Psychobiology of the violent offender.

The antecedents of violent crime may include childhood victimization, head injuries, and alcohol and drug abuse. Neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric findings suggest temporal and frontal lobe dysfunctions in violent offenders; these dysfunctions appear to be more pronounced in the dominant hemisphere. Recent studies implicate disturbances of central serotonergic functions in impulsive homicide and arson. These results provide an adequate rationale for larger interdisciplinary studies using neurochemical, neuropsychiatric/neuropsychological, and psychosocial methods on the same subjects.     

The impact of pre-treatment responsivity and treatment participation on violent recidivism in a violent offender sample

This study assessed whether pre-treatment responsivity (psychopathy, motivation to attend treatment, denial and minimisation of offending behaviour, and feelings of guilt or shame) predicted violent recidivism and/or moderated the effectiveness of a violence intervention programme. Participants were 114 male violent offenders who were referred to a structured violent offender group treatment programme; 84 offenders commenced the programme. Results showed that treatment completion did not have a significant main effect on recidivism but that psychopathy scores moderated the effects of treatment. Offenders with high scores on the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV) who were rated as having good engagement with treatment, or who completed treatment, had similar violent recidivism rates compared to offenders with low PCL:SV scores. In contrast, offenders with high PCL:SV scores who dropped out of treatment or were poorly engaged had significantly higher rates of violent recidivism. These findings indicate that treatment effectiveness could be enhanced, and greater reductions in recidivism achieved, if programmes find ways to engage and maintain psychopathic offenders in treatment.     

Outcome evaluation of a high-intensity inpatient sex offender treatment program

The treatment outcome of a high-intensity inpatient sex offender treatment program was evaluated by comparing the sexual recidivism rates of 472 treated and 282 untreated sex offenders. The program is designed for moderate- to high-risk sex offenders and follows the principles of effective correctional treatment. The current investigation is an extension of an earlier study (Nicholaichuk et al., 2000) with the addition of 176 participants, an extra 4 years follow-up, and the use of Cox regression survival analysis to control for three potentially confounding variables: age of release, sexual offending history, and length of follow-up. Treated offenders sexually recidivated significantly less than the comparison group over nearly 20 years of follow-up, even after controlling for the aforementioned variables. The substantive findings suggest that treatment adhering to the what works principles can reduce long-term sexual recidivism for a moderate- to high-risk group of sex offenders.     

Evaluation of the assessment and treatment of a child sex offender: A case study

Abstract

There is indisputable necessity for engaging child sex offenders in effective therapy to reduce recidivist rates. However, it is becoming increasingly recognised that, to do this, more contemporary psychological methods of treatment are being utilised instead of, or as well as, imprisonment.

To establish what constitutes effective therapy requires the constant search for new and successful treatments. To achieve this, it is advantageous to follow preexisting successful methods of treatment but to acknowledge that therapy must be adapted according to an individual's unique presenting difficulties and therapeutic needs.

This paper details assessment techniques, evaluation of psychological dysfunctions, the therapy plan and treatment outcome of a convicted child sex offender. Specifically, Mr X's background history, psychological dysfunctions and progress, using a functional analysis approach, are examined in detail with critical review of the therapeutic intervention.     

Reintegrating seriously violent and personality-disordered offenders from a supermaximum security institution into the general offender population

Offenders who have committed serious violent acts while incarcerated are often segregated and housed in supermaximum security facilities. Given the highly restricted regime under which they are detained, it is often difficult to decide if they are safe enough to be discharged. However, there is a need to reintegrate them into the general offender population in a lower security institution for humane, correctional, and financial reasons. We propose a transitional strategy to facilitate their reintegration by way of a maximum-security step-down treatment-oriented facility within which both their security requirements and treatment needs could be adequately met. The present study reports the results of such an approach. More than 80% of the offenders (n = 31) were reintegrated into a lower-security facility without relapsing and being returned to the supermaximum institutions within a follow-up period of 20 months. They also have lower institutional offense rate postreintegration compared to prereintegration.     

