Unit 6 - Ch. 8

Question 1

One major distinction receiving increasing research attention in regards to violence/crime is between:

Answer 1

Reactive violence and instrumental violence.

Question 2

Reactive violence

Has also been referred to as:

Answer 2

An emotionally violent response to a perceived threat, provocation, or frustration.

Affective, impulsive, and hostile violence.

Question 3

Instrumental Violence

Has also been referred to as:

Answer 3

Premeditated violence ultimately aimed at achieving some secondary goal beyond harming the victim (e.g., money).

Predatory, premeditated, or proactive violence.

Question 4

Four types of homicide are identified in the Canadian Criminal Code:

Answer 4

1. First degree murder
2. Second-Degree murder
3. Infanticide
4. Manslaughter

Question 5

First-Degree Murder

Answer 5

Murder is first-degree when it is planned and deliberate or under any of the following conditions:

(a) the victim is a peace officer (e.g., police officer) or prison employee (e.g., correctional officer, institutional parole officer); or

(b) the victim’s death is caused while committing or attempting to commit the hijacking of an aircraft, sexual assault, kidnapping, hostage taking, criminal harassment, terrorist activity, use of explosives in association with a criminal organization, or intimidation.

Question 6

Second-Degree murder

Answer 6

Second-degree murder is simply defined as murder that is not first degree.

Generally, a deliberate killing that occurs without planning and does not fall under any of the categories of first degree murder.

Question 7

Infanticide

Answer 7

Infanticide is defined in section 233 of the Criminal Code as follows: “A female person commits infanticide when by a willful act or omission she causes the death of her newly-born child, if at the time of the act or omission she is not fully recovered from the effects of giving birth to the child and by reason thereof or of the effect of lactation consequent on the birth of the child her mind is then disturbed.”

Question 8

Manslaughter

Answer 8

Homicide that would otherwise be considered murder can be reduced to manslaughter if it was committed during the heat of passion or caused by sudden provocation that would overwhelm one’s self-control. Homicide is also manslaughter if death results from criminal negligence.

Question 9

How many victims defines a multiple murder?

Answer 9

Three or more.

Question 10

Multiple murder can be divided into what categories?

Answer 10

1. Mass Murder
2. Spree Murder
3. Serial Murder

Question 11

Mass Murder - What makes a mass murder and give 3-4 Canadian examples of mass murderers.

Answer 11

Mass murder occurs in a single location with no “cooling-off period” between murders.

Mark Lepine, who fatally shot 14 women and then killed himself at Montreal’s École Polytechnique in 1989;

Valery Fabrikant, who fatally shot four fellow professors at Concordia University in 1992;

Pierre Lebrun, who in 1999 fatally shot four employees and subsequently killed himself at the head office of Ottawa-Carleton Transpo, where he had formerly worked; and

Matthew de Grood, who allegedly fatally stabbed five fellow University of Calgary students at a party in 2014.

Question 12

Spree Murder - What makes a spree murder and give an example of a Canadian spree murderer.

Answer 12

Spree murder is killing three or more victims at two or more locations, again with no cooling-off period between murders.

A recent Canadian spree murderer is Justin Bourque, who killed three RCMP officers in Moncton in 2014.

Question 13

Serial murder - Define what makes a serial murderer and give 3 Canadian examples.

Answer 13

Serial murder involves three or more victims but differs from other multiple murders in that there is a cooling-off period between murders and the murders usually occur in different locations.

Clifford Olson, who murdered eight girls and three boys aged 9 to 18 in the early 1980s in British Columbia;

Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, who killed three teenage girls in the early 1990s in St. Catharines, Ontario; and

Robert Pickton, who murdered several women in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia

Question 14

Fox and Levin (1998) created one of the more comprehensive typologies of mass and serial murder, reflecting five categories of motivation. What are they?

PRLRP

Answer 14

1. Power
2. Revenge
3. Loyalty
4. Terror
5. Profit

Question 15

Not all terrorism involves violence against a person. Threats and acts of violence are classified as terrorism according to the Canadian Criminal Code if they are:

Answer 15

…committed (a) in whole or in part for a political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause, and

(b) in whole or in part with the intention of intimidating the public, or a segment of the public, with regard to its security, including its economic security, or compelling a person, a government or a domestic or an international organization to do or to refrain from doing any act, whether the public or the person, government or organization is inside or outside Canada.

