notar que a terapia cognitiva para prevenção à reincidência penitenciária, apesar de apresentar alguns resultados positivos diminuição do medo de avaliação negativa e uma discreta redução na taxa acumulada de reincidência penitenciária daqueles que concluíram o programa - necessita ser revisto e reformulado. / INTRODUCTION: The idea of rehabilitating individuals after they have committed an antisocial act came about during the Enlightenment. Nowadays, a lot of researches have been done to realize the efficacy of offenders social rehabilitation. However, in Brazil don´t exist studies systematized for prison population. As a result of this a therapeutic intervention for prevention of prison recidivism was systematized. METHODS: The technique used in this program is cognitive-behavioral therapy, composed of 10 structured meetings. The group of subjects in the study comprehended 43 inmates (20 of them from the control group and 23 from the experimental group) who served their terms in medium security prisons, and who were serving, at least, their second term. A directed interview and some questionnaires or scales were applied both before and after the program. Results: Regarding re-offense, when we compare accumulated monthly rate, we cannot see statistic difference neither of all the subjects that started the program or those that finished the program. Based on analysis of the data collected it can be asserted that: the Penitentiary Re-offense Prevention Program reduces the fear of negative evaluation; participants in the control group had a decreased score in the Stress and Social Escape Scale; inmates who finished the program had a greater score in the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire, a greater fear of a negative evaluation at the beginning of the program and a greater score in the Stress and Social Escape Scale. Subjects that re-offended at least one year after the end of the program showed a tendency to have a lower score in the Self-esteem Scale before the intervention. Those who were in the control group and re-offended showed tendency to have lower fear of a negative evaluation before the beginning of the program and had the lowest score rate in the Stress and Social Escape Scale, following the program. For inmates who finished the program and re-offense, the intervention caused a decrease on the results of the score in the Stress and Social Escape Scale, and a trend towards a decrease in the Questionnaire on Automatic Thoughts. Among the non-re-offenders there is a noticeable trend in reducing negative evaluation after the program. The non-re-offenders who were members of the experimental group showed a tendency to have a lower score in fear of a negative evaluation scale. CONCLUSION: From this study it was noted that cognitive therapy for preventing of prison recidivism, although they had some positive results, such as reducing the fear of negative evaluation needs to be revised and recast.

This study investigated the effect of media on attitudes toward the criminal justice system. A survey was administered to 167 undergraduate students at East Tennesse State University in criminal justice and fine and performing arts classes. Respondents were asked how much television they watch, what their primary news source was, and how accurate crime-related television programs are. Multivariate analysis showed that age and major affected attitudes more than media consumption.

No description available.

This paper attempts to uncover the relationship between violent crime and economic mobility in the United States using cross-sectional time series data and multiple regression analysis.

ABSTRACT This study explored the perceived needs of ex-offenders. Empirical research reports that individuals who have been incarcerated are at risk of recidivism. This study used a qualitative research design and the data was collected from in-depth interviews with ten participants. The study found that lack of income and education has impacted the number of individuals who are failing to successfully reintegrate into society. This study also revealed that the lack of employment, housing, community resources, correctional rehabilitation, and vocational training have the ability to challenge successful reintegration. This study recommends that an increase in transitional services be rendered to ex-offends, as policy and practice. The types of services that the study recommends implementing are first, a greater amount of employment counseling and second, an increase in linkage between the ex-offends and support services in the ex-offender’s areas of need. It is recommended that there is further research of successful outcomes.

This study was designed to investigate mid-life desistance from crime as a function of general mid-life change. Adult developmental theory postulates that major occupational or lifestyle changes occur during mid-life, more so than during other developmental periods in adulthood. Such changes are said to occur in conjunction with specific transitional processes experienced by the middle-aged male. The abandonment of a criminal career at mid-life is viewed as a significant occupational and lifestyle change. It is examined in relation to the postulated transitional processes affecting aspects of the life areas of work and social relationships, as well as health and psychological well-being. Structured interviews were conducted with a small group of former career criminals and a small group of currently imprisoned middle-aged career offenders. Career offenders were compared with middle-age general population men, and former career offenders were compared with imprisoned career offenders. Limitations of the research design and the sampling methods are also discussed. The findings suggest that middle-aged career offenders, regardless of whether they have terminated their criminal careers or are still imprisoned, in large part resemble general population men in terms of mid-life concerns. A comparative analysis of ex-offender and inmate responses suggests that while the men resemble each other closely in the area of mid-life concerns, successful change away from a criminal career at mid-life means that mid-life developmental tasks must be accompanied by relatively well-developed social relationships and the ability to gain control of drug and alcohol problems.

