Author ORCID Identifier

Armstrong - https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6003-0031

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-17-2018

Publication Title

Criminal Justice and Behavior

Volume

45

Issue

10

First Page

1507

Last Page

1526

Abstract

Studies find inmates who receive visits while incarcerated are less likely to recidivate upon release, especially when visits are from spouses and occur frequently throughout incarceration. Absent from these studies is measurement of the quality of an inmate’s relationships prior to incarceration, which may play a more significant role in criminal desistance than visitation itself. Longitudinal data from 205 incarcerated male and female adult offenders were used to test the mediating effects of visitation for offenders with varying levels of preincarceration relationships on recidivism. Findings indicate that quality of an inmate’s preincarceration relationships is more important in reducing the odds of recidivism than visitation. When quality of relationships was taken into account, visitation became nonsignificant in predicting the odds of recidivism. Most critical, a strong maternal relationship prior to incarceration was associated with a reduction in recidivism subsequent to a period of incarceration.

Comments

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Sage in Criminal Justice and Behavior on May 17, 2018, available online: https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854818772320

Reuse restricted to noncommercial and no derivative uses.

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