Time for a change: applying the good lives model of rehabilitation to a high-risk violent offender

In this article we operationalise the theoretical concepts of the Good Lives Model (GLM) of offender rehabilitation by providing a step-by-step framework for assessment, formulation, treatment planning, and monitoring with a high-risk violent offender residing in the community. The case study illustrates how the GLM can be applied to complement and enhance traditional Risk-Management interventions and shows how the GLM's clinical relevance extends from sex offending to broader offending typologies.     

An experimental evaluation of a nationally recognized employment-focused offender reentry program

Objectives

The need for re-entry assistance is widely acknowledged, but specifics about what services actually lead to reduced recidivism are hard to find—at least among rigorous studies. This is a critical issue: at a time when there appears to be unprecedented support for expanding rehabilitative programs for offenders, there is a dearth of rigorously vetted program options from which to choose.

Methods

Collaborating with a nationally known employment-focused reentry program in Southern California, the authors compared employment, housing, and recidivism outcomes of reentering offenders (n?=?217) who were either randomized into the program or simply provided with a list of community resources. This approach was possible because the number of applicants at the time exceeded program capacity. Outcomes were based on self-report interviews conducted 1-year post-randomization and arrest records reflecting a 2-year follow-up period. The follow-up rate for interviews was 87 %.

Results

No significant differences were found for any of the between-group comparisons on any of the major intervention outcomes.

Conclusions

Findings from the study suggest a greater need to apply randomized designs to more carefully evaluate current reentry efforts. Methodological challenges of field experiments are also discussed.     

Evaluation of a treatment program for battered wives

Research shows that of the abused wives who remained in a women's protective agency for a period of at least 2 weeks, 50% return to their abusive situation. Several theorists have advocated that battered women remain in their abusive situation because they lack skills necessary to extricate themselves. A program was developed to provide personal and vocational counseling for abused women. Over a 2-week period, abused women who volunteered for the experiment were given the opportunity to participate in group counseling which provided cognitive restructuring therapy, self-assertiveness and communication skills training, problem solving training, body awareness, and vocational counseling. Three groups participated in the experiment: a control group, a group with the COPSystem Interest Inventory and the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire, and a group with the COPSystem Interest Inventory without the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire. The group with the COPSystem Interest Inventory administration and interpretation showed significant improvement within group measures from pre- to post-treatment in anxiety, depression, hostility, assertiveness, and self-esteem. The group with the COPSystem Interest Inventory and the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire utilization showed no significant improvement in any of the measures. It can be concluded that the women in the experimental group with the administration of the COPSystem Interest Inventory benefited from the therapy provided more than the women in the experimental group with both the COPSystem Interest Inventory and the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire administration and interpretation. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.     

Rape myth acceptance in men who completed the prostitution offender program of British Columbia

In an effort to characterize the attitudes and characteristics of men who solicit sex, this study investigated rape myth acceptance as assessed by a modification of Burt's Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. The participants were all men who took part in the Prostitution Offender Program of British Columbia after being arrested for attempting to solicit sex from an undercover police officer. Relationships between endorsement of rape myths, other attitudes, sexual behavior, and demographic variables were examined. Results reveal that age, education, use of pornography, ideal frequency of intercourse, and believing that purchasing sex is a problem are all negatively correlated with rape myth acceptance. Positive correlations were found between rape myth acceptance and sexual conservatism, sexual violence/coercion, and social desirability. Results are discussed in terms of the association between rape myth acceptance and the violence frequently perpetrated against those working in the sex trade.     

The assessment of continued threat to the community in a mentally ill offender program

Community based outpatient treatment for Mentally Disordered Sex Offenders and those found not guility by reason of insanity are based on controversial empirical grounds. The present research examines how mental health evaluators determine when an offender is or is not a threat to the community for purposes of program continuance. Of 13 variables identified by the staff of the offenders' program or from the literature as important in making this prediction, three were found to be related to the evaluation decision: initial psychiatric diagnosis, the presence of supportive relationships in the community, and improvement in therapy. These findings are discussed in terms of the empirical and philosophical literature on psychiatric detention and treatment.     

