Homicide offender recidivism: A review of the literature

While there exists an abundance of research on the criminal histories of homicide offenders, little is known about their future criminal behavior. This review outlines the current state of knowledge regarding recidivism among homicide offenders. It addresses the dominant theories found within the literature in this field and the prevalence of recidivism among both general and subgroups of homicide offenders. In this literary review, several shortcomings are revealed which point to potential directions for future research.

► This reviews addresses dominant theories to explain recidivism of homicide offenders
► An overview is given of the prevalence of recidivism among (subgroups of) homicide offenders.
► The recidivism rate of homicide offenders is lowest of all crime categories.
► General recidivism (i.e. committing another crime) is rare.
► Specific recidivism (i.e. committing another homicide) is very rare.