A comparative study of recidivism factors associated with different offense categories in South Africa

Abstract

The dearth of official, accurate reoffending data and empirical insight into the factors associated with recidivism in South Africa, including the overrepresentation of violent and sexual offending in the recidivism literature can be argued to negatively impact the development of effective interventions and associated policies. The current study therefore explored the differences between recidivists (N = 202) from different offending categories with respect to cognitive-behavioral, victimogenic, social, environmental, substance use and employment variables. The findings indicated a significant comparative difference in deviant decision-making patterns by sexual offenders, justification of offending behavior by narcotic offenders and involvement in gangsterism and substance use by aggressive offenders. Economic offenses were also significantly more frequently committed by the participants. The study provides new insight into the socio-psychological understanding of recidivism and recommends that future research be sensitive to the local context but is also aware of the changing nature of African ideologies globally.

Keywords:

• Cognitive-behaviorism
• offending categories
• psycho-social
• recidivism
• South Africa

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 There is no similar study on the topic that has been published in South Africa since the study was conducted so the results of this study are still valid and useful.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matthew Cronje

Matthew Cronje is a postgraduate supervisor and lecturer in Advanced Victimology and Research Methodology in the Department of Criminology at the University of the Free State, South Africa. He holds a doctoral degree in Criminology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal specializing in the psycho-social understanding of recidivism in South Africa including crimino-victimogenic variables and program participation.

Robert Peacock

Robert Peacock, PhD, is the Academic Head of the Department of Criminology, University of the Free State, South Africa. Since the Apartheid years in South Africa, he has been working in the field of institutional victimization and victimology.