Question 16

Violent crime accounted for approximately ____ in ____ (____ percent) of the criminal incidents reported to police via the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey in Canada in 2014 (Boyce 2015)

A total of _______ violent incidents were reported, for a rate of _____ incidents per 100 000 people.

Generally, violence has been ______ over the last few decades

Answer 16

1 in 5

21%

369 359

1039

decreasing

Question 17

Are women or men more likely to commit violent offences? Are the victims more likely to be men or women?

What is the difference between victimization of men and women in violent crimes?

Answer 17

Men

Equally men and women

Men are more likely to experience non-sexual violence whereas women are more likely to experience sexual violence.

Question 18

Violent crimes are slightly more likely to be committed by a person ________ to the victim than by a _______.

Answer 18

Known

stranger

Question 19

Some characteristics associated with higher rates of violent victimization are…

Answer 19

1. Being young
2. Being Single
3. Being Indigenous
4. Often going out in the evening
5. Living in a city

Question 20

Approximately ____ in ____ violent crimes cause physical injury to the victim.

Answer 20

1 in 5

Question 21

Social learning theory (Bandura 1973) holds, as the name suggests, that aggression is learned. The main tenet is quite simple and parsimonious:

Answer 21

aggression is more likely to occur when it is expected to be more rewarding than non-aggressive alternatives.

Question 22

How is aggression learned?

Answer 22

Expected outcomes influence the likelihood and extent of aggressive behaviour.

Operant conditioning: Behaviour is shaped by its consequences - Reinforcement or punishment .

For example, a young child wants another child’s toy, but the other child does not want to share it. The child pushes the other child out of the way and takes the toy. Aggression is rewarded by obtaining the toy (positive reinforcement). Alternately, instead of getting the toy, the child’s aggression may result in a scolding from his or her mother (positive punishment).

Bandura (1973) argued that people learn not only from direct experience, but also from observing the behaviour of others and the outcomes of others’ behaviour. Observing others receiving various rewards for their aggression would increase the likelihood that one would engage in similar forms of aggression. In contrast, observing others receiving punishment for their aggression would decrease the likelihood that one would engage in similar forms of aggression.

Self-reinforcement refers to the influence of self-administered rewards or punishments for aggression. If self-evaluation following aggression is positive, aggression will be more likely than if self-evaluation is negative. For example, following aggression, one person may feel powerful, assertive, and generally quite pleased, whereas another person may be racked with guilt and self-contempt. These reinforcement influences on aggressive behaviour are mediated by cognition, such as one’s attention, perception, memory, and resulting expectancies regarding reinforcement.

Question 23

General Aggression Model (GAM) - Anderson and Bushman 2002 defined?

Main Components (not in detail, detailed in other cards)?

Answer 23

-An integration of a number of smaller, more specific theories of aggressive behaviour.

-GAM describes the processes involved in any one episode among an ongoing series of episode of a social encounter.

Main Components:

-Inputs from the person and situation
-The routes (cognitive, affective, and arousal states) that mediate the influence of input
-The appraisal and decision processes that lead to a particular action in the episode.

The outcome influences the social encounter, which then provides inputs in the next episode.

Question 24

General Aggression Model (GAM) - Anderson and Bushman 2002

Person Inputs?

Answer 24

Person inputs, such as traits, gender, beliefs, attitudes, values, long-term goals, and behavioural scripts, refer to relatively stable characteristics that individuals bring to any given situation and can predispose one toward or against aggression.

Situation inputs can also influence aggression in a given episode. Such factors include aggressive cues, provocation, frustration, pain and discomfort, drugs, and incentives.

Study Figure 8.2 The General Aggression Model p. 232

Question 25

General Aggression Model (GAM) - Anderson and Bushman 2002

Routes?

Answer 25

The routes through which person and situation inputs influence aggression are cognitive, affective, and arousal states.

Cognitive states include hostile thoughts and behavioural scripts.

Affective states include mood and emotion as well as expressive motor responses.

