The relationship of social support and self-esteem with recidivism among prisoners

Recidivism is repetition of criminal activity and generally is measured by the former prisoner’s return to prison for a new crime. The present study aimed to evaluate the relationship of prisoners’ social support and self-esteem with recidivism event. The crosssectional descriptive analytical study enrolled all prisoners with a history of recidivism more than once. Among this population, 72 prisoners who had a history of recidivism more than once were randomly selected. Fleming social support and Cooper smith self-esteem inventory were used to examine the samples. Data were analyzed by stepwise multivariate regression tests and Pearson correlation coefficient. None of the samples had good indicator of social support and its weakness showed a significant relationship with recidivism event. No significant relationship was observed between self-esteem and recidivism. The results of the regression analysis showed that social support was one of the predictive factors of recidivism, but self-esteem had no predictive role. Reduction in social support levels and the low level of selfesteem in prisoners will result in an increased possibility of crime commitment, and it can be reduced by promoting social supports and increasing self-esteem in prisoners.