Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-01-10T11:28:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Lisandra Moreira Martins.pdf: 2127909 bytes, checksum: d44158eaaec48676bf18e7b1704ab95b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-10T11:28:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lisandra Moreira Martins.pdf: 2127909 bytes, checksum: d44158eaaec48676bf18e7b1704ab95b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-12-05 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This doctoral thesis has the objective of examining recidivism in the context of constitutional criminal procedure. The latter has as primary purpose to protect the citizen based on guarantees and fundamental rights. Recidivism is an old principle in the Brazilian legal system, which has undergone minor changes throughout the history of the evolution of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedural Law. Besides acting as an aggravating circumstance to the penalty, it has negative consequences for the defendant in several stages of the criminal proceedings. In spite of having been claimed constitutional by the Supreme Court, there are many issues on recidivism and its application, which are, currently, automatic. Therefore, the analysis of this subject draws on the conception of a system devised by several scholars who point out the need to consider the whole in the first place and only then evaluate the isolated application of certain principles of law, and seek to change them. In this context, it is imperative to understand the criminal justice system and the foundation that should support it based on the Constitution of 1988. After the study of both the peculiarities of recidivism and doctrinal and jurisprudential discussions, this investigation questions the reason why it is kept applicable as well as its practical implications. Along this line, there is the problem of the prison system that reveals, according to some research, large numbers of recidivism with the manifestation of criminal selectivity and neutralization of criminals, implicit in the execution of the sentence. Finally, from the analysis of the Criminal Policy model adopted by the Democratic Rule of Law, the study will point out the need to change the recidivism principle in Brazil. This will directly reflect on the problem of prison overcrowding and the ineffectiveness of rehabilitation of the penalty. The final aim is to contribute with criminal proceedings so that they could be, in fact, an instrument that would perform a social function / A presente tese de doutoramento tem como objetivo o estudo da reincidência criminal, no contexto do processo penal constitucional. Este último tem como finalidade precípua proteger o cidadão, com respaldo nas garantias e direitos fundamentais. A reincidência criminal é um instituto antigo no ordenamento jurídico brasileiro, que sofreu alterações mínimas no decorrer da história da evolução do direito penal e do direito processual penal. Além de funcionar como uma circunstância agravante da pena, apresenta reflexos negativos para o réu em diversas fases do processo. Apesar de ter sido declarada constitucional pelo Supremo Tribunal Federal, muitos são os questionamentos sobre a reincidência e sua forma de aplicação, que, atualmente, é automática. A análise do tema parte, portanto, da concepção de sistema trazida por diversos estudiosos, os quais apontam a necessidade de se olhar, primeiramente o todo para, somente depois, avaliar a aplicação isolada de determinados institutos do direito e pretender neles alguma alteração. Nesse contexto, imperioso compreender o sistema processual penal e a base que deveria sustentá-lo no panorama da Constituição Federal de 1988. Após o estudo das peculiaridades da reincidência, das discussões doutrinárias e jurisprudenciais, será possível questionar neste estudo a justificativa que a mantém aplicável e suas implicações práticas. Atrelado ao tema apresenta-se o problema do sistema penitenciário que revela, através de algumas pesquisas, números elevados de reincidência criminal, com a manifestação ainda da seletividade penal e da neutralização dos criminosos, implícitas na execução da pena. Por fim, a partir da análise do modelo de política criminal adotado pelo Estado Democrático de Direito, o estudo apontará a necessidade de alterar o instituto da reincidência criminal no Brasil, o que refletirá diretamente no problema da superlotação penitenciária e da ineficácia da ressocialização da pena, visando colaborar para que o processo penal seja de fato um instrumento que exerça uma função social