Arousal can influence aggression in a number of ways. For example, high levels of physiological arousal preceding a provocation can be mislabeled as anger, thereby increasing aggressive behaviour.

Note that cognition, affect, and arousal are all interconnected in the GAM and each may influence the other. For example, hostile thoughts (cognition) may increase feelings of anger (affect). Some of the variables may seem to overlap between inputs and routes; for example, scripts are listed as both a person factor and a cognitive state. However, scripts as a person factor refer to a relatively stable characteristic (i.e., the presence and level of activation of such a script typical of a given person), whereas scripts as a cognitive state refer to the degree to which a particular behavioural script is activated in a particular situation.

Study Figure 8.2 The General Aggression Model p. 232

Question 26

Evolutionary Psychological Perspective

Define

Lalumière et al. (2005) propose that most violent people fall into one of three groups:

Answer 26

In our ancestral environments certain physiological, psychological, and behavioural characteristics were associated with increased reproductive success (i.e., having a relatively high number of children who in turn have a relatively high number of children, and so on).

To the extent that such characteristics are heritable, the genes responsible for them would be passed on to subsequent generations more so than genes that are responsible for characteristics associated with reproductive failure.

Building on research and theory on general antisocial behaviour, Lalumière et al. (2005) propose that most violent people fall into one of three groups:

1. young men (few resources and low status - competitive disadvantage relative to other males. As they move into adulthood, they switch from short-term/high-risk strategies to more long-term/low-risk strategies. Violence from this group typically limited to adolescence/young adult. This group is the most common type of violent offender).
2. competitively disadvantaged men (Low IQ, neurodevelopmental insults. Does not go away in adulthood - violent behaviour life-course persistent. Maintain high-risk approach due to lack of skills and abilities to achieve status/resources)
3. psychopaths (Life-course persistent violence. Not competitively disadvantaged but choose to select short-term/high-risk strategies as an alternate approach).

Competitively disadvantaged men and psychopaths are thought to make up a relatively small portion of violent individuals.

Question 27

Methodology - Causes of violence

4 main types of validity (truth) of inferences (conclusions):

Answer 27

Conducting informative tests of hypotheses about the causes of violence or the effects of interventions on violence first requires a clear and precise conceptualization of the constructs of interest (e.g., attitudes towards violence).

Once we have a clear definition of the constructs, only rigorous methodology and replication permit strong conclusions about the extent to which a given factor plays a causal role in violent behaviour, or an intervention reduces violent behaviour.

The validity (or truth) of the inferences (or conclusions) we can draw from evidence has been organized into four main types:

-Internal validity: To what extent does the evidence reflect a causal relationship between the variables as measured or manipulated?

-Construct validity: To what extent do the people, places, and variables as measured or manipulated represent the presumed constructs?

-External validity: To what extent does the causal relationship generalize to other people, places, and variables?

-Statistical conclusion validity: To what extent do the results accurately reflect the statistical significance or strength of association between variables?

Question 28

For every study, there are at least some threats to validity that limit the inferences one can draw from the evidence. Shadish and colleagues (2002) describe threats to validity as….

Answer 28

… “reasons why we can be partly or completely wrong when we make an inference about covariance [statistical conclusion validity], about causation [internal validity], about constructs [construct validity], or about whether the causal relationship holds over variations in persons, settings, treatments, and outcomes [external validity]” (p. 39). Methodologically rigorous studies minimize the number and plausibility of threats to validity, thereby permitting stronger inferences.

Question 29

Some approaches that have been used or could be used in research on violence are:

Answer 29

Description of a case or sample, but no comparisons or associations examined

Cross-sectional/retrospective observational/correlational

Single-wave longitudinal observational/correlational or quasi-experiment

Multi-wave (the factor was assessed at two or more time points) longitudinal observational/correlational or quasi-experiment

Randomized experiment

With the exception of the first approach, all of the approaches listed above examine the degree of association between presumed causal variables and presumed effects.

Question 30

In cross- sectional and retrospective designs, the main variables of interest are measured…

Whereas, In longitudinal designs the presumed causal variable is measured….

