Correctional Treatment Programmes for Young Offenders in Europe: A Survey of Routine Practice

This article presents the results of an international survey of European correctional treatment programmes for young offenders. Questionnaires gathering data on programmes’ design, implementation, structure, and evaluation were collected from 112 programme administrators in 25 European Union countries. Results demonstrated that although there was a commitment to young offender rehabilitation in almost every country, programmes adopted many different approaches and were implemented with varying levels of adherence to evidence-based principles of ‘best practice.’ The majority of programmes adopted a cognitive-behavioural approach, and clinical discretion was prioritised over systematised, empirically validated assessment instruments. Most programmes were administered by centralised government agencies; however, process and outcome evaluation was rare. These findings suggest a strong need for improved systematic evaluation in most European countries.     

Post-Release Substance Abuse Treatment for Criminal Offenders: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

This study conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of Delaware's CREST Outreach Center, a work release therapeutic community (TC) and aftercare program for criminal offenders. Treatment effectiveness was assessed using the number of days reincarcerated during an 18-month, post-release follow-up period. The 6-month CREST program cost $1937 for the average participant, and led to 30 fewer days incarcerated (29% less) than the average participant in a standard work release program. This implies that the CREST program reduced incarceration for criminal offenders at an average cost of $65 per day. The additional investment of $935 per client to provide aftercare services led to 49 fewer days incarcerated (43% less) than CREST work release-only participants. This suggests that by adding an aftercare component to the CREST work release program, a day of incarceration is avoided at an average cost of $19 per day. These findings have implications for future investments in post-release substance abuse treatment for criminal offenders. However, the results must be interpreted with caution given potential selection bias in the groups that participated in the CREST work release and aftercare programs. Selection bias and the policy implications of this research are noted and discussed.     

Social Therapy Treatment of Criminal Offenders: A Survey of Pilot Institutions

This article reports on the theory and practice of ten social therapy institutions (sozialtherapeutische Anstalten) for offenders with a high risk of recidivism in the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin. On the basis of primarily psychotherapeutic concepts, these institutions have developed different approaches to everyday sociotherapy, largely abandoning traditional therapeutic procedures and involving all the staff in the course of treatment. The results achieved by these institutions are encouraging, but the continuity and further development are being jeopardized because of opposition from criminological and political quarters.     

Adolescents with Psychopathic Characteristics in a Substance Abusing Cohort: Treatment Process and Outcomes

Psychopathy is a condition with important consequences both for individuals who experience it and for the communities in which they live. Although the assessment of psychopathy among adolescents remains controversial, some evidence suggests that the affective and behavioral traits of adult psychopathy begin to emerge in childhood (B. B. Lahey & A. Kazdin, 1990) and continue across the lifespan (A. E. Forth, S. D. Hart, & R. D. Hare, 1990). The present study used the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; A. E. Forth, S. D. Kosson, & R. D. Hare, in press) to retrospectively assess psychopathic characteristics, treatment process, and outcomes of 64 individuals referred for treatment to a substance abuse program for adjudicated adolescents. This study focused on the relationship between psychopathic characteristics and treatment process and outcome variables, including attrition rates, quality of participation, substance use throughout treatment, clinical improvement, and 12-month recidivism rates. Psychopathic characteristics were negatively related to treatment process and outcome variables, including attrition, participation, substance use, and clinical improvement. Psychopathic characteristics were positively related to the number of arrests in the 12 months following treatment completion. Implications for treatment and future research with adolescents displaying psychopathic characteristics are discussed.     

The Treatment Needs of Substance Abusing Batterers: A Comparison of Men Who Batter Their Female Partners

Though the co-occurrence rate of intimate partner violence (IPV) and problems with alcohol and other drugs (AOD) is 50 % or higher among men in clinical samples, little attention has been given to examining the characteristics of batterers with AOD problems (AOD batterers). We compared 274 AOD batterers and 524 non-AOD Batterers (batterers who do not have AOD problems). Results indicated AOD batterers were more violent, and were more likely to perpetrate violence that is severe in nature. They also reported higher levels of anger and trauma, had a greater proclivity toward a borderline personality orientation, and were much more likely to use AOD during an incident of violence at least half of the time (41 % versus 9 %). Results underscore the need for screening of batterers for AOD problems and substance abusers for IPV, and suggest that AOD problems might serve as an important indicator to help identify particularly complex cases.     

Domestic Violence: Research and Implications for Batterer Programmes in Europe

The European Union is in the early stages of developing policy and practice guidelines for dealing with domestic violence offenders. There is a real danger, however, that that policy and practice is going to be shaped by political lobbyists rather than academic literature and evidence-based practice. Feminist advocates control the curriculum of domestic violence perpetrator programmes in the US and more recently in the UK and proscribe treatments that do not conform to their conceptualisation of domestic violence. Feminist advocates conceptualise domestic violence as unilateral male-to-female violence enacted to control and dominate women, supported by the patriarchal beliefs and systems of the wider society. Academic support for this theory is lacking, however, and scientifically sound evaluations find that programmes based on this philosophy have little or no effect on recidivism. Empirical literature suggests that domestic violence is not a unitary phenomenon and that perpetrators are a heterogeneous group whose treatment should match their crimingenic needs and risk.     

