Research finds recidivism on the rise in the State
Retributive justice system not helping in preventing re-offending behaviour: study
Retributive justice system and correctional institutions are neither reforming the offending behaviour of criminals nor preventing recidivism in Tamil Nadu, a research by the University of Madras has revealed.
The study, conducted by the Department of Criminology, found that habitual offenders took to committing crimes when they were children or young adults, and continued doing so for a long time. A post-graduate student Nallapu Neeharika reported last year that of the 173 property offenders, including 71 convicts, lodged in various prisons across the State, 33% of the respondents belonged to the 21-25 age group and 21%, to the 26-30 age bracket; 59% of the convicts/accused had committed theft – stealing cash or snatching gold chains/mobile phones.
Among the 71 convicts, as many as 55 had previously committed property offences. The number of habitual offenders among under-trial prisoners was also high. Of a total of 157 cases of recidivism, 46% had committed property crimes on more than 10 occasions, while 38% had history of two to four cases.
“Of the 70 respondents who committed the offences more than ten times, eight said they had certainly committed the crime at least 200 times. Another respondent answered that he had been involved in over 300 mobile phone-snatching cases. Shockingly, of the 55 convicts, 51 were previously detained in prisons,” says M. Srinivasan, Professor, Department of Criminology, who directly supervised the research. Another post-graduate student, P. Sharon, who did the profiling of 100 inmates lodged in one of the central prisons in March-April this year found that 81% of them were charged with theft, and other offences such as extortion and forgery constituted only a small proportion.
Despite commencement of trial after the filing of charge-sheet, many accused persons continued to stay as under-trials for a considerably longer period. It was evident from the results that 37% of the total respondents continued to stay as under-trials for over 90 days. Another 37% were in prison for 31-90 days.
Wondering what purpose would it serve if these accused persons were kept in prisons as under-trials for such a long period of time, given that there is a provision to release them on bail for offences such as theft, Dr. Srinivasan said the negative impact of imprisonment would be significantly high.
“Longer the stay in prison, the greater the negative impact. The study has revealed that the instances of recidivism is significantly high, especially among property offenders. Most of them were detained in various prisons. The correctional institutions like central prison or special homes/observation homes have done little to correct them. these institutions have hardened them to continue their criminal career,” he said.
Correctional institutions might have focussed on rehabilitating the habitual offenders who started their criminal activities at a young age. “But it appears that the purpose was not served. Due to lack of resources, correctional institutions, including prisons, are unable to implement rehabilitation programs effectively.”
Dr. Srinivasan said the results were not an indicator of the performance or efficiency of correctional institutions in Tamil Nadu. The negative impact of detention or confinement was a global phenomenon.
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