L12 - Criminal Offenders: Sentencing & Risk Assessment

Question 1

Describe the history of sentencing

Answer 1

• The mentality of centuries ago held that crime was due to sin, and the suffering was the culprit’s due
  o Judges were therefore expected to be really harsh and strict
• Late 18th-early 19th centuries:
  o Enlightenment philosophers put an emphasis on deterrence through rational punishment
  o Severity of punishment became less important than quick, certain penalties
• Early 20th century:
  o Focus on rehabilitation, based largely on Positivist philosophies
• Recent thinking has emphasised the need to limit offenders’ potential for future harm by separating them from society

Question 2

What are the 5 goals of modern sentencing practices?

Answer 2

1. Retribution
2. Incapacitation
3. Deterrence
4. Rehabilitation
5. Restoration

Question 3

Describe the RETRIBUTION goal of modern sentencing practice

How does it compare from then to now?

Answer 3

 The act of taking revenge upon the criminal perpetrator
 Predicated upon a felt need for vengeance
 Goal: satisfaction

Then:
• In early societies death and exile were commonly imposed for relatively minor offences
• “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” (quote from the Bible), often cited as justification for retribution was actually intended to reduce the severity of punishment for minor crimes

Now:
• “Just desserts” model of retribution: criminals deserve the punishments they receive at the hands of the law, and that punishment should be appropriate to the type and severity of the crime

Question 4

Describe the INCAPACITATION goal of modern sentencing practice

Then vs. now

Answer 4

 The use of imprisonment or other means to reduce the likelihood that an offender will be capable of committing future offences
 This rationale seeks to protect innocent members of society from offenders who might do them harm if they were not prevented in some way
 Can be seen as a nicer and more protective version of jail
 Goal: protect innocent

Then:
• In ancient times mutilation and amputation of the extremities to prevent offenders from repeating crimes

Now:
•	Lock ‘em up approach
•	Goal: restraint, not punishment
•	Electronic confinement
•	Biomedical intervention (e.g. chemical castration)

Question 5

Describe the DETERRENCE goal of modern sentencing practice

Specific vs. general deterrence

Answer 5

 A goal of criminal sentencing which seeks to prevent people from committing crimes similar to the one for which an offender is being sentenced
 Deterrence focuses on the future, whereas retribution focuses on the past
 Goal: crime prevention
 Specific deterrence seeks to prevent a particular offender from recidivism (repeat offences)
 General deterrence seeks to prevent others from committing crimes similar to the one for which a particular offender is being sentenced by making an example of the person sentenced

Question 6

Describe the REHABILITATION goal of modern sentencing practice

Then vs. now

Answer 6

 The attempt to reform a criminal offender
 Rehabilitation seeks to bring about fundamental changes in offenders and their behaviour
 Goal: reduce future crime

History:
• 1930s: Therapists such as Freud entered popular culture. Psychology introduced the possibility of a structured approach to rehabilitation through therapeutic intervention
• 1970s: ‘Nothing works’ philosophy. Studies on recidivism showed that rehabilitation didn’t work

Now:
• More recent studies are more methodologically sound and also slightly more optimistic
• Focus now is on ‘what works?’
• Evidence has begun to suggest that effective treatment does exist, however effect sizes are small
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
o ABC technique: Activating events lead to beliefs which lead to consequences – the client works to understand this relationship then reframes the situation to re-interpret the situation in a more realistic way

Question 7

Describe the RESTORATION goal of modern sentencing practice

Answer 7

 Attempts to make victim ‘whole again’
 Sentencing options that seek to restore the victim have focused primarily on restitution payments that offenders are order to make

Question 8

When are risk assessments conducted?

Answer 8

• Risk assessments conducted at major decision points:
  o Pretrial
  o Sentencing
  o Release

Question 9

Which types of prediction outcomes do we want to maximise?

Which do we wish to minimise?

Answer 9

Maximise = True Positive and True Negatives

Minimise = False Negatives and False Positives

Question 10

What are 3 types of risk and dangerousness assessment?

