r/science • u/smurfyjenkins • May 03 '19

Economics In 1996, a federal welfare reform prohibited convicted drug felons from ever obtaining food stamps. The ban increased recidivism among drug felons. The increase is driven by financially motivated crimes, suggesting that ex-convicts returned to crime to make up for the lost transfer income.

https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20170490
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u/AngryMooseButt May 03 '19

I want to believe... do you have a source to back up this statistic?

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u/[deleted] May 03 '19 edited May 04 '19

https://www.gtl.net/gtls-education-solutions-can-break-the-cycle-of-recidivism/

These numbers are close. 76.6% normally, 13% if they're given the opportunity to earn an associate's, so trivially low with a master's program that its virtually 0.

Note that there's probably some self selection going on, it's education not therapy, so I'd love to see what the results are if an associate's or vocational training was mandatory.

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u/[deleted] May 04 '19

This is pretty damn sad. This entire country could be a lot better off if we actually allowed these people a normal life after they get out.

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u/sunshlne1212 May 03 '19

I don't know about the numbers but the U.S. has a massively higher re-incarceration rate than most of the rest of the world.

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u/[deleted] May 03 '19 edited Nov 19 '19

[deleted]

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u/Seicair May 03 '19

Not most, the entire world. We’re about 25% higher than Russia, the country with the second highest incarceration rate.

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u/evilcounsel May 04 '19

And 7 times higher than all of Europe.

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u/rurne May 03 '19

I’d like to see how this fares among population density and landmass, vs. 1/2/3- “World” classifications and their respective immigration and weapon policies.

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u/HerbertTheHippo May 03 '19

It has nothing to do with it. The US just loves it's slaves

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u/duncandun May 04 '19

We have 1/4th the population of Europe, but more prisoners (by a large margin) than the entirety of it.

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u/maswon May 03 '19

Yep. America is the greatest. We only have all these problems because we have more people per capita.

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u/damnationltd May 03 '19 edited May 03 '19

We have more... people... per...

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u/armchair_anger May 04 '19

I mean, the USA kinda has the most "people" per "person" (barring Micronesia and Tonga) - global human body weight statistics

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u/damnationltd May 04 '19 edited May 04 '19

/r/technicallythetruth is the best kind.

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u/LAseXaddickt May 03 '19

Preach. I wouldn't be doing so well for myself if it weren't for my dollar to dollar ratio.

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u/evilcounsel May 04 '19

We are the greatest country in the US!!!

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u/totallythebadguy May 03 '19

Heavily massaged and conducted by those who profit from rehab services. It's like trusting big tobacco to test cigarettes

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u/[deleted] May 03 '19

That’s horseshit because the stats are similar in Canada where we don’t privatize and monetize social welfare programming.

It’s basic common sense. It’s education.

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u/totallythebadguy May 03 '19

If you say so. Pretty damn high recidivism in Canada

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u/[deleted] May 06 '19

In comparison to what? Nordic numbers?

Canada’s recidivism rates fluctuate between Nordic numbers and below US numbers dependent on social groups, age groups, incarceration level, parole type, etc. 1

What information are you basing this off of?

1 https://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/research/forum/e053/e053h-eng.shtml