6.1.4 Case formulations

Question 1

What are the 3 parts of case formulation?

Answer 1

1) Offence analysis
2) Risk assessment
3) Application

Question 2

When should case formulations be used?
Hint- Drake & Ward (2003)

Answer 2

• Offender presents complex problems + treatment is unclear
• Unusual crimes/ lack of awareness of crime
• Standard treatments have failed (recidivism)
• Offender’s not benefiting from current treatment

Question 3

Describe the 5 rules of case formulation

Answer 3

1) Individualised- Focus on individual
2) Testable- Measurable so effectiveness can be assessed
3) Diachronic- From past > present > future
4) Narrative: Qualitative data’s easy to read
5) Ampliative- Does more than ‘describing’, analysis of offender for more detail

Question 4

Describe what happens in the first stage of psychological case formulation.

Answer 4

Pt 1.Offence analysis
> The crime committed is analysed by breaking it down into what happened and why
> Criminogenic factors- experiences affecting behaviour of the offender’s analysed
> Offence parallelling- looks at behaviour relating to offences, incl:
Feelings/int motivations
Environment/ext motivations
> It also looks at recidivism, what intervention they would benefit from, risk to themselves and society

Question 5

Describe what happens in the second stage of psychological case formulation.

Answer 5

Pt 2. Risk assessment & perspectives
Identifying reasons from psych perspectives/ explanations

1) Cognitive
Eg. how offenders process info around them- emotional rememberance if amygdala damaged, may forget feelings of remorse/ guilt/punishment associated w past crimes and recidivism occurs

2) Behavioural
Do all offenders have RMs who commit crimes

3) Psychodynamic/ Freudian
Oedipus/ Electra
> eg. Case of Ed Gein, idolised mother, made articles of female skin to ‘become his mother’

> Scenario planning
Considers worse case scenario where violence incr + best case scenario where violence decr

Question 6

Describe what happens in the third stage of psychological case formulation.

Answer 6

Pt 3. Application
> End goal= intervention
> Rehabilitation programmes should reflect how offender started, risk of recidivism, whether they have mental health issues
> HCPC guidlines help keep it standardised
- Must be jargon-free ( so non psychologists can understand eg police, probation oficers)

Question 7

Methods used in case formulations?

Answer 7

Methods
> Psychometric testing
interviews
> Secondary data from prev similar cases
> History of offender

Question 8

EACH-Evidence

Answer 8

P - McKnight et al (1984) supports
E - Found that case formulations were able to predict which treatments would be effective
E - Therefore demonstrating the accuracy of case formulation and its predictions
P- Berry (2009)
E-Says for Cf to be more effective, researchers need to decr researcher bias,do this by incr meetings between researchers and offender to better attitudes of staff and prevent negative reporting on offender’s progress
E- Strength, provides application for offender improvement w CF

Question 9

EACH-Application

Answer 9

P - Yes
E - Case formulation is beneficial to an offender as it aims to treat and educate them on their issues to help return them to society
E - And so may help to reduce likelihood of re-offending

Question 10

EACH-Criticisms

Answer 10

1) P - Limited
E - Some individuals may have a disorder that is unknown to them and therefore goes unreported, such as XYY syndrome
E - This limits the range of information the psychologist can access,may lead to misdiagnosis of offender’s needs + treatment plan, preventing rehabilitation/ incr likelihood of recidivism.
2) P - Hard to assess effectiveness
E - Formulation is not standardised and is based on the psychologist interpretation
E - Therefore we can’t make accurate comparisons between offender’s crimes/ their behaviour and potential treatments due to incr subjectivity

Question 11

EACH-How good?

Answer 11

1) P- High validity
E - Data focuses on the behaviour of the offender with treatability, risk assessment and recidivism
E - Therefore provides holistic and in-depth view of the offender due to the qualitative data gathered,can lead to effect treatments and decr recidivism
2) P - Low validity
E - Data gathered is self-report,relies on offender’s honesty +accuracy of remebring the crime
E - Therefore offenders may omit certain information abt crimes or behaviours eg aggression + violent crime due to social desirability bias