Criminology Research Council grant ; (7(I)/78)
This research is being jointly supervised by the Victorian Department of Community Welfare Services and the Australian Institute of Criminology, and an independent researcher, Dr Peter Burgoyne, was appointed to undertake the statistical and analytical aspects of the project. Dr Burgoyne has produced four major reports dealing with the recidivism of four groups of violent offenders who had been released from prison or youth training centres at least five years before the research commenced. A total of 662 men were studied. They had originally been sentenced for either robbery, rape, homicide or serious assault or for attempts at these offences.
The personal characteristics of the released offenders were analysed in detail in order to identify those factors, or groups of factors, that were associated with recidivism. These results are not summarised here, but the gross findings of recidivism rates for each type of offender are shown in the table below.
| Subsequent offence | Original offence | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robbery (N = 195) | Rape (N = 115) | Homicide (N = 103) | Serious Assault (N = 249) | |||||
| N | % | N | % | N | % | N | % | |
| Violent | 43 | 22.1 | 36 | 31.3 | 11 | 10.7 | 82 | 32.9 |
| Other | 80 | 41.0 | 31 | 27.0 | 20 | 19.4 | 80 | 32.1 |
| None | 72 | 36.9 | 48 | 41.7 | 72 | 69.9 | 87 | 34.9 |
From this table it can be seen that persons sentenced for homicide have considerably lower recidivism rates than do persons sentenced for other violent crimes. In the conclusion to his fourth report Dr Burgoyne has commented on this, saying:
From the point of view of protecting society, it would be better to increase sentences and parole supervision for men convicted of serious assault and decrease sentences for those convicted of homicide. While there are other considerations involved in making decisions about sentencing and parole supervision, there is a clear case for reviewing the allocation of correctional resources.
The breadth of the data contained in these reports will ensure that they are studied in detail by criminologists and others concerned with sentencing and correctional work. The final phase of this research will focus on the qualitative or personal attributes of those who recidivate and those who do not.