Lecture 10: Pre-trial, Community Supervision and Desistance

Question 1

How do risk pretrial risk assessment instruments differ from general recidivism risk instruments?

Answer 1

Where it’s different is it has fail to appear; the element of does this person have a prior history of failing to appear? When given bail did they not show up? These factors are weighted heavily. The inclusion of Canadian citizenship and home ownership (as an element of community stability) are also different, the rest of the items assessed on the PTRA bear a striking similarity with general recidivism risk instruments.

Question 2

What is the empirical research evidence regarding pretrial risk assessment? What 2 outcomes do they attempt to predict? Name a pretrial risk instrument.

Answer 2

The PTRA (pre-trial risk assessment). They attempt to predict fail to appear or any arrests for new violent offences. The PTRA has good predictive accuracy with AUC’s around .70.

Question 3

What 3 reasons were provided for the importance of pretrial risk assessment research?

Answer 3

• Concern for constitutional protections, transparency and accountability, and public safety.
• Inability to obtain bail may contribute to high rates of plea bargains.
• Releasing people who commit crimes while on bail raises concerns regarding public safety and liability to civil suits.

Question 4

What is Core Correctional Practice? What are the 2 main features of CCP? Name at least 1 CCP curriculum.

Answer 4

-Core correctional practice is the language used to describe how to apply evidence-based practice (EBP) to improve community-based supervision to facilitate client outcome. Historically, what can I do to help you not screw up vs. now, what can I do to facilitate your success. The two main feature of CCP are relationships (Do we have the right people) and structuring skills (Do they know how to manage their time). An example of a CCP curriculum is effective practice in correctional settings (EPICS I & II),
Skills for Offender Assessment and Responsivity in New Goals (Soaring-2), Strategic Training Initiative in Community Supervision (STICS), Staff Training Aimed at Reducing Re-arrest (STARR), New Generations (NIC)

Question 5

Relative to general community supervision, what is the effectiveness of CCP? What is the importance of using multiple CCP skills? What impact does mentoring or observing have on client outcome?

Answer 5

-Using multiple CCP skills increases effectiveness. Three or more had an effect size of .35. Leads to about 13% recidivism reduction for offenders supervised by trained PO’s. Low relationship/low structure only had a 5% reduction in recidivism, low relationship high structure had a 25% reduction in recidivism, high relationship/low structure had a 26% reduction in recidivism and high relationship and high structure have a 36% reduction in recidivism, which illustrates the importance of both structure and relationship skills. Observations improve skills, in fact about 1/3 or ½ actually improved when the P.O. was mentored by someone who sat in. Use of skills increases with number of observations. More coaching = better use of skills.

Question 6

What is the impact of spending either too little time with clients during sessions or too much time focusing on conditions versus change?

Answer 6

When officers spent less than 15 minutes discussing only conditions the recidivism rate, after controlling for risk, was 18.9%, but the recidivism rate was 42.3% when more than 15 minutes were allocated to just discussing the conditions of the supervision

Question 7

What does the age-crime curve tell us?

Answer 7

That age impacts the desistance of crime. Criminal behaviour peaks in adolescence and there is a sharp decline after age 30. More specifically, Decline in physical strength, Lost contact with antisocial peers, Maturation, Change in social/institutional environment, Cognitive changes/changes in subjective interpretation of environment. People may also learn to evade detection with age, switch from antisocial illegal activities to antisocial legal activities.

Question 8

What is a good criticism of the marriage-desistance research? Is marriage sufficient to explain desistance?

Answer 8

• Researchers have questioned the correlational nature of the research done on marriage, is it marriage that predicts desistance from crime or rather is it the factors/qualities that predict being a good partner (e.g., less impulsive, less ego centric). Marriage on it’s own, is not sufficient to explain desistance. Simply being married does not predict desistance, rather stability and quality of the marriage are key.

Question 9

What is the average duration of a crime career?

Answer 9

Seems to be a sharp decline after age 30, it peaks in adolescence. Adult criminal careers may last from 6-17 years, however there is a wide variation as one study found 4-30 years.

Question 10

Is desistance from crime more a process or instantaneous event?

Answer 10

• Desistance is a process more than just cessation, there is primary (first year) and secondary desistance (after 2 years). No accepted length of time for how long it takes to desist.

Question 11

In the transition of offender change that was presented, what internal and external factors are related to crime desistance?

Answer 11

• The internal factors: Identity, Expectations Investment in Relationships and Employment
• The external factors: Correctional programs, CCP/Supervision, Social capital (Aftercare, Employment and Accommodation)

Question 12

What are the guidelines for courts when making pretrial decisions?

Answer 12

Make pretrial decisions in a manner that “reasonably assures” that released defendants make all future court appearances and not threaten community safety.

Question 13

What is the public safety assessment?