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Criminology has a long history of trying to understand why people reoffend. People that are released from prison offer us the opportunity study the conditions under which some individuals continue to commit crimes and others do not in great detail. Although research in the last years have incorporated the context as a source of influence on recidivism, much of the literature has focused on attributing the explanations solely on the level of the individuals themselves. Taking this individualistic perspective as my point of departure, I take some steps towards incorporating effects of the environment and aspects associated with social influence and learning in explaining why people re-offend (after being released from prisons). Studying the Chilean prison system, I first establish individual factors associated with recidivism, then account for prison environment and characteristics, to finally attempt at accounting for larger community effects. This was done by analysing data from a cohort of offenders who served sentences in Chilean prisons. Individual factors associated with time until recidivism were analysed using Event history models. Then, multilevel models were used to account for prison-specific effects: the exclusive contribution of prison to recidivism. Finally, hierarchical spatial models were used to analyse how space can be associated with varying levels of recidivism. In addition to the effects of individual characteristics, strong evidence of prison-specific effects was found, which implies that individual propensity towards recidivism is not independent of the prison where the sentence is served. In other words, differences in prison settings have the potential to impact on the individual likelihood of re-offending either by reducing or incrementing the individual risk. Likewise, evidence of spatial clustering of recidivism was also found, which indicates that recidivism has also a spatial component operating beyond the individuals' control. The main contribution of this thesis lies in demonstrating that recidivism implies a complex system of interdependence between different actors and institutions, which needs to be considered to understand recidivism in a larger context. These findings have profound theoretical and policy implications, as they imply that the responsibility for recidivism falls not only on the offenders themselves but also on the wider context of the justice system's institutions and society itself.

The United States has a serious epidemic of mass incarceration and high recidivism rates. The U. S. must act on these high recidivism rates by implementing social services programs that help the formerly incarcerated stop committing crimes. The formerly incarcerated are being oppressed by a historic process that has continued to incarcerate and control them, even after they had served their time for their crimes. This project attempts to assist in reducing the high recidivism rates by creating an education-based transitional housing facility with a plethora of supportive services that will be open to formerly incarcerated individuals. This project sheds light on some of the problems that continue to plague this demographic group of people, while providing a possible solution to help reduce recidivism. The outcome of this project is a business plan that explains a procedure to help create a non-profit transitional housing facility that will be located in Palm Springs, CA. The steps of building this non-profit business are detailed in an implementation plan following this manuscript.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an extremely prevalent and concerning social issue, with limited current intervention and prevention strategies. Batterer intervention programs (BIPs) have demonstrated some small effects of programs in reducing offender recidivism, however there is a growing understanding that not all offenders respond similarly to batterer intervention and the problem of IPV persists. Restorative justice programs including impact panels may be an important addition to BIPs, but research is extremely limited on impact panel effectiveness and whether panels are appropriate for IPV or pose additional safety risks to survivors. The current study consists of a naturalistic mixed-methods evaluation of the use of IPV impact panels in the context of batterer intervention. Data collection methods include an ethnographic inquiry of the program setting and participant experiences, archival data analysis of offender responses to the panel (N = 287), and focus groups (k = 4) with survivors, offenders, and BIP providers to investigate the panel's impact on survivors and offenders and generate potential indicators of panel outcomes for survivors and offenders. Findings suggest that panel impacts on survivors include reaching new understandings, healing, and empowerment; panel impacts on offenders include connection with survivor speakers, reaching new understandings, and healing. Implications, limitations, and future aims of this program of research are discussed.

In Texas and across the United States, minority male juvenile offenders are overrepresented in juvenile detention facilities. Researchers have demonstrated an inverse relationship between levels of empathy and antisocial beliefs and delinquent behaviors in juveniles. Understanding this relationship is an important step in designing and implementing rehabilitative interventions for juvenile detainees. Grounded in social learning theory and the social empathy model, the current study addressed whether significant differences in empathy existed between nonminority and minority male juvenile offenders with felony and nonfelony offenses within a juvenile detention facility in rural Texas. A de-identified data set of 357 Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) questionnaires was analyzed. The data set contained only males ranging in age from 10 to 17 years. A two-way analysis of variance indicated no significant mean differences in measured empathy between nonminority and minority detainees, or between those with felony and nonfelony offenses. Results suggest that the site facility may focus its rehabilitative resources on broad empathy interventions regardless of minority status or offense. Results do not support targeting specific demographics for empathy interventions.

