methods of treating offenders

Question 1

what is one method of treating offenders

Answer 1

anger management programmes

Question 2

who came up with AMPs

Answer 2

Novaco

Question 3

what did Freud believe

Answer 3

sport and other energetic activities could release aggressive outbursts (catharsis)

Question 4

what is the anger management model

Answer 4

COGNITIVE PREPERATION
SKILL ACQUISITION
APPLICATION AND PRACTICE

Question 5

what consists of cognitive preparation

Answer 5

groups members are helped to recognise their own behaviour patterns and so identify situations that trigger aggressive behaviour

Question 6

what happens during skill acquisition

Answer 6

individuals learn behaviour and cognitive coping strategies such as relaxation which will help them to control the feelings of anger and replace these emotions with acceptable responses

Question 7

what happens during application and practice

Answer 7

individuals try out the skills in role plays and actual situations such as minor and genuine provocation and are positively reinforced for appropriates, non aggressive responses in groups of 10-12

Question 8

what did ainsworth suggest

Answer 8

should be run in group sessions with offenders

Question 9

who is anger management used on

Answer 9

ex offenders
in prisons
conducted in small groups
lasts 10 sessions

Question 10

what studies support anger management

Answer 10

valiant and raven 
ireland 
hunter 
towl and dexter 
dowden, blanchette and serin 
law 
keen

Question 11

what studies are against anger management

Answer 11

watt et al
howells et al
escamilla
loza and loza fanous

Question 12

what did valiant and raven find

Answer 12

after 5 weeks of two hour sessions found males inmate aggression levels to be significantly lower after an intervention

Question 13

what did ireland find

Answer 13

study 87 young offenders. all P’s completed anger q’s prior to the study. 50 received anger management. the 50 peoples behaviour had improved

Question 14

what did hunter find

Answer 14

measures 55 adult male prisoners. including personality, anger and hostility inventories before and after treatment.when compared with a control group the treatment group showed significant change in specific areas (impulsiveness, depressions and interpersonal problems)

Question 15

what did towl and dexter find

Answer 15

found significant reduction in anger feelings for all P’s when evaluating 9 anger management programmes

Question 16

what did dowden, blanchette and serin find

Answer 16

found that anger management was successful in reducing recidivism in high risk offenders

Question 17

what did law find

Answer 17

evaluated 4 anger management programmes and found that prisoners were trying to control their anger more after completing one programme

Question 18

what did keen find

Answer 18

reported success with the anger management package with males aged 17-21 course provided in england and wales

Question 19

what did watt et al find

Answer 19

violent male adult offenders on an anger management programme were compared with offenders on a waiting list
measured in terms of anger knowledge and anger expression
the study found no special gain for the offenders on the AMP

Question 20

what did howells find

Answer 20

found very small impact of anger management programmes but raised the question as to whether it was the passage of time rather than the anger management programme itself that made such small changes

Question 21

what did escamilla find

Answer 21

impact of 16 juvenile offenders. found that 25% did not reoffenders, 50% did reoffender but not an aggressive offence and 25% did reoffend for an aggressive offence

Question 22

what did loza and loza fanous find

Answer 22

studied 252 candian offenders and found no link between anger scores and violent or non violent crimes

Question 23

advantages of AMPs

Answer 23

• success from self report data
• focuses on triggers so can have long term effects
• mayo clinic say that anger can have adverse health effects so can also help reduce health problems
• offenders take part voluntarily so more commited

Question 24

disadvantages of AMPs

Answer 24

• could do more harm than good, encourage offenders to blame their actions on anger
• may turn physical aggression into a different form of aggression i.e. verbal
• prisoners may try to look good on self report data
• many studies do not look into recidivism rates
• anger does not underlie the criminal impulses where crime originates so may not reduce all types of crime
• working with a large group of ex offenders can create a higher risk of large outbursts of crime

Question 25

how was the aim of howells study

Answer 25

determine whether anger management is more effective than no treatment in producing change
investigate whether improvement in treatment can be predicted

Question 26

procedure of howells

Answer 26

418 male offenders. 86% in AMPs
73% had not previously completed an AMP
had follow up assessments

Question 27

results of howells

Answer 27

those who completed the AMP had significantly greater improvement in anger knowledge than the control group. after two months showed that treatment was helping to manage anger and P’s continued to make progress
after 6 months the same results were not found

Question 28

evaluation of howells

Answer 28

+ naturally occurring treatment so findings have a real life clinical application
+ control group so comparisons can be made
+ evidence based model used
- extraneous variables
- sample size was reduced by 6 month stage
- self report data, offenders may not have been honest

Question 29

what is the biological treatment of offenders

Answer 29

diet can effect crime

Question 30

what diet do they suggest criminals have

Answer 30

suggests that minerals, vitamins and essential fatty acids play a critical role in human behaviour
deficits can lead to violent behaviour
low blood sugar can increase irritability

Question 31

what did benton find

Answer 31

benton looked at children aged 6-7 and observed their irritability whilst playing a video game. he also recorded blood sugar level and found an increase in irritability when there was a moderate drop in blood glucose levels
concluded that irritability translating into aggressive behaviour was dependant on their own social skills so diet was not the only influencing factor

Question 32

what did gesch find

Answer 32

231 male prisoners received either a vitamin, mineral and essential fatty acids or a placebo. the trial conformed to the normal operations of the institution. p’s varied from 2 weeks to 9 months in both baseline and supplementation groups. average time was 142 days

Question 33

results of gesch

Answer 33

disciplinary incidents = 
active from 16 to 10.4 (35% drop) 
placebo dropped by 6.7% 
violent incidents = 
active dropped by 37% 
placebo dropped by 10.1% 
no sig difference in self reported data of anger, depression and anxiety

Question 34

conclusion of gesch

Answer 34

antisocial behaviour is reduced by vitamins with similar implications for those eating poor diets in the community

Question 35

what is chemical castration

Answer 35

hormones are the chemicals that affect sex drive, if we lower it sex drive diminishes
two types of chemical castration ->
- suppressing testosterone
- reduce sex drive by other mechanisms (antipsychotics

Question 36

how does chemical castration work

Answer 36

antilibidinal medications
testosterone inhibitors
depo provera

Question 37

what did Khan find

Answer 37

7 randomised trials involving 138 p’s
offending ranged from rape to minor crimes
drug taken intra-muscular or orally and given daily
offenders also had CBT
reported that deviant sexual fantasies reduced but not the deviancy itself
offenders may have lied
effects were - weight gain, depression and excess salivation

Question 38

what were the issues of Khan

Answer 38

small trials and short duration
data should also be completed from those who dropped out of the study
new studies are needed and should include trials with larger samples of longer duration with new medicine
results stratified according to category of crime

Question 39

what was the depo provera experiment

Answer 39

8 subjects all ex offenders
given weekly injections of a substance identified only as ‘research material’
MPA given in varying doses
blood testosterone levels were measured
MPA and saline solution alternated in 4 blocks of 16 weeks
self reported how they felt
results were inconclusive as 2 subjects left and others were too varied to come to a conclusion
shouldn’t be mandatory as does not show enough recidivism however if we can stop one reoffending surely it is worth it