Criminal History and Reconvictions of Two Sentence Groups Community Service and Non-Residential Periodic Detention (From Community Service Orders in New Zealand - Three Research Reports, P 159-204, 1984 - See NCJ-94156)

• NCJ Number: 94159
• Author(s): J Leibrich
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 44 pages
• Corporate Author: New Zealand Dept of Justice
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: Netherlands

Annotation

The reconviction rates of New Zealand offenders given sentences of community service or intermittent detention depended to a great extent on factors other than the type of sentence received.

Abstract

A total of 38 percent of the study sample sentenced to community service were reconvicted within 1 year of receiving the sentence, compared to 59 percent of people sentenced to nonresidential intermittent detention. However, significantly more of the people sentenced to community service had the kind of history indicating less likelihood of being reconvicted. Therefore, meaningful comparisons of reconviction rates required comparisions of people who were equally likely to offend before they experienced the actual sentence. People with the same likelihood of reoffending prior to sentencing were found to have the same reconviction rates following either community service or intermittent detention. Data tables and figures are included.