Appendix 3: What drivers influence an individual’s decision to reoffend?

This figure outlines four drivers that influence an individual’s decision to reoffend. The figure has an outline of a person at the top, followed by four headings in orange text with a plus sign (+) between each heading and a light blue box outlining more detail under each heading.

The first heading is “(Updated) Perception of offence” with the following text:

Changes to how individuals perceive the act they are considering committing again:

• Previous harm to others;
• Other moral beliefs and whether attitudes/beliefs have shifted (e.g., more guilt or remorse);
• Previous benefits to self; How easy it is to reoffend;
• How frequently they are exposed to the opportunity to reoffend.

The second heading is “(Updated) Perception of punishment” with the following text:

Changes to how individuals assess potential consequences for their actions:

• Awareness: How aware they are of additional punishment for re-offending;
• Fairness: Whether they perceived previous punishment as fair;
• Updates to their perceptions of the certainty, severity, or celerity of punishment based on previous punishment;
• Recency of previous punishment.

The third heading is: “Environmental factors” with the following text:

How social and environmental factors influence an individual’s decision to reoffend:

• Perceived risk of social condemnation/judgement (stigma) from re-offending;
• Group identity and social influences (exposure to repeated deviant behaviour).

The last heading is “Individual factors” which has the following text:

How personal characteristics and experiences influence propensity to reoffend:

• Socio-economic factors, or pressures to reoffend;
• Previous experiences or patterns of reoffending;
• Personality traits such as risk tolerance or impulse control;
• Buy-in to legal systems/institutions;
• Demographic variables like age, gender, and education level.

Under the four light blue boxes is a darker blue box that spans underneath the first two light blue boxes with the following text: + Updated cost-benefit analysis – Benefit of committing the offence vs. perceived certainty of being caught x severity of penalty.