Reducing Recidivism Through Counseling

Criminal Justice The author of this report has been asked to offer a series of answers to a questions. These questions. The questions center on the construction and testing of a theory.

In the case of these questions and this report, these questions would center on the idea of testing the theory that some short-term counseling of young offenders will counteract the notion that some of these young offenders are prone to have and that would be that their incorporation into the prison and legal system is a rite of passage and "no big deal." To test this theory, there will be definitions of the theory itself, the hypotheses that will be tested via experimentation and study, how that study would be carried out, how the hypothesis would be tested and the limitations that would exist as part of the study.

While testing the above material would not be an exact science, it can certainly be done. Analysis The theory in question would be as follows. There are some youths among the broader youth base, including the youth offender base in particular, that take a casual and accepting approach of being matriculated into the criminal justice system.

Rather than be "scared straight" by it or otherwise incurred to break away from any pattern of crime or violence, some offenders take an entirely too nonchalant approach to being charged, tried or convicted of a crime. Something that might show promise is the use of short-term counseling for "novice" criminals that have not yet committed any repeat or serious offenses. This counseling is seen by some as a way to steer minor youth offenders away from eventual life of crime.

The theory is that young novice criminals who are educated on why crime is unacceptable and how to forge a better life will be more apt to not recidivate and continue their life of crime. There will be two main hypotheses for this study and they are very inter-related. First, it will be posited that the young minor offenders who do not receive a counseling intervention will be more likely to engage in a protracted life of crime.

The other hypothesis is that those that do have the counseling will be less likely to engage in said lifestyle. In terms of how the study would be conducted, the author would find a group of offenders at the same prison. It is important to keep the subjects as localized and the same as possible. The subjects in question will be misdemeanor criminals only. This means no violent crimes but could include felonies. Examples would be burglaries, shoplifting, stealing out of cars and so forth.

To eliminate racial and other demographic disparities, the same age group and race will be present for all subjects. Since blacks are a disproportionate amount of the prison population, they would probably make the best sample (NAACP, 2015). The author would have twenty subjects ranging in age from 15 to 18 years old. Anyone engaging in gang activity would not be involved in the study as that would complicate things too much. Each subject will be offered counseling but with no strings attached.

Attendance will be non-optional but there will be no punishment for those that are not engaged, so long as they are not disruptive. After the counseling, the twenty attendees will be monitored in terms of whether they commit future crimes over the next three years. The three-year period would be needed because that is commonly the window used to measure recidivism rates (NIJ, 2015). This rate of recidivism will be compared to the other black teens in the same city/prison to see if the overall rate is different.

Those that do recidivate will probably do so fairly quickly. The control population will be another group of twenty kids who meet the same conditions as those that were studied. That way, both pools of kids are the same as possible and the sample sizes are the same for both. If the rate of recidivism is noticeably higher for those who did not do the counseling, that would tend to support the hypothesis. If the rate is the same.