NCJ Number
206443
Date Published
August 2004
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This report reviews research pertinent to the links between chronic criminal offenders and their multiple contacts with social service agencies, with a focus on Australia.
Abstract
Such research is important for many reasons, including the implication of a "revolving door" of less-than-optimal responses by social service agencies to the multiple needs of such offenders. Factors identified as related to chronic offending are age; gender; minority status; intelligence; mental illness, personality, and temperament; drug use; and family and community dysfunction. Other issues addressed in this paper pertain to relevant theory, initiatives for reducing chronic offending and the linked drain upon social service agencies, the costs of offending and the provision of services, and areas that require future research. This report concludes that although researchers agree that chronic offenders in Australia are more likely to be male, Indigenous people, and drug and alcohol abusers, there is limited data on the degree to which chronic offenders draw upon social services. The data essential for answering many of the most pressing theoretical, empirical, and policy-related questions concerning chronic offending and multiple-service users are to be found in records systematically collected by service agencies. Analysis of these data would be fruitful for future criminological research. This paper poses research questions related to offenders, practitioners, and policy. 72 references