Responsibility and recidivism: An event history analysis of South Korean juvenile cases

While previous studies of juvenile recidivism have examined the effectiveness of a number of programs, few have considered individual offenders’ willingness to take responsibility for their crimes. This study examined how individual offenders’ willingness to take responsibility for their actions impacted their success or failure while on probation. We analyzed data obtained from the Korean Probation Information System, focusing on 906 juvenile offenders who had violated their probation. Using parametric event history analysis models, we found that the offenders who took responsibility for their offenses were more likely to survive longer on probation than those who did not. In addition, institutional assistance programs including scholarships and financial aid had a significant and positive influence on offenders’ mean survival time. In the final section of this article, we discuss the policy implications of our findings and make recommendations for future research.