Main Findings

Dadashazar (2017) identified factors including previous incarceration, family relations, employment and education barriers, housing constraints and substance abuse to be associated with increased recidivism. Hanson (2017) concluded that prior criminal history and substance abuse were among the risk factors for multiple types of recidivism across multiple types of offenders.

###Recidivism Our team initially began looking into recidivism in Page County and the rest of Virginia. However, recidivism and even substance abuse data are scarce. Focusing on the factors of recidivism mentioned by Dadashazar (2017) and Hanson (2017) we used the incarceration and substance abuse data to visualize and compare Page County to other counties in Virginia.

The racing incarceration rates below show that rates in Page County are relatively high compared to neighboring counties and even the state average.

Taking a closer look at the comparison of Page County incarceration rates to the average rates in Virginia, we can see that a large gap has developed since the year 2000..

While the substance abuse arrest data may be indicative of many factors including law and law enforcement practices, the rural areas of Virginia can be seen to have higher substance abuse arrest rates. This may be indicative of growing substance abuse problems in rural areas which is supported by other studies in the literature (Pullen and Oser, 2014; Schoeneberger et al., 2006).

##References: Dadashazar, N. (2017). Offender recidivism: A quantitative study of motivational risk factors and counseling.

Hanson, R. K. (2009). The psychological assessment of risk for crime and violence. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 50(3), 172.

Håkansson, A., Berglund, M. Risk factors for criminal recidivism – a prospective follow-up study in prisoners with substance abuse. BMC Psychiatry 12, 111 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-12-111 Pullen, E., & Oser, C. (2014). Barriers to substance abuse treatment in rural and urban communities: counselor perspectives. Substance use & misuse, 49(7), 891–901. https://doi.org/10.3109/10826084.2014.891615

Schoeneberger, M. L., Leukefeld, C. G., Hiller, M. L., & Godlaski, T. (2006). Substance abuse among rural and very rural drug users at treatment entry. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 32(1), 87-110.