Single-wave longitudinal studies measure the…

Whereas multi-wave longitudinal studies measure the…

Answer 30

… at the same time.

…before the presumed effect occurs and is measured.

….presumed causal variable once.

…presumed causal variable on two or more separate occasions.

Question 31

In observational (also referred to as correlational) designs, the presumed causal variable….

In quasi-experimental designs, the presumed causal variable could have been…

In randomized experiments, participants are…

Answer 31

….cannot be manipulated.

….manipulated but participants are nevertheless not randomly assigned to different levels of the presumed causal variable.

…randomly assigned to different levels of the presumed causal variable.

Question 32

Factors Associated with Violence

Polaschek et al. (2009) reviewed transcripts of interviews with incarcerated violent offenders in New Zealand about their experiences, thoughts, feelings, decisions, and behaviours prior to, during, and after their violent offences. Polaschek et al. organized offenders’ statements into four main themes thought to represent underlying beliefs about violence:

Answer 32

1. Normalization of Violence: “she wouldn’t listen to me unless I hit her first”
2. I am the law: “People come to me with their problems because they know they can rely on me to sort them out”
3. Beat or be beaten: “I was about 20 when I started to go hard. I learned in jail that if I don’t do violence this [derogatory person term] is going to walk all over me. I don’t like hurting people, but what choice have I got?”
4. I get out of control: “I really lost it. I really laid into him”

“I was planning on doing things differently but once I got going, just see red, nothing else matters”

What can we conclude about the causes of violence from a study like this? No association between variables or difference between groups is examined, so this evidence does not support any conclusions about the extent to which these beliefs are associated with, predict, or cause violent behaviour. However, studies like this make a valuable contribution to the literature by providing some exposure to what individual violent offenders say and by generating hypotheses. Qualitative studies like this are an ideal starting point for research on violence.

Question 33

In another study Polaschek, Collie, and Walkey (2004) examined the relationship between beliefs about violence and violent offending in a cross-sectional study. Scores on a self-report measure of beliefs about violence were compared between a group of offenders incarcerated for violent offences and a group of offenders with no record of violent offences.

The violent offenders reported markedly stronger agreement with beliefs like these than did the non-violent offenders. What can we conclude about the causes of violence from a study like this?

Answer 33

We can conclude that there was an association between beliefs and violent offending, but the evidence does not address whether beliefs predict or play a causal role in violent offending.

Question 34

Lansford et al. (2007) examined the relationship between childhood physical abuse and violent behaviour in a longitudinal study. Childhood physical abuse—measured through interviews with mothers when their children were young—was associated with a higher likelihood of violent offending in childhood or adolescence—as measured by official court records.

This association between childhood abuse and violent offending remained statistically significant even after statistically controlling for a number of plausible alternative causal variables.

What were the alternative causal variables?

What can we conclude about the causes of violence from a study like this?

Answer 34

-socioeconomic status
-single-parent status
-family stress
-maternal social support
-child exposure to violence
-child temperament, and
-child health.

The longitudinal design combined with statistical control of plausible alternative causal variables permits tentative conclusions about a causal link between childhood physical abuse and later violent offending. However, without random assignment we can never rule out the possibility that the observed results may be due to some other factor instead of childhood abuse.

Instead, the strongest conclusion we can hope for is that there very likely is a causal link, assuming an association is consistently demonstrated by sophisticated non-experimental longitudinal studies that statistically control for the most plausible alternative causal variables.

Question 35

DeWall, Baumeister, Stillman, and Gailliot (2007) tested the effects of low self-control on aggressive behaviour in four randomized experiments (see page. 237 for the whole experiment). Essentially, they tested how depleted/un-depleted self-control affects the response to provocation. More depleted self-control = greater response to provocation.

What can we conclude about the causes of violence from a study like this?

Answer 35

We can be very confident that depleted self-control (as manipulated) caused greater aggressive behaviour (as measured) (internal validity). However, we cannot be as certain about how well the manipulations reflect real self-control deficits or how well the aggression variables reflect real violent behaviour (construct validity). There is also some uncertainty about the extent to which the observed association would be found with other samples (e.g., non-students, criminals), other self-control variables (e.g., different manipulations or measures), and other aggression variables (e.g., arrest for violent offences) (external validity).

