The Lie We Love to Tell About Recidivism
By Craig Stanland
"Once a fraudster, always a fraudster." It sounds like a simple phrase. But it's more than that — it's a cultural reflex baked into how we process wrongdoing.
We tell this story because it's easier than the alternative. The alternative requires us to believe in change — real, sustained, inconvenient change. It requires us to sit with complexity: that a person can cause serious harm, genuinely reckon with it, and become something different.
The data doesn't support the story we love to tell. White collar offenders have among the lowest recidivism rates of any offense category. The research is consistent on this. And yet the cultural narrative persists, because recidivism statistics don't make headlines the way fraud does.
What actually predicts whether someone reoffends? Stable employment. Strong social connections. A sense of purpose. Community belonging. All of the things we systematically strip away through the collateral consequences of conviction.
We make reentry impossible and then cite recidivism as proof that change is impossible. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy dressed up as wisdom.
The White Collar Support Group exists, in part, to interrupt that cycle — to provide the community, the connection, and the sense of purpose that actually moves the needle on recidivism. Not because our members don't deserve accountability. They do. But because accountability and transformation are not mutually exclusive.
Craig Stanland is a member of the White Collar Support Group and author of Blank Canvas: How I Reinvented My Life After Prison.
