The relationship between employment, counseling, and recidivism

Le résumé fourni par la source

Recidivism is an extensive, ongoing issue in the United States. Two factors that may be related to recidivism are opportunities for counseling and employment while incarcerated. We explore the question of how these factors—independently and interdependently—are associated with criminal recidivism. While prior research on these programs has been conducted concerning various types of counseling services, rehabilitation treatment, employment, and reentry programs, the current study hopes to address both counseling services and employment opportunities, and their possible interaction. We hypothesized that counseling and employment opportunities would both be related to lower recidivism. We also predicted that counseling and employment would interact to predict the lowest recidivism rates. Results from our primary data collection indicated that access to employment opportunities was related to lower recidivism rates and that access to counseling services was marginally related to lower recidivism. Access to the two services did not interact to predict recidivism, however. Results suggest a need for correctional institutions to include treatment relevant to employment skills into counseling so that the two may complement each other.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.