ROBBERY, RECIDIVISM, AND THE LIMITS OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM Richard Richard Wright, William J. Sabol, & Thaddeus L. Johnson

ROBBERY IS DIFFERENT… More likely to involve strangers More likely to be interracial It’s about taking something, not expressing something Richard

What can the criminal justice system realistically do to keep offenders who have served time for robbery from returning to prison? Richard

I grew up with shootin’ and fightin’ all over I grew up with shootin’ and fightin’ all over. You grew up with books and shit. Where I’m from, you never know if you gonna live one minute to the next. It’s like a war out there. People die every day. You can go to sleep and hear gunshots all night, man, all night. Bullets be lying in the street in the morning. Ambulances and police cars steady ridin’ through my neighborhood, man. Richard

Just get high, get high. I just blow money Just get high, get high. I just blow money. Money is not something that is going to achieve for nobody, you know what I’m saying? So every day there’s not a promise that there’ll be another one, so I just spend it, you know what I’m saying? It ain’t mine, you know what I’m saying? I just got it, it’s just in my possession. It’s a lot of fun. Richard

Just got the money to blow, so fuck it, blow it on whatever, it don’t even matter. Whatever you see, you get it. Fuck it. Spend that shit.… Easy come, easy go…. I ain’t trying to think about keeping anything. Richard

The Etiological Cycle of Robbery Financial Desperation Robbery Cash Intensive Partying Background Risk Factors Participation in Streetlife Richard

The risk of getting caught is just a reality. I know it’s a possibility. But I try not to think about that because if I dwell on it too much I may talk myself or scare myself out of doing the robbery. Richard

The Etiological Cycle of Robbery Financial Desperation Robbery Cash Intensive Partying Background Risk Factors Participation in Streetlife Richard

RECIDIVISM MEETS REALITY How do you reintegrate those who were not – and never have been – integrated to begin with? Richard

FIRST DO NO HARM Steps toward inclusion: Role of LE - take ex-convicts seriously as crime victims (e.g., sex workers) Role of Community Corrections - less supervision Bill

FIRST DO NO HARM Conflicts between enforcement & inclusion: Duel responsibility of LE (enforcement vs. relationship building) Fear of warrants Confidence in LE Street code Bill

Enforcement Focus of the CJS Robbery rates have fallen considerably from their early 1990s peak. Robbery arrests per offense trend upward. Robbery admissions per arrest trend upward. Bill

Decline in robbery Bill

Enforcement and Sentencing Number of robbery offenses and arrest per offense, 1991-2017 Robbery enforcement ratios: Arrests to offenses and new court commitments to adult arrests, 1991-2017 Bill

Enforcement Focus of the CJS Scale of robbery incarceration doubled. Over three decades, no evidence of change in recidivism of robbery offenders. CJS’s history of enhanced enforcement indicative of its role as an institution of social exclusion. Bill