Prevention of Reoffending

Prevention of Reoffending - P. H. P. H. M. C van Kempeh

The need to prevent convicted prisoners and other offenders from reoffending constitutes a major challenge for both criminal justice and penitentiary systems. Reoffending rates are considerable (in many instances they are even high) while the issue is tremendously complicated. Rehabilitation - sometimes described as resocialization, reintegration, or treatment - is an important tool for the prevention of reoffending, but has clearly become less self-evident in many jurisdictions in recent decades. This volume focuses on the value of restoring offenders to a useful life, from the perspectives of prisoners, their family, society, the tax-payer, prison staff and administration, and victims, as well as from a criminological viewpoint. Notwithstanding these actual values of rehabilitation measures, their application alone may not be sufficient to prevent someone from reoffending. This particularly applies to high risk offenders, i.e. those who pose a substantial risk of further serious offending, such as sex offenders, terrorists, and members of organized criminal groups