Capacity Building for New Parliamentarians: Survey of Orientation and Induction Programmes

This article reports original research which built on conceptual issues previously identified by the authors. A survey of national parliaments sought information on orientation and induction programmes offered to first term members and on members' perceptions of those programmes. An overview of findings is presented and significant issues identified. Most programmes provided passive development through information and a handbook rather than active skill development. Few used training processes and techniques that were based on contemporary adult learning principles. There were sharp divisions over training and development in dealing with ethical issues. The findings suggest considerable potential for the further development of programmes and for sharing information about programmes in order to assist capacity building for parliamentarians and thereby enhance the performance of parliaments and individual members.     

Dropout in a Treatment Program for Self-referring Wife Abusing Men

Demographic factors and levels of psychological and physical aggression were assessed as predictors of dropout for those who participated in a group treatment program for maritally discordant couples reporting husband to wife physical aggression. In addition, follow-up assessments with dropouts were conducted to obtain clients' reasons for termination. Demographic variables and levels of physical aggression did not predict dropout; however, higher levels of psychological aggression did. The most frequently cited reasons for dropout by participants were treatment-related issues. Specifically, clients reported that the group format did not enable them to address their individual couple issues. Regarding future treatment planning, our findings indicate that in cases where men are severely psychologically abusive, individual sessions may be warranted that precede or are in conjunction with couple sessions. Also, it is as important to target women's psychological aggression as it is to target men's psychological aggression. Finally, our findings indicate that treatment programs should utilize some mechanism that allows for more personalized attention to each couple, such as an individual couples format and/or an individual supplement to the group format.     

A Perspective on Policy and Practice in the Re-Integration of Offenders

Concentrations of unemployment and crime are promoting a slow crisis in the lives of unskilled young men, and obstruct the successful re-integration and resettlement of offenders. At the same time, criminal justice system programmes for offenders are seeking a new balance between treatment approaches and the creation of opportunities. In this article the author reflects on the policy frameworks which give rise to these approaches, and considers the danger that criminal justice systems may place emphasis on diverting people from crime without directing them towards opportunities for re-integration. The author considers the needs of offenders in relation to housing and employment in particular.     

Interventions for Juvenile Offenders: A Serendipitous Journey

This is a story of a concatenation of largely unplanned and unexpected events that propelled a line of research on the effectiveness of interventions for juvenile offenders along a trajectory that is more coherent in retrospect than at the time of any of those events. In the course of that serendipitous journey, insights were gained on the limitations of individual studies, the value of systematic analysis of a body of research, and the challenges of transporting evidence into evidence‐based practice.     

Is In-Prison Treatment Enough? A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Prison-Based Treatment and Aftercare Services for Substance-Abusing Offenders

This study performed a cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) of the Amity in-prison Therapeutic Community (TC) and Vista aftercare programs for criminal offenders in California. For the average treatment participant, the cost of treatment was $4,112, which led to approximately fifty-one fewer days incarcerated (36% less) than the average individual in the control group. This implies that, for the average offender, treatment reduced recidivism at a cost of $80 per incarceration day. For participants who received both in-prison treatment and aftercare services, an additional day of incarceration was avoided at a cost of $51 per day relative to those that received in-prison treatment only.     

Postmortem Skeletal Survey Practice in Pediatric Forensic Autopsies: A National Survey*

Abstract: Recommendations for the evaluation of an unexplained death in infancy include a postmortem skeletal survey (PMSS) to exclude skeletal trauma. Objectives of this study were to assess adherence to these recommendations in forensic autopsies in children equal to or less than 36 months of age, and what factors influence the use or nonuse of the PMSS. We surveyed pathologists who were members of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. The survey included practice characteristics about where, when, and how PMSS were done. Nearly all respondents (99.6%) indicated they performed PMSS at least some of the time; however, almost a third did not use PMSS for all suspected Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), abuse, unsafe sleep, or undetermined causes of death. Despite evidence that “babygrams” are inappropriate in a SIDS workup, 30% of pathologists use them preferentially. Despite SIDS being a diagnosis of exclusion that requires a PMSS, almost 10% of pathologists do not order a PMSS. Future research is necessary to reduce barriers to this important component of the pediatric forensic autopsy.     

Patterns of Practice in Mental Health Courts: A National Survey

Mental health courts (MHCs) represent an important new development at the interface of the criminal justice and mental health systems. MHCs are criminal courts for persons with mental illness that were in part created to divert this population from jail/prison into community treatment. MHCs are proliferating rapidly despite limited knowledge regarding their characteristics or their efficacy. We surveyed the entire population of adult MHCs in the United States, n = 90. In the past 8 years, MHCs have been created in 34 states, with an aggregate current caseload of 7,560 clients in MHCs nationally. Most courts (92%) reported using jail as a sanction for noncompliance, if only rarely. Further, jail sanction use was significantly predicted by increased judicial supervision and number of felons in the court. Implications for MHCs and social monitoring are discussed.