The U.S. Sentencing Commission has recently published a new report, The Past The Future: Criminal History and Recidivism of Federal Offenders. This new report is the third part of a series that presents findings taken over the course of an eight-year period of over 25,000 federal offenders after being released from prison or placed on probation. It’s interesting to see that this report is consistent with the earlier study findings that the chances of a released convicted criminal to reoffend are closely related to the person’s criminal history point and category classification. The first report is Recidivism Among Federal Offenders. The second report is Recidivism Among Federal Drug Trafficking Offenders.

Highlights of The Third Report include:

• It has been found that a lower criminal history score equals lower chance of a relapse into criminal behavior.
• The Sentencing Commission found that there was a difference in relapse (recidivism) rates between offenders with a low criminal history score of zero and those with a criminal history score of 1. It turns out, one-third (30.2%) of offenders with zero points were rearrested; while nearly half (46.9%) of one point offenders were rearrested.
• The commission also found that offenders with zero points and no prior contact with the criminal justice system have a lower chance of recidivism (25.7%) than offenders with zero points, but with some prior contact with the system (37.4%).
• Also, offenders with one point criminal rates have a much lower recidivism rate than offenders with more serious prior convictions and assigned two or three points.

Download PDF:
The Past The Future: Criminal History and Recidivism of Federal Offenders