Moving Home: Examining the Independent Effects of Individual- and Neighborhood-Level Residential Mobility on Recidivism in High-Risk Parolees

Abstract

A number of studies have shown that the residential mobility of an offender postrelease can significantly influence recidivism. Research has also shown how the mobility of neighborhoods into which offenders are released is an important contextual factor that predicts recidivism. Within the social disorganization framework, this study combines these lines of research by examining the effect of both individual- and neighborhood-level residential mobility on recidivism for a cohort of high-risk prisoners released on parole in New Zealand. Using multilevel analysis techniques, we found that neither immediate individual-level residential mobility nor neighborhood-level mobility was associated with recidivism after controlling for various multilevel predictors. A number of individual- and neighborhood-level variables were predictive of recidivism, including the number of parole conditions placed on the released offender, and the percent foreign born in their neighborhood. These results are discussed within the context of an increasingly eclectic and diverse country.