Recidivism as a Measure of the Effectiveness of Sanctions: Experience from the Czech Republic

Recidivism is one of the measures that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of sanctions imposed by the criminal justice system. The article summarizes findings from the most extensive research of this type in the Czech Republic. The sample included a total of 4,233 individuals sentenced to hou...

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Main Authors: Jan Tomášek, Jan Rozum
Format: Article
Language:ces
Published: Karolinum Press 2018-04-01
Series:Acta Universitatis Carolinae: Philosophica et Historica
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.karolinum.cz/doi/10.14712/24647055.2018.1
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spelling doaj-d08e5c32110047f092e68ee9723ce3482020-11-25T03:07:58ZcesKarolinum PressActa Universitatis Carolinae: Philosophica et Historica0567-82932464-70552018-04-012018292210.14712/24647055.2018.15988Recidivism as a Measure of the Effectiveness of Sanctions: Experience from the Czech RepublicJan TomášekJan RozumRecidivism is one of the measures that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of sanctions imposed by the criminal justice system. The article summarizes findings from the most extensive research of this type in the Czech Republic. The sample included a total of 4,233 individuals sentenced to house arrest, community service, suspended sentences with supervision or released from prison in 2012. Recidivism was defined as a new record in the Criminal Register in 2014. It was revealed that 48.1% of the sample re-offended in the two year period. While the type of sanction imposed on the offender had a negligible impact, the likelihood of a new conviction was strongly linked to gender, age and previous criminal career. The significance of previous convictions and their number was confirmed also by the multivariate analysis using logistic regression. The importance of these findings is high and the recidivism should be monitored systematically in the Czech Republic. However, as the research showed, it is impossible to connect the effectiveness of crime control with simply finding “effective sanctions”. Inevitably, the criminal policy must be understood as an integral part of social policy.http://www.karolinum.cz/doi/10.14712/24647055.2018.1Recidivismeffectiveness of penal policyalternatives to prisoncriminal carreer
collection DOAJ
language ces
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Jan Tomášek
Jan Rozum
spellingShingle Jan Tomášek
Jan Rozum
Recidivism as a Measure of the Effectiveness of Sanctions: Experience from the Czech Republic
Acta Universitatis Carolinae: Philosophica et Historica
Recidivism
effectiveness of penal policy
alternatives to prison
criminal carreer
author_facet Jan Tomášek
Jan Rozum
author_sort Jan Tomášek
title Recidivism as a Measure of the Effectiveness of Sanctions: Experience from the Czech Republic
title_short Recidivism as a Measure of the Effectiveness of Sanctions: Experience from the Czech Republic
title_full Recidivism as a Measure of the Effectiveness of Sanctions: Experience from the Czech Republic
title_fullStr Recidivism as a Measure of the Effectiveness of Sanctions: Experience from the Czech Republic
title_full_unstemmed Recidivism as a Measure of the Effectiveness of Sanctions: Experience from the Czech Republic
title_sort recidivism as a measure of the effectiveness of sanctions: experience from the czech republic
publisher Karolinum Press
series Acta Universitatis Carolinae: Philosophica et Historica
issn 0567-8293
2464-7055
publishDate 2018-04-01
description Recidivism is one of the measures that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of sanctions imposed by the criminal justice system. The article summarizes findings from the most extensive research of this type in the Czech Republic. The sample included a total of 4,233 individuals sentenced to house arrest, community service, suspended sentences with supervision or released from prison in 2012. Recidivism was defined as a new record in the Criminal Register in 2014. It was revealed that 48.1% of the sample re-offended in the two year period. While the type of sanction imposed on the offender had a negligible impact, the likelihood of a new conviction was strongly linked to gender, age and previous criminal career. The significance of previous convictions and their number was confirmed also by the multivariate analysis using logistic regression. The importance of these findings is high and the recidivism should be monitored systematically in the Czech Republic. However, as the research showed, it is impossible to connect the effectiveness of crime control with simply finding “effective sanctions”. Inevitably, the criminal policy must be understood as an integral part of social policy.
topic Recidivism
effectiveness of penal policy
alternatives to prison
criminal carreer
url http://www.karolinum.cz/doi/10.14712/24647055.2018.1
work_keys_str_mv AT jantomasek recidivismasameasureoftheeffectivenessofsanctionsexperiencefromtheczechrepublic
AT janrozum recidivismasameasureoftheeffectivenessofsanctionsexperiencefromtheczechrepublic
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