Emotions and Recidivism: Exploring the Relationships between Dynamic Positive and Negative Affect, Age, Gender and Risk Categories with Recidivism Outcomes for Adults on Probation

There is a lack of research related to whether experiences of positive and negative emotions over time could be statistically significant factors for predicting criminal re-offending in adults. This project examined which types of emotional experiences (positive vs negative; activating vs deactivating emotions); in combination with participants' age, gender or re-offending risk category, could be important for predicting re-offending. Results have demonstrated that the activating negative, as well as all positive emotions are significant predictors of criminal re-offending, above the participant's re-offending risk category. This is a novel finding that indicates importance of considering positive emotions when assessing re-offending risk.