Prisons in the United States are full to capacity because of the revolving doors created by recidivism. African American women comprise a significant proportion of those who return to prison, yet most studies about women and recidivism focus on the experiences of white women. The communities into which formerly incarcerated African American women are released do not make things easier in terms of the potential for reoffending because of the difficult access to good jobs, safe housing, good health care services, and assistance with child cares services. Using Cullen's social support theory as the foundation, the purpose of this general qualitative study was to explore the perspectives and post-release experiences of participants while living in their community. Fourteen African American ex-convicted women, ages 18 to 55 who reside in a large mid-Atlantic city participated in open-ended interviews to further explore the social factors related to recidivism. These data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Key findings include that success is tied to a sense of self, most participants expressed a sense of gratitude for their success, and that family, friends, government support, and the effects of rehabilitation programs contribute to success in living in communities after release from prison. The positive social change implications of this study include recommendations to correctional officials to focus on strengthening opportunities for pro-social interactions with appropriate support systems including working with other government agencies to reach out to formerly incarcerated African American women for services that are unique to their needs and circumstances. These efforts may improve public safety through reductions in future crimes.

Recidivism is a growing problem in the United States that has contributed to prison overcrowding. In the United States, this is especially true for minorities, who have the highest incarceration, conviction, and recidivism rates. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore the relationship between race, recidivism, locus of control, and resilience. For the quantitative component, the Connor-Davidson Resilience scale (CD-RISC) and the multidimensional locus of control scales were used to measure resiliency and locus of control differences among racial groups (N = 126) on parole at a Fort Worth, Texas parole office. For the qualitative component, in-depth interviews of participants (n = 12) provide a context for them to express the challenges they face that may contribute to recidivism. Data collected from both the CD-RISC, and the three multidimensional locus of control subscales were used in a MANOVA analysis to find differences and commonalities among racial groups. The findings showed there were no significant racial differences among resilience and locus of control scores. However, there were noticeable trends revealed from in the in-depth interviews regarding socioeconomic status, education, employment, and neighborhood. Future research should focus on a longitudinal examination of resilience and locus of control, and on how factors such as education, familial involvement, and employment may impact an individuals' success or failure while on parole. This study may bring social change by alerting policy makers to the challenges offenders face, thereby creating laws that help change how the criminal justice system addresses recidivism.

Prejudice research shows that most psychologists focus on moderate prejudice in superficial settings, rather than extreme prejudice in real-life situations. The present study used an interpretive phenomenological analysis guided by social constructivism on 21 biographies to investigate how the authors voluntarily disaffiliated from their groups and altered their prejudice. The narratives were retrieved from popular and academic book and journal memoirs, digital and print interviews and articles, podcasts and video clips of members of closed faith societies who were socialized to resent outsiders, with their resentments turning into violence. The analysis used Willig's 4 stages: immersion in material, identifying core themes, summary of themes, and the amalgamation of the summary into themes. Results of this study indicate that there seems to be a turning point in which participants perceive the outside world in a different way. This change in perception may occur in members of closed groups through conducting critical analyses, reading source texts, and experiencing altruism from a member of the resented outside groups. Recommendations include that communication between outsiders and group members should reflect subtle, fact-based reasoning and manifest a customized approach to reducing prejudice. The study offers an original approach for understanding socialized violence. Governments and relevant entities could use this research to train invited outsiders of a cult or closed faith society regarding how to decrease the prejudice of closed group members.

Botswana has been experiencing high rates of recidivism and prison overcrowding, but the causes of these problems have not been explored. Thus, this qualitative study was conducted to investigate whether the denial of legal representation to criminal defendants tried in the customary courts is one of the causes of high rates of recidivism, prison overcrowding, or both. The main research question addressed a possible relationship between these factors and the denial of legal representation, and the study was guided by the punctuated equilibrium theory and the policy feedback theory. Data were collected through semi structured interviews with 10 released first offender prison inmates, 10 released recidivist prison inmates, and 10 professional participants from disciplines in the criminal justice system in addition to reviewing statistics and scholarly research. Data were analyzed through detailed description, categorical aggregation, direct interpretation, which led to naturalistic generalizations and patterns. The results indicated that the denial of legal representation to criminal defendants tried by customary courts appeared to contribute to both recidivism and prison overcrowding, which may undermine public safety and security. The implications of the study for positive social change include informing policy-makers of the need to reform the policy on legal representation to ensure that criminal defendants tried in the customary courts receive fair trials. The additional implications for positive social change include impacting rates of recidivism and prison overcrowding and enhancing community safety and security.