Recidivism Rates by Country 2022

Recidivism is described as the relapse of criminal activity that culminates in the re-arrest, reconviction, and/or reimprisonment of a person.

The probabilities of individual retreating are determined by various elements, including the person’s situation before imprisonment, social environment and community, and events during their incarceration.

The individual’s capacity to reintegrate into society is perhaps the most important factor; many recently released ex-prisoners struggle to find a job, reestablish relationships with family, and return to routine activities.

Anyone affected by recidivism feels the effects: the perpetrator and his or her family, law enforcement personnel, the victim, and the community at large.

Recidivism is an essential aspect of many arguments, including crime rates by nation, the severity of jail terms, and whether social initiatives aimed to teach and help instead of punishing offer a better long-term answer than prisons.

Societies with high recidivism rates tend to have bigger jail populations, which places a heavier fiscal burden on society. It is estimated that recidivism rates might be as high as 50% worldwide, and they do not seem to be decreasing.

The difficulty of calculating recidivism rates throughout the globe

It might be difficult to compare recidivism rates between nations. Many nations have limited statistics on the issue, and even among those countries that do monitor it, the definition of recidivism typically changes from one country to the next.

In certain nations, only reimprisonment qualifies as recidivism. Other nations use the recidivism designation earlier, such as when a person is reconvicted or even merely re-arrested. Countries also vary in whether or not they consider some low-level crimes such as misdemeanors, penalties, or traffic offenses.

Additionally, follow-up times—the period following release from incarceration—are typically varied across and even within jurisdictions. If one nation evaluates recidivism using a six-month follow-up period, another uses two years, and a third uses five years, the data cannot be reliably compared.

Recidivism rates for 21 nations throughout the globe

Researchers Seena Fazel and Achim Wolf tracked recidivism rates for follow-up periods ranging from six months to nine years in their study A Systematic Review of Criminal Recidivism Rates Worldwide: Current Difficulties and Recommendation for Best Practice published in PLoS-ONE in 2015 (and revisited in 2019).

Recidivism rates that were monitored included re-arrests, reconvictions, and re-imprisonments. The most typically cited data were 2-year reconviction rates. Information for each nation researched is presented below.

Included are the selection period, follow-up time, rate, and whether the data presented is based on reassignment, indictment, or reincarceration. The likelihood of recidivism tends to rise with time, as can be shown in most nations’ data sets.

Australia

Austria

Canada

Chile

Denmark

Estonia

Finland

France

Germany

Iceland

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Latvia

Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

Singapore

South Korea

Sweden

United Kingdom

United States

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