Week 11-Offender treatment Flashcards
What is Offender Treatment defined as? Oxford Dictionary of Law Enforcement (Gooch & Williams, 2015)
-Terms often used interchangeably
-“Treatment aimed at improving an offender’s character or behaviour (including education, counselling, employment, training etc.,) that is undertaken with the goal of reintegrating the offender into society.”
Policy: Home Office Policy paper (2015) - Government Prison Strategy White Paper (2021)
-2021 paper focuses on how the prison environment can be improved to improve rehabilitation
-Policy: Home Office Policy Paper (2015) - Government Prison Strategy White Paper (2021)
-2021 paper focuses on how the prison environment can be improved to improve rehabilitation
What is the Prison Population in England & Wales?
-Substantial increase over time
-Average annual prison population is 21/22: 80,798 or around 159 individuals per 100,000 population
-Prison population has quadrupled but was particularly high in the 90s
-Shows a large group that would benefit from treatment whilst in treatment both for offender treatment and mental health treatment
What are the reoffending rates?
-The proven reoffending rates has fluctuated between 23.1% and 31.8%
-Oct-Dec 2021 (England & Wales): 25.1% for adult offenders; 32.5% for juvenile offenders
-Reoffending estimates for those convicted of violent offences > non-violent offences (Hunt et al., 2019; Motiuk & Belcourt, 1997)
-Reoffending estimates for sexual offenders range between 11-14% (Hanson & Morton-Bourgon, 2005, 2009)
-Does not necessarily mean sexual reoffending (e.g., Luisser et al., 2023)
-Ministry of Justice measures across a year or a half year how many people have reoffended and is proven
-1 in 4 offended reoffend and 1 in 3 juvenile offenders
-Risk of reoffending is lower for sexual offences
What are Treatment/ Rehabilitation models?
-Models to apply psychological principles and strategies to change the behaviour of offenders in clinical settings (Ward et al., 2007)
-Combination of different factors rather than a single factor/event
-For example, alcohol and drug misuse, impulsivity, low self-control, crime-supporting attitudes, lack of accommodation + employment, lack of strong interpersonal relationships
-Interventions focus on these factors to reduce the risk of reoffending
-Called offender behaviour programs
-This is run in prison probation services as part of their sentencing plan to engage in treatment
What Treatment is used for Violent Offenders?
-Specialised vs non-specialised treatment (Polaschek & Collie, 2004) - different treatment needs?
-Offenders often have a history of a violent offence (general offending: Bourgon & Armstrong, 2005; Sex offenders: Newman, 2011)
-Heterogeneous nature of violent offenders - function of violence needs to be understood
E.g., Violence as a result of anger, rage, frustration versus to obtain physical or material needs (Feshbach, 1964)
-Treatment readiness - motivation (Polsaschek & Collie, 2004) and responsivity to treatment (e.g., O’Brien & Daffern, 2016)
-Many functions of violence that serve a different purpose: expressive violence=emotional violence to alleviate feelings, instrumental violence=being violent to meet a needs to an end to achieve a goal. Both of these forms would require different treatments (What is meant by heterogeneous nature)
-Last point also relates to sexual offenders too as it’s dependent whether offenders are motivated to change
What are Criminogenic needs? (Davies & Beech, 2018)
All of these are factors associated with violent offending:
-Anger
-Negative/antisocial attitudes
-Hostility
-Substance use
-Impulsivity
-Active symptoms of major mental illness
-Interpersonal and problem-solving skill deficits
-Antisocial personality
-Social information-processing deficits
-Relationship instability
-Empathy deficits
-Education/employment
-Antisocial companions
(Need for more research into risk factors for violent offending - Polaschek, 2006)
What are the 4 main treatment programmes for violent offenders?
