What do prisoners want? Current concerns of adult male prisoners

Abstract

Recently, positive approaches to offender rehabilitation, focusing upon offenders’ strengths, have gained prominence. Proponents have criticized existing rehabilitation models as focusing too much on offenders’ deficits. Goal perspectives, which provide a structure for therapy, may unite these two approaches. The Personal Concerns Inventory: Offender Adaptation (PCI:OA) is a semi-structured interview that identifies offenders’ current concerns or goals. The goals identified by a sample of 129 convicted adult male prisoners are reported here. A range of positive, anti-criminal goals were expressed, including stopping offending, improving self-control, finding and keeping jobs, having stable accommodation, quitting drink and drugs, changing support networks, and finding new leisure pursuits. Furthermore, prisoners expressed life-enhancing goals, such as improving their lifestyle, gaining work experience, having good family relationships, gaining skills, and getting fit and healthy. The PCI:OA may prove useful as a motivational procedure, a basis for developing positive, goal-focused interventions, and a tool for outcome evaluation.     

What do we know about rate-setting?

State regulation of hospital revenue is one approach to cost containment on which there is voluminous evaluative data from the "laboratory of the states"; yet these data are sufficiently complex and ambiguous that they are claimed by both proponents and opponents of rate-setting as support for their respective cases. This paper summarizes the evidence, concluding that mandatory rate-setting has generally constrained hospital costs where it has been implemented. However, were rate-setting established in additional states, it is not clear that comparable results would be realized. It is still less clear that rate-setting would constrain health care costs more than would increased competition and selective contracting.     

Why call someone by what we don't want them to be? The ethics of labeling in forensic/correctional psychology

Labeling a person by their past behavior or a criminal conviction is commonplace throughout forensic and correctional psychology. Labels including ‘offender’ and ‘sex offender’ infiltrate academic writing and conference presentations, names of professional organizations and treatment programmes and, at times, traverse therapeutic work. That such labels are frequently used and rarely advocated against suggests that helping professionals either (i) don't recognize labeling as an ethical issue, or (ii) don't consider it their role to challenge. The current paper aims to encourage critical reflection on the use of labels in forensic and correctional psychology. Key concerns are illustrated through a focus on labels commonly assigned to individuals who have sexually abused, where labeling is especially prolific. The scope of labeling is reviewed, and implications for rehabilitation and reintegration discussed. Next, an analysis of the ethics of labeling individuals on the basis of criminal convictions, past behavior or psychological phenomena is presented. It is argued that the use of such labels contradict core ethical principles including beneficence and nonmaleficence, respect for the dignity of all persons, and responsibilities to society. A de-labelling movement for forensic/correctional psychology and related fields is proposed.     

The relation of ADHD and violent aggression: What can we learn from epidemiological and genetic studies?

Disruptive behavior includes psychopathological and behavioral constructs like aggression, impulsivity, violence, antisociality and psychopathy and is often closely related with diagnostic categories like conduct disorder (CD), attention deficit disorder (ADHD) and antisocial personality disorder (ASP). There is now clear evidence that neurobiological and environmental factors contribute to these phenotypes. A mounting body of evidence also suggests interactive effects of genetic and environmental risks.In this selective review we give an overview over epidemiological aspects of the relation between ADHD and antisocial behavior, including violent aggression and psychopathy. Moreover, we summarize recent findings from molecular genetic studies and particularly discuss pleiotropic effects of a functional polymorphism of the serotonin transporter promoter gene (5HTTLPR) and childhood adversity on ADHD and violent behavior. The reported gene–environment interactions are not only informative for understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of disruptive behavior, but also throw some light on the relation between ADHD and violent behavior from a genetic perspective. The impact of genetic research on forensic psychiatry and future directions of neurobiological research are discussed.     

Punishment or therapy? The ethics of sexual offending treatment

Abstract

The claim that sex offender treatment is a form of punishment and as such cannot be covered by traditional ethical codes is a controversial one. It challenges the ethical basis of current practice and compels clinicians to rethink the work they do with sex offenders. In this paper I comment on Bill Glaser's defence of that idea in a challenging and timely paper and David Prescott and Jill Leveson's rejection of his claims. First, I consider briefly the nature of both punishment and treatment and outline Glaser's argument and Prescott and Levenson's rejoinder. I then investigate what a comprehensive argument for either position should look like and finish with a few comments on each paper.     

How do offenders move through the stages of change?