Question 36

Recidivism Rates

Compared to general criminal recidivism, violent recidivism is…

For example, in a meta-analysis of recidivism of mentally disordered offenders, Bonta, Law, and Hanson (1998) found an average violent recidivism rate of ___% and a general recidivism rate of ______% over a mean follow-up period of 4.8 years.

Answer 36

…less frequent.

24.5%

45.8%

Question 37

Approaches to risk assessment can be categorized in a number of ways. Four key categories are described:

Answer 37

-Unstructured clinical judgement
-Empirical actuarial
-Mechanical
-Structured professional judgement

Question 38

Unstructured clinical judgement? (risk assessment approach)

Answer 38

Unstructured clinical judgment involves arriving at an estimate of risk based on the assessor’s own idiosyncratic decisions about what factors to consider and how to combine those factors.

Question 39

Empirical Actuarial (risk assessment approach)

Answer 39

Follows explicit rules about what factors to consider and how to combine those factors to arrive at a final estimate of risk. More specifically, a selection and combination of items are derived from their observed statistical relationship with recidivism. Provides tables linking scores to expected recidivism rates.

Question 40

Mechanical (risk assessment approach)

Answer 40

Following explicit rules about what factors to consider and how to combine those factors to arrive at a final estimate of risk; the selection and combination of items are derived from theory or reviews of the empirical literature and no tables are provided.S

Question 41

Structured professional judgement

Answer 41

Incorporates features of both unstructured clinical judgment and the actuarial approach; there are explicit guidelines for which factors to consider (although additional factors may also be considered) but their combination is left up to the discretion of the assessor.

Question 42

Two characteristics distinguish empirical actuarial from mechanical. What are they?

Answer 42

For empirical actuarial instruments, 1) the selection and combination of items are derived from their observed statistical relationship with recidivism; and 2) tables linking scores to expected recidivism rates are provided.

For mechanical instruments, the selection and combination of items are derived from theory or reviews of the empirical literature and no tables are provided.

Question 43

Violence risk-assessment instruments:

Answer 43

-Violence Risk Appraisal Guide-Revised (VRAG-R)

-HCR-20 Violence Risk Assessment Scheme

Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ)

-Violent Extremist Risk Assessment (VERA)

Question 44

Violence Risk Appraisal Guide-Revised (VRAG-R) (Rice, Harris, and Lang 2013) defined:

The VRAG-R consists of 12 static predictors of violent recidivism. What are they? How are the scores used?

Answer 44

Empirical actuarial risk-assessment instrument designed to estimate risk for violent recidivism.

1. Antisociality
2. Prior admissions to correctional institutions
3. Failure on prior conditional release
4. Elementary school maladjustment
5. Conduct disorder
6. Nonviolent criminal history score
7. Young age at index offence
8. Violent criminal history score
9. History of alcohol/drug problems
10. Sexual offending history
11. Did not live with both biological parents to age 16
12. Never married

VRAG-R items are summed to compute total scores, which can be grouped into nine risk categories (or bins). Higher scores and categories indicate greater risk of violent recidivism.

Question 45

HCR-20 Violence Risk Assessment Scheme defined

It consists of ten historical items, five clinical items, and five risk management items. What are they?

How does the scoring work?

Answer 45

The HCR-20 (Webster, Douglas, Eaves, and Hart 1997) is a structured professional judgment instrument designed to assess risk for violence.

Historical Items (static and reflect the past):
-Previous violence
-Young age at first violent incident
-Relationship instability
-Employment Problems
-Major mental illness
-Psychopathy
-Early maladjustment
-Personality Disorder
-Prior supervision failure

Clinical items (Dynamic and reflect current functioning):
-Lack of insight
-Negative attitudes
-Active symptoms of major mental illness
-Impulsivity
-Unresponsive to Treatment

Risk Management Items (concerns future circumstances that may be encountered in institution/community that could increase/decrease risk):
-Feasibility of plans
-Exposure to destabilizers
-Lack of personal support
-Noncompliance with remediation attemps
-Stress

The HCR-20 items were selected based on a review of factors related to violence in the empirical literature and based on clinical experience.

