Recidivism is defined as the relapse of criminal behavior that results in the re-arrest, reconviction, and reimprisonment of an individual.
Recidivism is affected by several factors such as the person’s circumstances before incarceration, their social environment and community, events during their incarceration, and, arguably the most impactful, difficulty adjusting back into everyday life. Many individuals released from prison have difficulty finding jobs to support themselves and reconnecting with family members.
Recidivism affects everyone: the offender, their family, the victim of the crime, law enforcement, and the community overall. Crime can affect anyone within a community. If a previously-incarcerated person is released and repeats an offense or acts out a new crime, there will be new victims. Additionally, societies with high recidivism rates face larger tax burdens to fund high prison populations.
Recidivism rates vary significantly around the world, and many countries have insufficient data. Rates of criminal recidivism around the world are reported to be as high as 50% and have not declined in recent years. It is challenging to compare recidivism between countries because definitions of recidivism outcomes vary from re-arrest to reoffending to reimprisonment. Within these definitions, countries differ in their inclusion of misdemeanors, fines, traffic offenses, and other crimes. Additionally, follow-up times (period after release from incarceration) are inconsistent between and within jurisdictions and vary between six months and five years.
A Systematic Review of Criminal Recidivism Rates Worldwide: Current Difficulties and Recommendation for Best Practice is a study done by Seena Fazel and Achim Wolf. The study collected recidivism rates from 21 countries around the world with follow-up periods ranging from six months to nine years. Rates were reported as reconviction and reimprisonment. The most commonly reported statistics were 2-year reconviction rates.
Information for each country studied is provided below. Included are selection period, follow-up period, rate, and whether the information provided is based on reconviction or reimprisonment. The countries that had data for both have two data sets.
Australia
- Selection period: 2009-2010
- Follow-up period: 2 years
- Recidivism rate: 39%
- Reimprisonment
Canada
- Selection period: 1994-1995
- Follow-up period: 2 years
- Recidivism rate: 41%
- Reconviction
Chile
- Selection period: 2007
- Follow-up period: 3 years
- Recidivism rate: 50%
- Reimprisonment
Denmark
- Selection period: 2005
- Follow-up period: 2 years
- Recidivism rate: 29%
- Reconviction
Finland
- Selection period: 2005
- Follow-up period: 2 years
- Recidivism rate: 36%
- Reconviction
France
- Selection period: 2002
- Follow-up period: 5 years
- Recidivism rate: 59%/46%
- Reconviction/Reimprisonment
France
- Selection period: 2002
- Follow-up period: 5 years
- Recidivism rate: 46%
- Reimprisonment
Germany
- Selection period: 2004
- Follow-up period: 3 years
- Recidivism rate: 48%
- Reconviction
Germany
- Selection period: 2004
- Follow-up period: 3 years
- Recidivism rate: 35%
- Reimprisonment
Iceland
- Selection period: 2005
- Follow-up period: 2 years
- Recidivism rate: 27%
- Reconviction
Ireland
- Selection period: 2013
- Follow-up period: 3 years
- Recidivism rate: 51%
- Reconviction
Israel
- Selection period: 2004
- Follow-up period: 5 years
- Recidivism rate: 43%
- Reimprisonment
Netherlands
- Selection period: 2007
- Follow-up period: 2 years
- Recidivism rate: 48%
- Reconviction
New Zealand
- Selection period: 2002-2003
- Follow-up period: 6 months/1 year/2 years/3 years/4 years/5 years
- Recidivism rate: 18%/26%/37%/44%/49%/52%
- Reimprisonment
Norway
- Selection period: 2005
- Follow-up period: 2 years
- Recidivism rate: 20%
- Reconviction
Singapore
- Selection period: 2011
- Follow-up period: 2 years
- Recidivism rate: 27%
- Reconviction
South Korea
- Selection period: 2002
- Follow-up period: 3 years
- Recidivism rate: 24%
- Reimprisonment
Sweden
- Selection period: 2005
- Follow-up period: 2 years
- Recidivism rate: 43%
- Reconviction
United Kingdom – England/Wales
- Selection period: 2000
- Follow-up period: 1 year through 9 years
- Recidivism rate: 46%/59%/66%/70%/72%/74%/76%/77%/78%
- Reconviction
United Kingdom – England/Wales
- Selection period: 2013
- Follow-up period: 1 year
- Recidivism rate: 45%
- Reconviction
United Kingdom – Scotland
- Selection period: 2009-2019
- Follow-up period: 1
- Recidivism rate: 46%
- Reconviction
United Kingdom – Northern Ireland
- Selection period: 2005
- Follow-up period: 6 months/1 year/2 years
- Recidivism rate: 9%/25%/47%
- Reconviction
United States
- Selection period: 2005-2010
- Follow-up period: 6 months/1 year/2 years/3 years/4 years/5 years
- Recidivism rate: 13%/23%/36%/45%/51%/55%
- Reconviction
United States
- Selection period: 2005-2010
- Follow-up period: 6 months/1 year/2 years/3 years/4 years/5 years
- Recidivism rate: 10%/17%/29%/36%/41%.45%
- Reimprisonment