Recidivism

Recidivism is the return to criminal behavior or justice-system involvement after a prior sanction or intervention. Its measured rate depends on how reoffending and follow-up periods are defined.

Reoffending: The commission of a new offense by someone who has previously offended. Recidivism measures renewed offending, though some definitions also count justice-system contact.
Risk factors for crime: Characteristics or circumstances associated with a higher likelihood of criminal behavior. Risk factors help explain variation in later offending, but do not determine an individual's behavior.
Recidivism risk assessment: The estimation of an individual's likelihood of a specified future justice-system outcome. Agencies use these estimates to inform supervision and service decisions.
Criminal career: The sequence and pattern of offending across an individual's life. A criminal career describes offending over time rather than a single post-intervention outcome.
Algorithmic bias: Systematic errors in automated decisions that produce unfair outcomes across groups. Risk tools may reproduce disparities when trained on unequal patterns of arrest or punishment.
Arrest: The act of taking a person into legal custody on suspicion of an offense. An arrest-based measure can count suspected offenses without establishing guilt.
Protective factors: Conditions that reduce the likelihood of harmful outcomes despite exposure to risk. Stable supports can weaken pathways from prior offending to renewed criminal behavior.
Risk-Needs-Responsivity model: A correctional framework matching intervention intensity and content to risk, needs, and individual responsiveness. It uses reoffending risk and changeable needs to organize correctional treatment.
Crime rate: The frequency of recorded offenses in a population during a specified period. Crime rates describe population-level offending, while recidivism concerns people with prior justice involvement.
Race and the criminal justice system: The study of how race relates to law enforcement, adjudication, and punishment. Different exposure to surveillance and sanctions can shape measured recidivism across racial groups.

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