Each item is scored on a three-point scale:
-0 indicates that the particular factor is not present,
-1 indicates the factor may be present, and
-2 indicates the factor is present.

Although subscale and total scores are computed by summing the appropriate items, Webster and colleagues (1997) recommend that evaluators use their professional judgment to arrive at a final risk estimate of low, moderate, or high.

Unlike the VRAG-R, then, risk level would be determined primarily by consideration of the salience and relevance of each of the 20 items for the individual being assessed as well as any other information thought to be relevant. Subscale and total scores (i.e., summing the items) has yielded high levels of inter-rater reliability.

Question 46

Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ) defined

What was it designed for?

What are the 6 subscales?

Answer 46

The Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ) (Loza 2005) is a self-report empirical actuarial risk-assessment instrument developed to estimate risk of violent and non-violent recidivism (Loza, Dhaliwal, Kroner, and Loza-Fanous 2000).

The SAQ was designed to be an efficient and informative risk assessment instrument. It is efficient because offenders complete it themselves. Most offenders can complete it in 15 to 20 minutes. It does not require assessors to conduct extensive file reviews or interviews like most other risk-assessment instruments do. It is informative in that it addresses theoretically relevant domains and over half the items are potentially dynamic. Thus, not only does the SAQ indicate risk of recidivism, it may also provide information relevant to the planning of treatment and supervision because it suggests areas of criminogenic need that could potentially be treated or otherwise managed.

Initially, the SAQ consisted of 67 self-report items designed to tap a variety of factors theoretically and empirically linked to recidivism. From an initial pool of 100 items, 67 were retained through consultation with correctional staff and examination of correlations between items within each subscale and frequency of responses to each item. These items were grouped into six subscales:

1. Criminal Tendencies (CT): 27 items. Sample item: “I have carefully planned a crime before.” Assesses antisocial attitudes, beliefs, behaviours, and feelings.
2. Antisocial Personality Problems (AP): 5 items. Sample item: “Since the age of 15, I have been described by others as manipulative.” Assesses antisocial personality characteristics.
3. Conduct Problems (CP): 18 items. Sample item: “I have spent time at a group home, a juvenile facility/training school/reformatory.” Assesses childhood behavioural problems.
4. Criminal History (CH): 6 items. Sample item: “My criminal involvement has been getting worse.” Assesses past criminal behaviour.
5. Alcohol/Drug Abuse (AD): 8 items. Sample item: “I would not have served time if it was not for my alcohol or drug habit.” Assesses substance abuse.
6. Antisocial Associates (AS): 3 items. Sample item: “One reason for my involvement with crime is my friends or acquaintances.” Assesses association with antisocial peers.

Subscale scores are calculated by summing the appropriate items and a total score is calculated by summing all items in the six subscales noted above. Higher subscale and total scores indicate higher risk for violent and non-violent recidivism.

One major concern is whether they will respond deceptively to make themselves appear lower risk or just better in general. Inaccurate reports could also stem from lack of insight; that is, misrepresentation of themselves due to lack of awareness rather than intentional deceptiveness. Despite these concerns, the available evidence suggests that the SAQ can predict violent recidivism as well as more typical risk-assessment instruments.

Question 47

Violent Extremist Risk Assessment (VERA) defined

What are the five sections?

How is it scored?

Answer 47

The VERA (Pressman, 2009) is a structured professional judgement guide for estimating risk for violent terrorist acts. The VERA consists of five sections:

1. Attitude/Mental Perspective
   Sample items: attachment to ideology justifying violence; high levels of anger, frustration, persecution.
2. Contextual
   Sample items: user of extremist websites; direct contact with violent extremists.
3. Historical
   Sample items: early exposure to violence in home; state-sponsored military or paramilitary training.
4. Protective
   Sample items: rejection of violence to obtain goals; interest in constructive political involvement.
5. Demographic
   Sample items: male; young age.

The assessor rates each item as low, medium, or high, and determines an estimate of risk. The predictive accuracy of the VERA has not yet been evaluated. As Pressman (2009) has stated, the VERA should be used only for research purposes until sufficient evidence has demonstrated that it can estimate risk for terrorism-related violence with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

Question 48

What is the primary concern with violence risk assessment instruments?

