Geshina, Zaihairul & Nor Hafizah (2013) 1 CONTEXTUALISING INSTITUTIONALISED PREVENTION OF RECIDIVISM AMONG MALAYSIAN PETTY CRIMINALS GESHINA A Mat Saat* 1 , ZAIHAIRUL Idrus 1 and NOR HAFIZAH Nor Hamid 1 *Corresponding author 1 Forensic Science Programme, Universiti Sains Malaysia Health Campus, Kubang Kerian 16150 Kelantan Malaysia ABSTRACT Currently, Malaysian crime recidivism efforts are largely prison initiated. The practice is to incarcerate petty criminals for a stipulated time and enforcing offenders to undergo an institutionalised character strengthening programme covering religious or moral education and vocational training. Evidence suggests that such efforts do not reduce recidivism and may equip petty criminals with knowledge and skills to better carry out crimes. A review of current institutionalised programmes indicates that underlying psychological variables that may lead to recidivism are not addressed. This cross-sectional study compares a group of 191 incarcerated male prisoners and 392 male members of the public using a test battery representing nine psychological scales: aggression, self-discipline, morality, excitement seeking, anxiety, intrinsic motivation, caution, intellect and empathy. The findings indicate differences between normal and prison populations, implying that contextualising institutionalised recidivism programmes according to underlying psychological profiles are important in order to reduce recidivism rates. The findings are discussed in relation to psychological profiles of petty criminals. Keywords: crime recidivism, petty criminals, psychological profiles 1.0 Introduction A trend analysis of the Malaysian Crime Index between 2007 and 2011 indicate that specific types of crime consistently dominant (JSJ KPN (PR) 129/3, 2012). The dominant crimes were vehicle thefts, thefts and house-breaking. The most common crimes between 2007 and 2011 were motorcar and motorcycle thefts totalling 73,294 and 297,578 cases respectively. These figures averaged to 14,659 cases of motorcar thefts and 59,516 motorcycle thefts per year. In total, there were 34,537 reported robberies averaging to 6,907 incidents per year. There were 188,173 incidents of thefts from dwellings averaging to 37,635 annually. Within the five years, there were 167,442 house-breaking incidents averaging to 33,488 cases reported per year. In comparison, there were 2,667 murders within the same time period, with an annual average of 533 incidents. Incidents of reported sexual crimes averaged to 3,364 incidents per year. As for gang robbery involving fire-arms, on average there were 691 incidents per year between 2007 and 2011. Related to the consistently high rates of petty crimes is the likelihood of offences committed by the same person. Prison records indicate that most of the petty crimes were committed by a minority of repeat offenders (Malaysia Department of Prisons, 2013). Central to the prevention of recidivism is the development of corrective behaviours and as a consequence, deflect or dissuade further offending. The objective behind institutionalised character strengthening programmes is to educate offenders on the repercussions and negative outcomes of their crimes as well as provide them with a structured environment to learn skills that they can use in order to make a decent living once released from prisoner.