OBJECTIVE The present study examined the relationship between legislative revisions regarding sexual offenses and the release decisions and recidivism rates of individuals convicted of sexual offenses. In 2008, the Austrian government passed a package of revised criminal laws aiming to decrease incarceration rates. At the same time, connecting recidivism risk to professional risk management efforts was expected to increase public safety. HYPOTHESES Given the strong empirical background of the implemented risk assessment and management efforts, we expected both an increase in the percentage of conditional release decisions and a decrease in recidivism rates. METHOD We analyzed the data of 2,610 male individuals convicted of sexual offenses who were released from the Austrian Prison System between 2001 and 2016 within a natural experiment using a prospective-longitudinal quasi-experimental study design. RESULTS The results indicated that the percentage of conditional releases of individuals convicted of sexual offenses increased substantially since 2008. Additionally, within the same period, the recidivism rates of individuals convicted of sexual offenses decreased further. CONCLUSION Even if both developmental processes are only correlational and a causal relationship cannot be examined, the present results supported the empirical evidence of the risk principle-at least if it is based on scientifically sound risk assessment and management methods. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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风险原则如何减少累犯：立法修订对性犯罪罪犯的释放和重犯率的影响。


目的 本研究探讨了有关性犯罪的立法修订与被判性犯罪者的释放决定和累犯率之间的关系。 2008年，奥地利政府通过了一系列修订后的刑法，旨在降低监禁率。与此同时，将累犯风险与专业风险管理工作联系起来有望提高公共安全。假设 鉴于已实施的风险评估和管理工作的强大实证背景，我们预计有条件释放决定的百分比会增加，累犯率会下降。方法 我们采用前瞻性纵向准实验研究设计，在自然实验中分析了 2001 年至 2016 年间从奥地利监狱系统释放的 2,610 名因性犯罪而被定罪的男性个体的数据。结果 结果表明，自 2008 年以来，性犯罪被定罪者的有条件释放比例大幅上升。此外，同一时期内，性犯罪被定罪者的累犯率进一步下降。结论 即使两个发展过程只是相关的并且无法检验因果关系，目前的结果也支持风险原则的经验证据——​​至少如果它是基于科学合理的风险评估和管理方法的话。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。