RT Article
T1 Juvenile Homicide Offenders: Persistence in Offending and Late Desistance
JF Victims & offenders
VO 20
IS 8
SP 1550
OP 1576
A1 Khachatryan, Norair
A1 Heide, Kathleen M. 1954-
A2 Heide, Kathleen M. 1954-
LA English
YR 2025
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1940116244
AB Although numerous studies to date have examined recidivism outcomes for juvenile homicide offenders (JHOs), little scholarly attention has been devoted to exploring the post-release factors that contribute to recidivism for this population of offenders. Given several rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court in the past two decades, it is important to understand why they persist in serious criminal behavior after release. The present study was designed to examine the influence of post-release factors on recidivism, using a sample of 19 male JHOs from a Southeastern U.S. state who were convicted as adults and sentenced to prison in the 1980s. These men were interviewed approximately 35 years after their original homicide offense, and official arrest data were collected on them. Eleven of the 19 sample subjects were identified as persistent offenders, which means that they had been rearrested for serious crimes and/or reincarcerated following their release for the homicide conviction. Qualitative analyses uncovered 6 dominant themes in the lives of these persistent offenders. Moreover, several factors associated with Sampson and Laub’s social control theory facilitated late desistance. The implications of the findings for prevention of reoffending among JHOs, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.
K1 Sampson and Laub’s theory
K1 qualitative analyses
K1 follow-up study
K1 formerly incarcerated offenders
K1 Desistance
K1 Recidivism
K1 Juvenile homicide offenders
DO 10.1080/15564886.2025.2515093