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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