Does increased post-release supervision of criminal offenders reduce recidivism? Evidence from a statewide quasi-experiment

Georgios Georgiou

International Review of Law and Economics, 2014, vol. 37, issue C, 221-243

Abstract: Approximately 4.8 million offenders are subject to community supervision in the United States. This paper examines whether a program that assigned different supervision levels based on a risk assessment instrument, had any effect on offenders’ recidivism rates. Using a large statewide sample of adult offenders in Washington State and a regression discontinuity design, I compare offenders whose risk characteristics are similar but who received different levels of post-release supervision. I find that offenders who received more supervision were not less likely to reoffend. The result holds for high-risk and low-risk offenders and for various types of recidivism.

Keywords: Regression discontinuity; Instrumental variables; Community supervision; Recidivism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C26 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:37:y:2014:i:c:p:221-243

DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2013.12.001

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