Recidivism in Australia : findings and future research - Australian ...

Gender
Unlike age, the link between gender and recidivism is unclear. Of the Australian recidivism
studies, some found significant differences between men and women, while others found
no difference. In their analysis of West Australian offenders, Broadhurst and Loh (1995) found
that regardless of Indigenous status, men were more likely to be rearrested, and rearrested
sooner, than women. Their analysis estimated that 52 percent of non-Indigenous males
would be rearrested within ten years compared with only 32 percent of non-Indigenous
females. Moreover, males were more likely to be rearrested sooner than females – 17 months
compared with 27 months (Figure 7). Three other Australian studies have demonstrated
a significant gender differential.
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Recidivism in Australia
Cain (1998), and Carcach and Leverett (1999), studied juveniles in New South Wales.
They found that males were more likely to reappear or be reconvicted in court. Males
were also likely to reappear in court sooner than females.
Doherty (2002a; 2002b) used 12 months of South Australian police apprehension and Youth
Court data to measure the prevalence of recontact in 2000. The results demonstrated that
males were more likely than females to have multiple episodes of contact with the police
and youth court.
Buckman, Livingston and Lynch (2003) measured the proportion of juvenile detainees
in Queensland who progressed to adult corrections within seven years. The results
demonstrated that adult males were more likely to be incarcerated as an adult than females.
However, not all studies found major differences between males and females and their levels
of recidivism. Thompson (1995) examined the probability of reimprisonment among released
prisoners in New South Wales. Thirty-five percent of male and 38 percent of female prisoners
were returned to custody within two years – a difference of only three percent. This study was
supported by a more recent analysis of New South Wales parolees which found no significant
difference in the probability of reconviction or reimprisonment by gender (Jones et al. 2006).
Ross and Guarnieri (1996) examined reconviction and reimprisonment amongst a sample
of offenders released from custody in Victoria. The study found that approximately 74 percent
of offenders would be reconvicted within seven years. However, the analysis was unable
to discern any difference between males and females. The Victorian Department of Human
Services (2001) measured the rate of reconviction among juvenile detainees and found that
males and females were reconvicted at similar rates. Makkai et al. (2004) used survival analysis
to predict reoffending among property offenders apprehended by the ACT police. The multivariate
survival model found that, after controlling for factors such as age, drug use history, education
and Indigenous status, there was no difference in the probability of rearrest by gender.
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