The Psychology of Interpersonal Violence by Clive R. Hollin

Author:Clive R. Hollin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Recidivism

Do convicted arsonists continue to set fires after serving their sentence? Soothill and Pope (1973) conducted a 20-year follow-up of 74 individuals, of whom only one was a woman, convicted for arson in 1951 in England and Wales. At 5% of the sample, there was a very low rate of reconviction for further crimes of arson, but almost one-half of the arsonists did receive a later conviction for another offence unrelated to arson. This study was replicated by Soothill, Ackerley, and Francis (2004) by looking at the criminal careers of three cohorts of convicted arsonists in England and Wales: 1,352 in 1963–1965; 5,584 in 1980–1981; and 3,335 in 2000–2001. These later figures indicate a remarkable rise in the number of convictions for arson when set against the 1951 figure; however, this rise may, as Soothill et al. suggest, be due to more successful prosecutions rather than more offending. The 1980s arsonists were more likely to be reconvicted for a criminal offence after their initial sentence. The rate of reconviction for another offence of arson remained relatively small at about 11% of the sample. As Soothill et al. note, the rise from three recidivistic arsonists in the 1951 group to an annual average of 300 from the 1980–1981 group points to a problem that is on the rise.

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