THE CRIMINAL APPROACH - TREATMENTS Flashcards
What is a psychological treatment for antisocial behaviour?
CBT - which works on the premise that for every situation we experience, we have thoughts/cognitions about that experience and an emotional response to it
By developing awareness about these thoughts, therapy can begin to challenge some of the associated irrational, dysfunctional thoughts and feelings related to the situation and change them to more rational thoughts and feelings
Criminals have been shown to display distorted thinking, such as displacing the crime onto others, CBT aims to help offenders identify and restructure these faulty patterns of thinking, develop victim empathy and challenge their tendency to try and justify their offending
What three elements does CBT focus on when treating criminals?
Attribution training: helps offenders to overcome their over-attribution of hostile intentions of others, changes their mindset where they are giving false attribution to others and not taking the blame for themselves
Cognitive preparation: recognising the social triggers and the negative trains of thought to angry behaviour and how to deal with them
Self-instructional training: involves creating non-aggressive inner-dialogue to help deal with aggressive situations
What are the strengths of CBT as a treatment for criminals?
Wilson, Bouffard and MacKenzie in a meta-analysis of 20 group-orientated CBT research studies, CBT was found to increases recidivism up to 30% mor than control groups that did not receive CBT
Lipsey did a meta-analysis of 400 studies of juvenile delinquency treatment programmes and concluded that cognitive-behavioural techniques were 20% more effective at treating recidivism
Changing the way an offender thinks about their behaviour does actually deal with the underlying issues related to that behaviour, so is more likely to be more effective than punishment alone
What are the weaknesses of CBT as a treatment for criminals?
Doesn’t work immediately and does require commitment from the offender to fully engage with the process to be effective
Requires the offender to talk openly and honestly to the therapist about their thoughts and experiences
The success of CBT might only be true for the type of people who participate in it (eg atypical sample of motivated offenders who are committed to changing their behaviour)
There are a lot of aspects of CBT so it is difficult to find out which aspect is successful in research
What biological treatment for dopamine can be used to treat criminals?
High levels of dopamine are linked to increase aggression and Conduct Disorder in adolescents, which could lead to criminal behaviour
Studies using amphetamines have been shown to increase levels of aggression
Antipsychotic drugs bind to dopamine receptor sites to prevent dopamine from being released which would lower the levels, and therefore reduce aggression
Leblanc et al, Couppis and Kennedy
What did LeBlanc et al find?
conducted a randomised controlled trial of risperidone on aggression using 163 adolescent boys diagnosed with either Conduct Disorder or oppositional Disorder - both linked to aggression
Study found that after 6 weeks the experimental group displayed a 56.4% drop in aggressive behaviour compared to the control group given a placebo, where the reduction was 21.7%
This supports the link between aggression and excess dopamine levels, as drugs which reduce dopamine levels also reduce aggression
What did Couppis and Kennedy find?
that dopamine might be a consequence of aggression (increased levels come after aggression acts are committed) therefore drug treatments that reduce dopamine levels might not actually be addressing the underlying reason for the aggressive behaviour
What biological treatment for serotonin can be used to treat criminals?
Low levels of serotonin have also been linked to mood imbalance an aggression
Serotonin levels can be increased by SSRIs which work by blocking the reuptake of serotonin (eg fluoxetine)
Antidepressants stop the serotonin from being reabsorbed and recycled
Coccaro and Kavoussi
What did Coccaro and Kavoussi find?
studied the influence of fluoxetine on impulsive aggression by investigating its effects on a sample of personality disordered participants with a history of aggression but didn’t have schizophrenia, unipolar or bi-polar depression
Pps were assessed using a number of behavioural rating scales and over a 3 month period, it was found that the fluoxetine group showed a sustained reduction in aggressive scores or irritability which wasn’t found in the placebo group
Supports the role of SSRIs in reducing aggression among impulsively aggressive individuals with a personality disorder
What biological treatments for testosterone can be used to treat criminals?
High levels of the hormone has been linked to increased aggression
Oestrogen is a form of treatment to reduce levels of testosterone, as well as anti-androgen drugs (eg female hormone medroxyprogesterone)
However the use of MPA is sometimes seen as a form of chemical castration as it reduces sexual drive and consequently sexually related behaviour
Loosen, Purdon and Pavlou
What did Loosen, Purdon and Pavlou find?
that the administration of MPA to the 8 pps in their study did reduce outwardly directed anger in all of them
However, the pps were non-aggressive men and it was a very small ample so the findings have limited application to aggressive individuals
What are the strengths of biological treatments for criminals?
Drug trials generally operate randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled research, reducing the likelihood of demand characteristics, improving validity, reliability and the scientific credibility of the research
Can be used for people that aren’t as motivated to change their behaviour as it doesn’t require much effort from the client
What are the weaknesses of biological treatments for criminals?
Drug treatments often have significant adverse side effects which could also result in a lack of compliance with the medication regime, and ethical issues
Individuals on biological treatment programmes are often involved with other psychological treatment programmes, so establishing the effect of any one form of treatment in reducing symptoms is difficult
Drug treatments often take some time before they have an impact on symptoms (eg it can take up to 4 weeks for SSRIs to have any noticeable effects on patients receiving them)
Offenders/patients with other, ongoing medical conditions might not be able to take drug treatments for aggression as the medication will negatively interact with each other
Some might regard drug treatments as a form of social control, society trying to regulate and control behaviour it regards as unacceptable
