Factors associated with recidivism or repeated serious offenses against persons or properties (“delitos patrimoniales”) depending on gender: a study from the personal perspective of male and female convicts at two correctional institutions in Santiago de

Abstract

The study inquired about the factors that men and women belonging in an intra-correctional population of both the “Centro de Cumplimiento Penitenciario Colina II” and the “Centro Penitenciario Femenino” tend to associate as more significant at the time of reoff ending. The sample consisted 106 persistent off enders (53 men and 53 women) convicted for off enses against persons or property within a closed system. For the gathering of information, two instruments were used: a semi-structured interview and an ad hoc questionnaire. The results so obtained indicate how those factors more associated with recidivism such as the “problematical use of alcohol and drugs”, “poor impulse control”, and the participation in “reinsertion-to-work programs”. There are diff erences depending on gender: while males point out at the latter and “poor work training”, women think that most signifi cant are “problematical use of alcohol and drugs”, and “lack of impulse control” at the time of committing a crime.