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46-47 Indian J. Criminology 46 (2018-2019)
Recidivism among Prisoners in Tihar Jail and Contributing Factors: A Qualitative Study

handle is hein.journals/idnjlocmly46 and id is 52 raw text is: 

46


RECIDIVISM AMONG PRISONERS IN TIHAR JAIL AND CONTRIBUTING
                      FACTORS: A QUALITATIVE STUDY


                                                 S. Manikandan*  and K. Jaishankar**

                                     ABSTRACT

Recidivism is one of the major social and legal problems which is mostly underestimated
and not appropriately addressed because the rate of recidivism in India is low (which is
6.4%  according to the National Crime Records Bureau). This study is aimed at studying
the factors contributing to recidivism, and the study is carried among prisoners in Tihar
Jail, New Delhi. Data were collected from the prisoners who are convicted more than once,
and in-depth interview method  was used collection data. The prisoner's interviews were
recorded, transcribed, member-checked and analyzed using Creswell's data analysis process
in the form of themes. The  findings of this study revealed that the factors contributing
for recidivism are: substance abuse, financial instability, unemployment and poor living
conditions, lack of parental care and supervisions, societal reaction and non-acceptance,
peer pressure and influence, migration from village to city, early school dropout, Broken
relationship/no relationship, lack of rehabilitation, reintegration and aftercare programme,
labeling and stigmatization.
KEY  WORDS
Recidivism, Repeat Offenders, Contributing Factors for Recidivism, Tihar Jail


Introduction
It has been believed historically that harsh
punishment   given  to  offender  creates
deterrence among   them  which  prevents
crime in the future. The founding fathers
of classical school of criminology Cesare
Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham administered
this thought  and  strongly believed that
deterrence works. It is also believed by most
of the common  people that justice can only
be sought through  harsher punishment  to
offenders. Reformation and  rehabilitation
of offenders came into existence only in the
recent past, and this is growing gradually
all over the world. However, on the other
hand, recidivism is one of the major social
problems   and  is growing  all over  the
world.


Recidivism  has become   a  serious issue
for many  countries, and even  developed
countries like the United States and the
United  Kingdom   have  a higher  rate of
recidivism. It is evident that many countries
will be affected due to recidivism if this
problem  is not  controlled and reduced.
Nolably, the recidivism  rate in India is
lower than other developed  countries and
according to Crime in India 2016 and the
current rate of recidivism is 6.4%. National
Crime  Records Bureau  (NCRB)  the rate of
recidivism in India has been decreased from
8.1 percent (2015) to 6.4 percent (2016).
The  low rate of recidivism is not because
India  has well-maintained  rehabilitation
techniques  or  aftercare programme   but
becauseofthelowconvictionrate.According


INDIAN JOURNAL  OF CRIMINOLOGY -   Volume 46 & 47 2018-2019


*Research Assistant, Centre for Criminology and Victimology, National Law University, New Delhi, India.
Mobile: +91-9971699043 Email: smanikbca@gmail.com
Pmkfrssor and Head, Depariment of Criminology, Raksha Shakti University; Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Mobile: +91-9099983193 Emruil: pro/jai@rsu.ac.in URL: http://www.jaishankar.org

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