Answer 48

The extent of which they are accurate.

Question 49

Which risk assessment instrument best predicts violent recidivism?

Answer 49

Rice et al. found that VRAG-R predicted violent recidivism with a high degree of accuracy.

Question 50

A number of researchers have examined the accuracy of various instruments. In a recent meta-analysis, Campbell, French, and Gendreau (2009) summarized the findings from these studies:

Answer 50

The SAQ and VRAG were among the best predictors of violent recidivism. The SAQ performed significantly better than the LSI, PCL, SIR, and HCR-20. The VRAG performed significantly better than the SIR and HCR-20.

Although Campbell et al. (2009) did not examine the accuracy of unstructured clinical judgment, it has been found to be less accurate at predicting violent recidivism than actuarial approaches in a number of meta-analyses

Question 51

A number of treatment programs have been developed to reduce violent recidivism. Some of these programs are designed to develop _____ _______of _________ (such as _____) that may play a role in violence, whereas others are more _______ in focus.

Answer 51

effective management of emotions (such as anger)

general

Question 52

Our colleagues at Correctional Service Canada (CSC) provided the following “insider’s view” of some of the approaches and techniques used in their correctional programs for violent offenders:

Answer 52

-Grounded in a cognitive-behavioural approach to treatment

-traditionally operated within a “multi-correctional program model,” offering a large number of correctional programs (family violence programs, substance abuse, life skills, aggression, sex offending, etc)

• target their criminogenic needs and ultimately reduce the likelihood of reoffending

-the Service delivered a total of thirty-one national correctional programs to offenders, including seven distinctive correctional programs for Aboriginal offenders

-In response to resource challenges within CSC and staff, CSC introduced the Integrated Correctional Program Model (ICPM)

-

Question 53

Integrated Correctional Program Model (ICPM)

Answer 53

The ICPM is an innovative and holistic approach to correctional programs, designed to enhance program efficiencies, program effectiveness, and public safety results.

The ICPM consists of three distinct program streams for offenders: a multi-target program, an Aboriginal multi-target program, and a multi-target sex offender program, all of which include an institutional and community maintenance component.

The ICPM also includes an Adapted Program in order to better support the needs of those offenders experiencing cognitive challenges who may otherwise be unable to successfully participate in the programming model

As different offenders show different criminal behaviour, instead of focusing on separate behaviour, the ICPM focuses on the common deficits or general criminogenic needs that have been identified as important risk factors for all criminal behaviour.

The ICPM is guided by the risk-needs-responsivity (RNR) model [described in previous chapters] and the Good Lives Model (GLM) principles across three domains: program objectives (approach goals [goods promotion] and avoidance goals [risk management]), program content (assessment and intervention), and program delivery.

Question 54

There are a number of ways to address questions about the effectiveness of treatment for violent offenders. However, the most important issue regarding effectiveness is….

Answer 54

…the extent to which treatment reduces violent recidivism.

Question 55

(Jolliffe and Farrington 2007; Polaschek and Collie 2004). Dowden and Andrews (2000) conducted a meta-analysis of studies on treatment and violent recidivism that included 52 comparisons from a total of 35 studies of any programs (broadly defined to include treatment as well as sanctions) for male offenders, most of whom were adults. What were their findings?

Answer 55

The average correlation for any treatment was .12 (p < .05), which reflects violent recidivism rates about 12 percentage points lower among treated groups than comparison groups. This was significantly higher than the correlation between sanctions (e.g., prison) and violent recidivism (–.01).

Thus, treatment was associated with significantly lower violent recidivism rates, whereas sanctions were not.

Question 56

Principles of Effective Correctional Treatment:

RNR

Answer 56

The Risk
The Need
The Responsivity

Question 57

Dowden and Andrews (2000) examined if the principles of effective correctional treatment (risk, need, responsivity) resulted in greater reductions of violent recidivism when used in programming vs when not used in programming. What were their findings?

Answer 57

Their findings were generally supportive of the importance of these principles for maximizing the effectiveness of treatment.

