Characteristic of a Female Recidivist: Qualitative Empirical Analysis (View from Ukraine)

• Author: Serhii Ivanovych Khalymon,Ivan Hryhorovych Bohatyrov,Mykhailo Serhiiovych Puzyrov,Nataliia Volodymyrivna Kolomiiets,Andriy Ivanovych Bohatyrov
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211023919
• Published date: 01 April 2023
• Date: 01 April 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211023919

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2023, Vol. 67(5) 447 –470

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X211023919

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Article

Characteristic of a Female

Recidivist: Qualitative

Empirical Analysis

(View from Ukraine)

Serhii Ivanovych Khalymon1, Ivan Hryhorovych

Bohatyrov2, Mykhailo Serhiiovych Puzyrov3,

Nataliia Volodymyrivna Kolomiiets4,

and Andriy Ivanovych Bohatyrov5

Abstract

The article provides the characteristic of a female recidivist through a qualitative

empirical analysis of socio-demographic, criminal-legal, and criminal-executive

features of convicted women serving their sentences in the Chernihiv Correctional

Institution No. 44 by conducting an anonymous survey of 123 female recidivists.

The characteristic features inherent to female recidivists have been identified and

generalized and, on this basis, a typical characteristic of such persons has been

worked out based on the analysis of results of the survey of convicted women. This

category is mostly represented by middle-aged people from 36 to 48 years. This

person has a secondary or secondary special, vocational education, is unmarried,

without stable socially useful ties, and the existing family ties have deteriorated

after being sentenced to imprisonment, and by occupation she has a predominantly

working specialty. She is serving a sentence of imprisonment for a term mainly from

2 to 5 years for middle grave crimes, has 3 to 4 convictions, which indicates her

extensive criminal experience.

1Bohdan Khmelnytskyi National Academy of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, Ukraine

2Prince Volodymyr the Great “Interregional Academy of Personnel Management” Higher Educational

Institution” PJSC, Kyiv, Ukraine

3Academy of the State Penitentiary Service, Chernihiv, Ukraine

4Chernihiv Polytechnic National University, Ukraine

5Lviv University of Trade and Economics, Ukraine

Corresponding Author:

Serhii Ivanovych Khalymon, Bohdan Khmelnytskyi National Academy of the State Border Guard Service

of Ukraine, Khmelnytskyi 29000, Ukraine.

Email: halik_chernigov@ukr.net

1023919IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X211023919International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyKhalymon etal.

research-article2021

448 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 67(5)

Keywords

female recidivist, penitentiary institution, socio-demographic features, criminal-legal

features, criminal-executive features

Introduction

The problem of recidivism is relevant both for the countries of the world in general and

for Ukraine in particular. At the same time, recidivism exists due to its subject matter

under discussion, that is recidivists. It is important to emphasize that the relevance of the

appropriate categories consideration can be attributed to the following circumstances:

(1) Public danger, which is characterized by the recurrence of crimes by the same

persons after completion of the sentence (or in the process of completion of the

sentence, i.e., upon the fact of conviction) for a crime committed for the first

time. That is, there is a possibility of repeated infliction of damage to values

taken under the protection of the law on criminal liability, such as life, health,

property, etc.;

(2) The fact of recidivism indicates that the recidivist person has not been effec-

tively punished, has not been affected by corrective and preventive action (i.e.,

the goal of special prevention has not been achieved), which, firstly, indicates

the need to increase attention to the subject by authorized persons, and sec-

ondly, the development of additional measures concerning general social and

special criminological prevention of recidivism.

Having regard to the abovementioned peculiarities, a system of penitentiary institu-

tions (correctional institutions) has been built in Ukraine, taking into account the rel-

evant categories of convicts for persons of both sexes: male and female.

According to the current criminal executive legislation of Ukraine, as (Reznichenko,

2008) points out in his study, all women sentenced to imprisonment (except for women

sentenced to life imprisonment, those whose sentence to death or life imprisonment is

replaced by imprisonment for a definite term by grant of pardon or amnesty) serve

their sentence in correctional institutions of a minimum security level with general

conditions of detention. However, these institutions foresee a separate detention of

women who were first sentenced to imprisonment, from convicts who had previously

served a sentence of imprisonment.

That is, female recidivists serve their sentences separately from other categories of

convicts, which gives grounds to single them out into a special differentiated group

and facilitates the process of their research on the basis of the relevant penitentiary

institution.

Correctional Institutions for Female Recidivists in

Ukraine

The research was conducted in Chernihiv Correctional Institution No. 44 which is

under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine (2018). Adult women