Session: The Ecology of Criminal Conduct: Policy Concerns, Systematic Challenges, and Individual Risk Factors (Society for Social Work and Research 22nd Annual Conference - Achieving Equal Opportunity, Equity, and Justice)

The Promoting Smart Decarceration Initiative (PSDI) aims to stimulate cross-sector applied policy and behavioral intervention research that will reduce the incarcerated population in ways that are humane, socially just, and sustainable. "Smart" decarceration will occur when: (1) the incarcerated population in U.S. jails and prisons is substantially lessened; (2) existing racial and economic disparities among the incarcerated are redressed; and (3) public safety and public health are maximized. This symposium features findings and policy recommendations from PSDI Research Working Group members whose research examines how punishment mechanisms that exist and operate beyond the criminal justice system, impose immense implications for continued offending, the likelihood of desistance and victimization, and (re)integration dynamics. In particular, presenters will demonstrate how mechanisms external to the criminal justice system, operate in ways that lead to increased rates of recidivism and relapse, for various groups under criminal justice supervision.

Symposium panelists will present findings that suggest that (1) higher levels of state-level economic strain and social exclusion, measured by affordable housing scarcity, public benefit usage, and state fiscal health, play a role in the likelihood that state legislators will adopt harsh collateral sanction policies over time; (2) neighborhood disadvantage, disorder, residential mobility, and ethnoracial diversity have exponentially greater effects on the hazard of recidivating for a cohort of probationers with lower individual criminal propensity scores, than those with higher criminal propensity scores; (3) for a sample of marginalized women under criminal justice supervision, the objectifying language of “offender” and “perpetrator” relegates them to categories of “the unredeemed” and impedes their ability to create new, healthy narratives for themselves that incorporate their strengths and potential for lasting identity transformation; and that (4) despite mounting support for “Ban the Box” policies, private sector employers' concerns about risk and liability still lead to criminogenic job search failures and exacerbate individual desistance efforts.

Each panelist will also provide evidence-based implications for social work theory, research, and practice, as well as recommendations for PSDI-related policy.