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When do Ex-Offenders Become Like Non-Offenders?

NCJ Number
228241
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 48 Issue: 4 Dated: September 2009 Pages: 373-387
Author(s)
Keith Soothill; Brian Francis
Date Published
September 2009
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study sought to determine at what stage ex-offenders with no further convictions are considered as exhibiting the same risk of reconviction as non-offenders.
Abstract
The study presents clear evidence that, if persons remain crime-free for a period of, say 10 years after the age of 20 years, then those with an offense record in their youth and/or early adulthood have similar but not quite equal likelihoods of a further conviction compared with the non-offending population. The issue of the value and retention of criminal conviction records for individuals who have been conviction free for a considerable period is both topical and controversial. The focus of the study was to predict at what stage the likelihood of an offender committing a future offense would be the same as a non-offender. Replicating American work by Kurlychek and his colleagues (2006, 3007), this study focused on England and Wales endorsing their findings by suggesting that groups whose members have either a finding of guilt as a juvenile or a conviction between the ages of 17 and 20 years, and no further convictions, converge with the non-offending group at around the age of 30 years. Figures, notes, and references