Essay on the Important Causes of Recidivism (656 Words)!
The personality of recidivists and social factors underlying recidivism being complex, the real problem confronting penologists is the proper identification of criminals for rehabilitative processes and assessment of the extent of effectiveness of these treatment methods.
Experience has shown that certain criminals are “better risks” for rehabilitative processes while others may not respond favourably to the correctional measure of treatment. This reflects upon the futility of reformative measures of punishment for certain categories of offenders and at the same time raises a very pertinent question as to why recidivists repeat crime even at the risk of facing severe punishment.
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As Kathleen Smith rightly comments, “the professional criminal that we are dealing with today is no poor, deprived, demented, moron. The crimes he succeeds in, speak for him. He is often a technical expert and a psychological one; he is clever, patient, observant, scientific as well as greedy and vicious. The most severe penalties which are awarded by courts are so inadequate and so ineffective that they leave a major crime so glaringly profitable that they invite people to make it their career”.
According to G. B. Void, “prevalence of recidivism offers a serious stumbling block to a too ready acceptance of the idea of readily achieved reformation”. He prefers to classify criminals into four major categories for the purpose of analysing the problem of recidivism:—
(1) Psychologically disturbed criminals who commit crime because of their mental depravity or emotional instability. Such psychopathic personalities should be treated in a mental hospital rather than a penal institution. According to Void, almost thirty per cent of offenders belong to this category.
(2) Criminals who are relatively unskilled less educated and possess proportionately low level of ability. Such offenders are psychologically normal persons but they suffer from inferiority complex and are therefore, not able to withstand the hazards of modem complex society. The ultimate result is that they try to overcome their shortcomings through an unrealistic self-assertion and lend into criminality. The appropriate remedy for such offenders is to develop self-sufficiency, honesty and competitive ability in them by institutionalising them in an appropriate penal or correctional institution. Since prison life is essentially non-competitive and provides for an intensive training of inmates to prepare them for an upright living in the society, such criminals can best be treated in prisons and reformatories. About forty per cent of the total population of criminals is covered under this category.
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(3) The third category of criminals comprises persons who are psychologically normal and possess proper education but their identification with law violators makes them criminals. Thus, persons who indulge in communal activities of political rivalry are often included in this category of criminals. In such cases, neither imprisonment nor reformation can serve any useful purpose. Only ten per cent of the criminals fall under this category.
(4) The fourth category of criminals consists of hardened criminals who are professional in crimes and have embraced criminality as a regular way of life. Such criminals quite often organise themselves into regular group associations and syndicates and usually carry on their activities in a well planned and organised manner. These criminal organisations generally operate at prostitution houses, gambling dens and illicit liquor shops.
They are habitual and hardened criminals well aware about the possible consequences of their crime, yet they prefer to chance their skill in criminal activities rather than earning their livelihood through legitimate means. Apparently, there are lesser chances for rehabilitation of such criminals as they commit crime deliberately in a calculated manner. About twenty per cent of the total criminals constitute this category of offenders. The organised gang of drug traffickers belongs to this category of recidivists.
They carry on their illegal activities in a regular chain which extends from the main dealer down to the large number of users at the base. Each one of them relies on another and the gang operates as a well organised network. Drug offences are largely consensual.