Answer 13

• Multisite, national initiative to standardize and validate a statistical pretrial risk assessment instrument.
• factors include: Pending charge at time of the offence, Prior misdemeanour conviction, Prior felony conviction, Prior violent conviction, Prior FTA in past 2 years, prior sentence to incarceration

Question 14

What are the effective staff characteristics for CCP?

Answer 14

openess, warmth, enthuiasm, non-blaming, interested, caring and engaging

Question 15

What are the effective structure skills for staff using CCP?

Answer 15

• structured
• active modelling
• problem-solving
• reinforcement (effective disapproval)
• directive (effective use of authority)

Question 16

What is evidence-based supervision?

Answer 16

• Using risk and needs assessments to determine appropriate levels of treatment and controls
• Working to build offender engagement in supervision/treatment and motivation to change
• Involving offenders in the case planning process
• Teaching offenders how to recognize and manage their triggers (offence chain)

Question 17

What is the PIC-R theory and how does it relate to crime desistance?

Answer 17

• Distal factors
• Associates, values/beliefs/emotions, and immediate situation
• Definition of the situation (balance rewards and costs)
• criminal behaviour

Question 18

What influences offender change and what percentage of influence does each influence have?

Answer 18

Treatment model (15%)
Client factors (40%)
Therapeutic alliance (30%)
Expectancy/hope (15%)

Question 19

What is the burn out explanation for desistance?

Answer 19

Physical ageing

• 50% of active offenders believed they were in worse physical condition at time of interview compared to 5 years prior
• 20% of desisting offenders endorsed this belief
• Many ex-offenders felt they were in better condition due to abstinence from drugs

Question 20

What is the genius-age link for desitance?

Answer 20

Scientific productivity fades rapidly with age

Most significant contributions occur during the five years around age 30 (artists, jazz)

Question 21

What is the evolutionary process explanation for desistance?

Answer 21

Competitive effort

• Leads to productivity of different kinds
• Increases one’s reproductive success

Question 22

What are the different trajectories for desistance in the curve?

Answer 22

• research on crime prevalence at the individual level shows that the average population tendencies do not fit every offender. Nagin et al found individual offenders fit one of three groups – criminal behavior limited to adolescence, a high level of relatively steady criminal behavior, and a low level of relatively steady criminal behavior
• also fourth category: late onset

Question 23

What are promotive factors vs. protective factors?

Answer 23

Promotive says that these strengths help across all risk groups, whereas protective only works for high risk offenders

Question 24

Is desistance the reverse of risk?

Answer 24

• Desistance cannot occur without history of crime
• Early criminal history variables predict early adult offending, but lose predictive power
• Variation in criminal career cannot be explained entirely by pre-criminal individual differences
• Offenders report different risk/desistance factors
• additional variables are needed to understand desistance

Question 25

What are the strengths that predict a change toward desistance?

Answer 25

Adult Opportunities/Variables:

• Substance recovery
• Stable employment
• Stable marriage
• Shifts in thinking/beliefs

Question 26

Substance abuse vs. desistance

Answer 26

• substance abuse interacted with patterns of antisocial behavior in two ways: 1) men with substance abuse as early as adolescence tended to begin adulthood with relatively high levels of antisocial behavior – as desistance approached, they had a stronger pattern to change. 2) In addition, men with substance abuse in the adult years showed antisocial behavior long after their pattern would predict the time for desistance had come (they should have already desisted according to their pattern but they hadn’t yet because of substance use)
• Thus, substance abuse accelerates antisocial behavior when pattern is escalation and hinders desistance when pattern is deceleration

Question 27

Marriage and desistance

Answer 27

• Differential Association: Disassociation with antisocial peers
• Social Control Theory: Stakes in conformity
• Quality of Marital Attachment: Relationship quality + Only enduring marriages associated with decreases in crime
• however traits that predict offending are not attractive to romantic partners which has policy implications such as teaching social skills needed to sustain relationships, encouraging commitment, and encouraging children to consider the benefits of marriage over other partnerships

Question 28

So what is needed for desistance?

Answer 28

• Giving up crime – doesn’t occur in a vacuum
• Often must make strides in multiple life areas (Changes within the person and changes in lifestyle interact to desist from crime, not sure which one comes first)

Question 29

What are the main desistance theories?

Answer 29

Social Control Theory (people in life)
Social Learning Theory (changing in thinking and expectations, contingencies related to that)
Cognitive Transformation Theory (changes in thinking)
Life Course Theory (integrates three other theories)

Question 30

What two things are important to understanding the process of desistance?

Answer 30

Identity and expectations are important to understand the process of crime desistance.

Question 31

How would a desistance-focused CJS operate?

Answer 31

• View desistance as an ongoing process
• Try to make periods of non-offending “stick”
• Actively re-integrate offenders via ritual
• Does a model of PERMANENT STIGMATIZATION
  or one of REINTEGRATION best ensure public safety?