How many murderers who are sentenced to prison kill again?
Recidivism rates have been historically about 40-60% for all crimes since that kind of thing started to be kept track of in the early 1800’s. The rate has peaked and fallen off and on with each different method of reformation attempted, but has in every case returned to about the same figure. Murder is a little different, it is a fairly recent development that we even released murders, so the stats are less stable. It looks as if recidivism on murder specifically will be a little lower, but the chances that that same individual will commit another crime that involves violence and therefore the potential for murder is nearly 90%! Life imprisonment is no answer to the death penalty. Convicted murders sentenced to life w/o parole are also hovering around a 90% chance of committing another murder while in prison. Contact me if you have any other questions.
