Case Formulation Flashcards
what is case formulation used for
to make sense of a person’s problems and identify dynamic risk factors in the offending behaviour
reasons for case formulation
to decide which psychological treatments are most suited
assess what has influenced a criminals behaviour
used in courts to predict reoffending and safety in the community
to help other professionals understand the offender
what are the 3 stages of case formulation
offender analysis
understanding the function of offending
application to treatment
offence analysis
analyses the crime, offender and is a risk assessment of behaviour
includes functional similarity
criminofenic factors
offence paralleling
scenario planning
functional similarity
drawing conclusions from similar crimes and looking for consistencies
criminogenic factors
links which may have contributed to the offending behaviour
e.g. employment and drug misuse
offence paralleling
looks for behaviour that relates to the offence
can help to understand internal and external motivation for the crime
identified and compared to the new environment to assess the effectiveness of treatment
scenario planning
considers different scenarios and how the offender may react to them
hypothesises about the possible nature of kind of violence
Understanding the function of offending
understanding what compels the individual to commit a crime
look for behaviours and issues that tend to go along with that offence
application to treatment
to formulate the most effective treatment
to provide a report to the judge about treatability, risk assessment and likelihood of reoffending
Supporting evidence - EACH
E - Whitehead et al (2007) - case formulation did work with the case of Mr C as it kept him on track working towards goals once he was released and 14 months later he had still not reoffended.
E - case formulation is specific and helps the criminal to be rehabillitated
Applications - Each
P- Helps the offender be re-integrated into society
E - the offender is educated on their issues and can work towards reducing them
E- this decreases the risk they pose to society, so they can be reinserted into it
Criticisms - EACH
P - some individuals may not know they have a disorder, and therefore it goes unreported in the case formulation
E - 75% of people with XYY syndrome go undetected, and people with XYY have a biological predisposition which makes them more likely to commit crime
E - This limits the range of information a psychologist can access and the case formulation may not be as effective
P - it is hard to assess the effectiveness
E - case formulations do not have a standardised procedure and have mainly qualitative data, which makes them highly subjective to the psychologist interpreting the information
E - the element of subjectivity means we cannot make comparisons
How good is the research - EACH
P - low validity
E - it is mainly based on self-report data of the crime, which means that social desirability bias may impact on how they recall events ( Hanson and Wallace-Capretta found that positive treatment scores did not predict a decrease in recidivism)
E - this affects the accuracy of the data, and therefore the most beneficial treatment may not be administered
P - high valifity
E - the case formulation takes into account all aspects of the offenders life and has a hollistic approach
E - more likely to be effective than treatments which are based on one factor only
