The Reconviction Rate of Federal Offenders

Canada Published 2002-2003:

Executive Summary

The recidivism of offenders is of interest to the public and an important indicator of the impact of criminal justice interventions. Measuring recidivism, however, is a complex matter. The various measures that are used have their advantages and disadvantages. For example, successful completions of day parole is helpful for assessing the National Parole Board's release decisions but the time period is relatively short and does not include criminal behaviour past the period of supervision.

The present study was conducted as part of the mandate of the Solicitor General Portfolio Corrections Statistics Committee to provide the general public and professionals basic statistical information on corrections and conditional release. In this study, recidivism was defined as any new conviction for an offence committed within two years of release from prison. The study samples included all releases (except for releases on temporary passes) from federal penitentiaries during the three fiscal years 1994/95, 1995/96 and 1996/97.

The reconviction rate for the first fiscal year release cohort was 44.0%, 42.8% for the second release cohort and 40.6% for the third cohort. These reconviction rates were comparable to other rates reported internationally and from other Canadian studies using a similar methodology. Nonviolent reconvictions accounted for the majority of the reconvictions. The violent reconviction rate was much lower; approximately 13% for all three release cohorts and the sexual offence reconviction rate was very low (0.7% to 1.7%).

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Summary

The major goal of the present study was to derive a standard measure of recidivism for use by the Portfolio of the Solicitor General. After weighing the advantages and disadvantages of different measures of recidivism, the Committee chose a new conviction for an offence committed within two years as the most acceptable measure from the choices available.

However, a choice had to be made as the public deserves a uniformly reported measure of recidivism rather than the confusing range of statistics presently offered. We hope that by outlining the limitations of the present methodology and the reasons for choosing reconviction as our measure of recidivism we give a common language to the correctional agencies of the federal government. ..more.. by James Bonta, Tanya Rugge, Mia Dauvergne, Solicitor General Canada