- Anger management
- Cognitive skills
- IPV interventions
- Multi-modal programmes
-Targeting more factors make it more intensive (AM+CS)
-IPV targets a specific type of violent offenders (mainly males who have committed physical or domestic violence on partner)
-They target narrow but various factors
What is the process of Anger Management? (Novaco, 1975)
- Group 10-20 x 2 hour sessions
- Awareness of anger and triggers
- Skills (e.g., social skills and relaxation training)
-Relaxation techniques e.g., mediation
-Social skills e.g., how to resolve conflict without using violence
Does anger necessarily lead to violence, and is all violence the result of anger? What evidence is there for this?
-Some studies show no relationship (e.g., Loza & Loza-Fanous, 1999)
-Might only lead to violence under certain conditions
-Some violence exists without anger (e.g., sadism)
-Need for other aspects to be addressed (multi-faceted)
-Effects may differ from non-offending populations (Howells, 2004)
-Less time to practise those skills in a limited time-frame e.g., sentence length (last point) making anger management difficult to translate to forensic populations
What evidence is there for the effectiveness of Anger Management?
- Dowden et al. (1999)-110 programmes in Canada, 3 year follow-up. 86% reduction in violent offending
- Novaco (2013)-Review of the literature. Decrease in rule violations, re-arrest rates, angry patient behaviours, verbal & physical aggression
- Howells et al. (2002)-200 male offenders in South and Western Australia (pre and post) compared with controls. Few sig. findings EXCEPT for improving anger knowledge and readiness to change (i.e., last one did not make a difference in reoffending rates)
What are Cognitive Skills Programmes?
-Focused on thought patterns OR antisocial cognitions which may lead to offending
-Treatment helps recognise these patterns and redirects them into pro-social thinking and problem-solving
-Antisocial cognitions=not seeing many resolutions, being impulsive and act before thinking
-Length of treatment is dependent on offenders needs
-Usually delivered in groups between 3 months and 3 years
Think First (McGuire, 2005):
-32 x 2 hour sessions in small groups
-Psychometric pre- and post-testing
What is involved in the Think First Programmes? (McGuire, 2005)
- Social problem-solving skills 1-13 Empathy, resolving conflict, interpreting social situations
- Self-management and self-control 15-16 -Controlling behaviour and practising skills for that
- Social behaviour and interaction skills 17-18
- Perspective-taking, Attitudes, Negotiation, Conflict resolution 19-21
-End sessions tend to be booster sessions to practise lots of cognitive skills covered
What are 2 Limitations of the Cognitive Skills Programmes?
- Not suitable for all offenders e.g., those with learning difficulties (e.g., McClinton, 2009)
-Those with learning difficulties might just need an adjusted programme - Might not work for serious high-risk offenders - cognitions too engrained (Ward & Nee, 2009)
What evidence is there for the effectiveness of Cognitive skills?
- Tong & Farrington (2006)-Meta-analysis (16 studies, 4 countries) “Reasoning and Rehabilitation” programme. 14% decrease in recidivism Community & institutional settings Low and high risk offenders. (14% decrease in reoffending in community and institutional settings)
- Falshaw et al. (2004)-Prison-based cognitive skills programmes in England and Wales 2 year reconviction rates (matched with control group). No significant differences
-Evidence is mixed
-Last box shows it didn’t matter whether they took the programme or not as reoffending rates did not differ between the two
What is Intimate Partner Violence Treatment?
-Treats this type of behaviour as different from other types of violent offending - some can be violent towards partners but not others
-Usually focuses on power, control, coercion - based on feminist viewpoints on IPV
-Focuses on re-educating men about their need for power, control and coercion to change behaviour in that regard
What are 3 limitations for IPV Treatment?
- IPV offenders share some of the same risk factors as other violent offenders that is not part of this programme (e.g., antisocial cognitions) (Means no other support for those risk factors such as antisocial cognitions)
- Women also perpetrate IPV against men, same-sex partnerships, feminist approaches not relevant? (e.g., Dixon et al., 2012)
- Role of alcohol abuse and emotion dysregulation overlooked (e.g., Norlander & Eckhardt, 2005)