Answer 10

1. Unstructured clinical judgment
2. Statistical or acturaial assessment
3. Structured professional judgment

Question 11

Describe the UNSTRUCTURED CLINICAL JUDGMENT type of risk assessment

Example of Dr. James Grigson

Answer 11

 Decisions characterised by professional discretion and lack of guidelines
 Subjective
 No specific risk factors
 No rules about how risk decisions should be made
 Many studies show clinical assessments of risk to be poor
 Clark (1999) reviewed studies and concluded that clinical risk assessment is weak at best, at work totally ineffective
 Even experienced clinicians fail to predict future violence in cases with clear indicators, such as previous recidivism

EXAMPLE – Dr. James Grigson
• Nicknamed “Dr Death” or “the hanging shrink”
• Forensic psychiatrist in Dallas
o Used unstructured clinical judgement
o Expelled from professional association for claims of 100% accuracy in predicting violence
o Sometimes made these decisions without even meeting the person
o One person who was on death row, Grigson said was 100% likely to reoffend. Was killed, and then later found to have been innocent

Question 12

Describe the STATISTICAL OR ACTUARIAL ASSESSMENT type of risk assessment

Answer 12

 Decisions based on risk factors that are selected and combined based on empirical or statistical evidence
 Calculates risk by comparing characteristics of the individual to those of individuals for whom we know behaviour
 Evidence favours actuarial assessments over unstructured clinical judgment

Question 13

Describe the STRUCTURED PROFESSIONAL JUDGMENT type of risk assessment

Answer 13

 Provision of guidelines to help structure clinical decision-making can improve performance
 Decisions guided by predetermined list of risk factors derived from research literature
 Judgement of risk level is based on professional judgement
 E.g. Hare’s psychopathy checklist revised

Question 14

Define Risk factors, static risk factors and dynamic risk factors

Answer 14

Risk factor
o Measureable feature of an individual that predicts the behaviour of interest (e.g. violence, or psychopathology)

Static risk factors
o Historical
o Factors that cannot be changed

Dynamic risk factors
o Fluctuate over time
o Factors that can be changed
o Acute vs. stable dynamic risk factors

Question 15

What are 4 important risk factors?

Answer 15

1. Dispositional risk factors
2. Historical risk factors
3. Clinical risk factors
4. Contextual risk factors (or situation risk factors)

Question 16

What are dispositional risk factors?

Answer 16

Demographics
	Age
•	If you are arrested prior to the age of 14, you are more likely to reoffend
	Gender
•	Men tend to be more likely to reoffend

Personality characteristics
 Impulsivity
• Those we are impulsive are more likely to reoffend
 Psychopathy
• Psychopaths are 80% likely to reoffend, non-psychopaths are only 32% likely to reoffend
• And for violent crimes psychopaths are 35% likely to reoffend, non-psychopaths are only 5% likely

Question 17

What are historical risk factors?

Answer 17

o Past antisocial behaviour
o Age of onset of antisocial behaviour
o Childhood history of maltreatment
 Only includes physical abuse or neglect
 Doesn’t include sexual abuse
o Past supervision failure, escape, or institution maladjustment

Question 18

What are clinical risk factors?

Answer 18

o Substance use
o Mental disorder
 Diagnosis of schizophrenia or affective disorders
 “Threat/control override” symptoms: psychotic symptoms overriding a person’s self-control or threatening a person’s safety

Question 19

What are contextual risk factors?

Answer 19

o Lack of social support to help individual in his or her day to day life
o Easy access to weapons
o Easy access to victims

Question 20

What are protective factors?

How is this shown children/youth and in adults?

Answer 20

• Factors that reduce or mitigate the likelihood of violence
• Can help explain why some individuals with many risk factors do not become violent

Research done on children/youths:
o Prosocial involvement
o Strong social support
o Positive social orientation (school, work)
o Strong attachment (except with antisocial other)
o Intelligence

In adults:
o Employment stability (for high-risk)
o Strong family connections (for low-risk males)