In this dissertation, I investigate how government policies influence an individual's decision to search for and accept a job and/or crime opportunity. Chapter 1 looks at how long it takes for released inmates to find a job, and when they find a job, how their incarceration rate changes. The purpose is to predict the effects of a successful job placement program. An on-the-job search model with crime is used to model criminal behavior, derive the estimation method and analyze different types of policies. The results show the unemployed are incarcerated twice as fast as the employed and take on average four and a half months to find a job. Combining these results, it is demonstrated that reducing the average unemployment spell of criminals by two months reduces crime and recidivism by more than five percent. Chapter 2 incorporates crime into a search and matching model of the labor market. All workers, irrespective of their labor force status can commit crimes and the employment contract is determined optimally. The model is used to study, analytically and quantitatively, the effects of various labor market and crime policies such as unemployment insurance, hiring subsidies and the duration of jail sentences. For example, wage subsidies reduce unemployment, the crime rates of employed and unemployed workers, and improve society's welfare. Chapter 3 investigates a market where wholesalers search for retailers and retailers search for consumers. I show how the timing, targets and types of anti-drug policies matter. For instance, supply falls if the likelihood of apprehension rises when a network is established. Alternatively, if the cost of apprehension rises for wholesale dealers when a network is searching for consumers, then revenue sharing is distorted. Such a distortion will increase retail profits and aggregate supply. As an application, the model provides an alternative explanation for why the United States cocaine market saw rising consumption and falling prices during the 1980's. Specifically, the ``War on Drugs" distorted the cocaine market and increased supply.

This thesis considers how potentially vulnerable populations are affected by various economic and policy shocks. In the first chapter, I investigate the impact of natural resource booms on crime by estimating the effect of the coal boom and bust of the 1970s and 1970s on reported crime rates. I begin by demonstrating that changes in the value of coal reserves affected local economic conditions and population composition, both of which have theoretical and empirical links to crime. The net effect is theoretically ambiguous. The estimates suggest that the immediate impact of increasing the value of natural resources is to depress crime rates, primarily through changes in property crime, but these changes erode over time. My findings are consistent with an initial change in criminal activity in response to local labor market conditions that is subsequently offset by selective migration. Individuals who are charged with committing a crime often find themselves behind bars while their case is adjudicated. In the United States, over 400,000 individuals are in jail each day waiting for their criminal cases to be resolved. The majority of these individuals are detained pretrial due to the inability to post low levels of bail (less than $3,000). In chapter 2, my coauthor and I estimate the impact of being detained pretrial on the likelihood of an individual being convicted or pleading guilty, and their sentence length, using data on nearly a million misdemeanor and felony cases in New York City from 2009 to 2013. Causal effects are identified using variation across arraignment judges in their propensities to detain defendants. We find that being detained increases the probability of conviction by over seven percentage points by causing individuals to plead guilty more often. Because pretrial detention is driven by failure to post bail, these adverse effects disproportionately hurt low-income individuals. While some public policies create burdens that fall most heavily on low-income people and households, the public safety net is comprised of programs intended to protect and support this vulnerable population. In chapter three, my coauthors and I examine whether programs that provide vouchers to households can continue to influence behavior even after the household leaves the program. Using detailed scanner data, we test whether benefit vouchers received through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) change household purchasing decisions and whether these changes continue to persist even after households are no longer eligible to participate in the program. In 2009, the package of goods available through WIC vouchers changed to include additional items and place nutritional restrictions on other items. Examining variation due to this package change, we show that the WIC vouchers change purchasing decisions consistent with the nutritional guidelines of the program. However, we find evidence of limited persistence post-eligibility, and that households exposed longer to the revised package are generally not more likely to continue to purchase these items after eligibility ends.

This thesis is a critical approach to the concept of fear of crime. It is not necessarily a call for an end to the study of fear of crime. From a genealogical perspective, the thesis first traces the proliferation of academic, governmental and popular interests in the fear of crime in three Western democracies; and secondly explains how this interest has affected both the subjects of inquiry and the very modes of inquiry themselves. It investigates historically the emergence of fear of crime as a set of discourses in the human sciences and in government and explores the ways in which these various institutions have imagined the subjects of their inquiries. It also discusses the ways in which fear of crime has become a discourse within popular culture and the mass media, and explores why gender is a potent signifier in fear of crime research. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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