Risk principle = effects were slightly larger for programs directed at higher-risk offenders (r = .09) than for programs directed at low-risk offenders (r = .04)

Need principle = effects were significantly larger for programs focusing primarily on criminogenic needs (r = .20) than for those focusing primarily on non-criminogenic needs (r = .00)

Responsivity principle = effects were significantly larger for behavioural or cognitive-behavioural programs (r = .19) than for other approaches to treatment (r = .01)

In addition, the greater number of principles to which programs adhered, the greater the association between treatment and lower violent recidivism.

Question 58

Jolliffe and Farrington (2007) addressed this issue in a recent meta-analysis on the effectiveness of general violence programs with generally violent offenders. They included studies on…

Answer 58

a) on generally violent (e.g., not primarily family violence or sex offending) adult male offenders,
b) with relatively strong methodology (e.g., random assignment to treatment and comparison condition; matching of treatment and comparison subjects on a risk-relevant variable),
c) with at least 25 offenders in both the treated and comparison groups, and
d) published between 1975 and 2007.

Looking at the effects for the individual studies in the meta-analysis, you can see that most found lower rates of violent recidivism in the treated group than in the comparison group.

Thus, treatment for violent offenders is associated, on average, with lower rates of violent recidivism.

Surprisingly, treatments delivered by a rehabilitation professional such as a psychologist were not significantly associated with reductions in violent recidivism, whereas treatments delivered by correctional or probation officers were significantly associated with reductions in violent recidivism!

You may now be ready to conclude that these treatments generally do reduce violent recidivism. Violent recidivism rates are on average lower among treated offenders than comparison groups. These differences may be small, but they are significant, and better treatments (e.g., those adhering to principles of effective treatment, those including role play to practice and develop new skills) show larger differences between the treated and comparison groups.

Question 59

Jolliffe and Farrington (2007) also examined some potential moderators of treatment effectiveness, such as the features of the treatments and research designs. With regard to treatment features, they determined whether a given program included each of the following elements:

Answer 59

a) addressed offenders’ anger (anger control);

b) included cognitive-behavioural skills training (cognitive skills);

c) included training about morals (moral training);

d) used role-playing for training (role play);

e) addressed empathy (empathy);

f) included relapse prevention planning (relapse prevention); and

g) included rehearsal of skills or training between treatment sessions (homework)

Question 60

Although Jolliffe and Farrington (2007) included only studies that met a minimal standard of methodological rigour, there was still variability in the quality of these studies. Two key issues in these sorts of studies are…

Answer 60

…random assignment and attrition (gradual reduction of sample size due to program incompletion or other reasons).

Attrition presents a real challenge to researchers and non-completion rates can be fairly high among violence programs (over 30 percent in some studies.

Exclusion of the non-completers can introduce bias, however. Non-completion of treatment is associated with increased violent recidivism (Cortoni et al. 2006) and non-completers are generally more antisocial than completers.

Question 61

As Jolliffe and Farrington (2007) point out, the finding that methodological quality is negatively correlated with effect size makes it…

Answer 61

…“difficult to ascertain the extent to which the interventions with large effect sizes are effective because of their superior type or method of treatment or because their effects were artificially increased by biased methods”.

Better quality methodology = Treatment not a highly correlated to reduction in recidivism

Lower quality methodology = Treatment highly correlated to reduction in recidivism

Question 62

Jolliffe and Farrington (2007) re-analyzed the program features presented in Table 8.5, but this time statistically controlled for the study feature of methodological quality. In these multivariate analyses, none of the program features emerged as…

Answer 62

…significant moderators of treatment effectiveness. That is, program features such as role play and homework that were associated with greater effectiveness in the univariate analyses described above were no longer significantly related to observed reductions in violent recidivism after methodological quality was taken into account.

Given the small number of studies in this meta-analysis, it would be premature to draw any strong conclusions. Based on the available evidence, it remains unclear whether the lower rates of violent recidivism associated with treatment actually demonstrate that treatment is effective or are more parsimoniously attributed to methodological shortcomings

Question 63

Do we need more conclusive evidence about causes of violence?

Why?

Answer 63

Yes

Such evidence will improve the accuracy of assessments and the effectiveness of interventions, and, ultimately, reduce violence.