Assessing treatment readiness in violent offenders

Although violent offenders are widely considered to be difficult to engage in therapeutic change, few methods of assessing treatment readiness currently exist. In this article the validation of a brief self-report measure designed to assess treatment readiness in offenders who have been referred to violent offender treatment programs is described. The measure, which is an adaptation of a general measure of treatment readiness developed in a previous work, displayed acceptable levels of convergent and discriminant validity and was able to successfully predict treatment engagement in violent offender treatment. These results suggest that the measure has utility in the assessment of treatment readiness in violent offenders.     

Effectiveness of sex offender treatment for psychopathic sexual offenders

Meta-analyses have suggested that sexual offender treatment (SOT) completion is associated with lowered sexual recidivism rates for convicted sexual offenders. The paucity of properly designed studies allows for the alternative explanation of less recidivism among treated samples as reflecting that lower risk offenders disproportionately self-select into treatment. A test of the "self-selection explanation" can occur by investigating treatment effect on known high-risk offenders. Psychopathy correlates with increased sexual recidivism risk, such that an exploration of the SOT effect on psychopathic offenders could clarify the accuracy of the self-selection hypothesis. Additionally, the debated degree to which psychopaths are treatable might obtain clarification by a research review. This article examines empirical findings concerning the effectiveness of SOT for psychopathic sexual offenders. Ten studies were found to meet the minimal quality standards used, stemming from only four data sources. Shortcomings of existing research precluded clear conclusions, though trends in the data are delineated.     

Affective determinants of treatment engagement in violent offenders

Affective factors are likely to play a major role in determining the extent to which offenders are able to engage with, and benefit from, treatment. In this article, it is argued that the relationship between affect and treatment engagement may be understood in three ways: the access the client has to emotional states, the ability to express such states, and the willingness of the client to do this in the therapeutic session. It is suggested that affective determinants of treatment readiness can be understood with reference to models of emotional regulation and that attention to these affective factors in the early stages of treatment is likely to promote engagement, reduce attrition, and consequently improve treatment outcomes for violent offenders.     

A systematic review and meta-analysis on the effects of young offender treatment programs in Europe

Objectives

To examine the effectiveness of young offender rehabilitation programs in Europe as part of an international project on the transnational transfer of approaches to reducing reoffending.

Methods

A literature search of approximately 27,000 titles revealed 25 controlled evaluations that fulfilled eligibility criteria, such as treatment of adjudicated young offenders below the age of 25, equivalence of treatment and control groups, and outcomes on reoffending. In total, the studies contained 7,940 offenders with a mean age of 17.9 years.

Results

Outcomes in the primary studies ranged widely from odds ratio (OR)?=?0.58 to 6.99, and the mean effect was significant and in favor of treatment (OR?=?1.34). Behavioral and cognitive-behavioral treatment ranked above average (OR?=?1.73), whereas purely deterrent and supervisory interventions revealed a slightly negative outcome (OR?=?0.85). Programs that were conducted in accordance with the risk–need–responsivity principles revealed the strongest mean effect (OR?=?1.90), which indicates a reduction of 16 % in reoffending against a baseline of 50 %. Studies of community treatment, with small samples, high program fidelity, and conducted as part of a demonstration project had larger effects; high methodological rigor was related to slightly smaller outcomes. Large effect size differences between evaluations from the UK and continental Europe disappeared when controlling for other study characteristics.

Conclusions

Overall, most findings agreed with North American meta-analyses. However, two-thirds of the studies were British, and in most European countries there was no sound evaluation of young offender treatment at all. This limits the generalization of results and underlines the policy need for systematic evaluation of programs and outcome moderators across different countries.