RECIDIVISM AMONG DRUG OFFENDERS - A SURVIVAL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF OFFENDER CHARACTERISTICS, TYPE OF OFFENSE, AND 2 TYPES OF INTERVENTION

The determinants of recidivism are increasingly becoming the focus of public concern. This study explores the relative effect of type of int ervention, offender characteristics, and type of incident offense on l ime to a petition to revoke probation and time to a probation revocati on. Our analysis of intervention effects includes both parametric and nonparametric estimation procedures. Estimating five distributional fo rms of survival and a proportional hazard model for each measure of re cidivism, the analysis indicates no difference in the effect of a prog ram of drug monitoring and treatment, compared to drug monitoring only , for either of the two measures of rucidivism. In addition, findings indicate that younger offenders and African American offenders have a shorter time to a petition to revoke probation. We also found a reduce d time to failure for a probation revocation for African American offe nders and offenders with a prior arrest record. Our findings offer emp irical support for a reconsideration of the type of intervention effec tive in deterring offenders while on probation