Seminar in criminology - Discussion 10 - Essay Example

Law Discussion 10: Criminology Q Recommendations made by the Rand Researchers based on their findings The Rand Researchers concluded that using objective methods to determine an offender’s propensity for committing the offense again was a better method than using subjective predictions. From their research it was clear that the use of objective methods was 10% more accurate than using the subjective techniques (Thistlethwaite & Wooldredge, 2014). Hence, the researchers argues that the best predictors to determine if the offender was favorable for parole while in probation would be to check if they get incarcerated for drug-related offenses. Q. 2.

Different ways to measure recidivism and potential drawback to each of these definitionsIn most cases, recidivism gets triggered when a person gets convicted gain or arrested. However, it cannot be determined chiefly by looking at the offender’s arrest data. The drawback is that not all forms of crimes get recorded in official police documents. Nonetheless, by measuring the time that has elapsed until the offender committed another crime is one of the ways of measuring recidivism and has no drawback.

Interviewing the offender to establish whether he or she has committed more crimes after enrolling in a probation program is also helpful. The drawback is that the offender may lie. Another way to measure would be to make charts of the new offenses that the offender commits over the amount of time that elapses. Lastly, making an analysis of the criminal events that the offender carries out such as violations, convictions and new arrests is also helpful. The drawback in this case is that not all offenders get arrested based on truthful causes.Q. 3.

Burgess found several offender "types" Which types of offenders were most likely to fail on parole?Burgess found that those offenders who had no favorable items and those who had nine unfavorable items were the ones who were not likely to succeed while on probation (Thistlethwaite & Wooldredge, 2014). On page 294, it is evident that Burgess found that they only had a 45% chance of succeeding (Thistlethwaite & Wooldredge, 2014).ReferenceThistlethwaite, A. & Wooldredge, J. (2014). Forty Studies that Changed Criminal Justice: Explorations into the History of Criminal Justice Research.

Boston: Little, Brown & Company