This study sought to investigate the way in which offenders moved through the stages of change. The University of Rhode Island Change Assessment Scale (URICA) was administered to a group of general offenders (N = 371) who participated in the Short Motivational Programme (SMP), a brief motivational interviewing programme administered to medium-risk offenders in New Zealand. The offenders' URICA responses were subjected to a cross-lagged panel analysis using structural equation modelling. Four models specifying different prospective associations between stage engagements were examined. It was hypothesised that there would be support for sequential transitions through the stages as proposed by the Stages of Change model. However, the analysis rendered support for and against sequential transitions, in that offenders regressed to earlier stages or skipped a stage post-SMP. Offenders who skipped to an adjacent stage after the SMP may have actually passed through an intermediary stage during the intervention, and those who regressed to an earlier stage post-SMP may have gained a more realistic awareness of their problem behaviour. This finding also raises questions about the practical utility of the model with offenders and highlights the need for more rigorous studies investigating the way offenders move through the stages of change.     

What shall we do with the drunken sailor?: Effects of alcohol on the performance of ship operators

The purpose of this study was to specify the effects of alcohol on the performance of ship operators as a contribution to the development of new strategies against the risks of alcohol in water traffic. The nautical performance of 21 captains before and after alcohol consumption was assessed on a ship piloting simulator. The simulated scenarios represented passages of a container vessel through the German Bight. Performance was examined by nautical instructors according to standardised protocols. Mean (S.D.) blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) of 0.100 (0.024) g/dl before and 0.100 (0.017) g/dl after the performance trial resulted in striking effects on the nautical performance. The categories most severely affected were foresight and analysis of situation (impairment in 18 of 21 cases), concentration (impairment in 16 of 21 cases), accurateness, risk disposition and navigation (impairment in 15 of 21 cases). Chart work, preparation and communication were impaired in 12, 11 and 10 of 21 cases, respectively. None of the participants were capable to operate the simulated ship with an adequate safety after ingestion of alcohol. From these findings, and in consideration of the well-established impairment of a multitude of mental and physical functions by alcohol, it can be concluded that even low BACs bear high risks in water traffic, a concentration above 0.1 g/dl will hinder a sufficiently safe performance of ship operators. This should be considered in alcohol education and legislation.     

What do prosecutors maximize? An analysis of the federalization of drug crimes

Recent legislation has expanded the jurisdiction of the federalgovernment over crimes that were traditionally prohibited onlyby state law. We model the decision-making process of stateand federal prosecutors, and the determinants of prosecutors'decisions to allocate drug cases to the state versus the federalsystems. Using 1991 surveys of state and federal inmates incarceratedfor drug crimes, we find that individuals who hire private attorneysand who are high-human-capital and successful in the legitimatesector are more likely to end up in the federal system. Thisis consistent with the model in which prosecutors maximize boththe payoffs from eliminating crime and their private human capital.     

The importance of ethics in the law curriculum: essential or incidental?

Recently, the debate as to whether ethics should be a compulsory requirement of a law degree was refuelled when the English and Welsh Legal Education Training Review (LETR) recommended that professional ethics should be primarily addressed in vocational Legal Services and Education Training programmes and that learning outcomes in the academic curriculum should include reference to morality and the law, the values supporting the legal system and their connection to the role of lawyers. This debate is also occurring in other jurisdictions. In Australia the debate is focused on the proposal that ethics be removed as a compulsory subject in the law degree. This proposal has raised a concern that law students will be denied the opportunity to develop as ethically competent lawyers. This paper argues for the continuation of ethics as a core component of a law degree and evidences the model used for the teaching of ethics in the law degree at the University of Technology Sydney in support of our argument. The background to the model is examined to highlight the significance of student feedback and ongoing curriculum review, including the alignment of parallel pedagogical factors. This model serves as an example of not only why ethics should be core to a law degree but, in order to provide graduates who are ethical and reflective practitioners, why ethics should be pervasively taught throughout the degree and supported by an introductory and capstone presence.     

What can we do to reduce disciplinary school exclusion? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Journal of Experimental Criminology - To systematically review and quantitatively synthesise the evidence for the impact of different types of school-based interventions on the reduction of school...     

The conflict between the ethics of th individual and the ethics governing public health: practical sustainability of health care in jeopardy?

The "health rights movement" has reconstructed the clinical relationship between health care workers and patients by simultaneously demanding more from traditional medical care and challenging the perceived power differential between doctors and patients by rejecting the paternalistic medical model in favour of an individual patients' rights model. However, the growth in individual expectations of a right to health care creates a potential conflict with the ethics that prioritise public health and guide the rationing of its limited financial and human capital resources. This, in turn, creates a practical dilemma which requires public health institutions to become service orientated while sacrificing their integral role in training and educating the medical workforce and potentially compromising the practical sustainable delivery of public health in Australia. However, the law can play a role in resolving this conflict through legislation, regulations, codes, administrative law and common law in an effort to ensure the quality and future sustainability of public health in Australia.     

The social consequences of a mass surveillance measure: What happens when we become the ‘others’?

This article investigates the claim made by Dworkin [Dworkin, R., 2002. The threat to patriotism. In: Calhoun, C., Price, P., Timmer, A. (Eds.), Understanding September 11. New Press, New York.] that when faced with threats such as terrorism, the trade-off in question is between our security and their civil liberties. A series of mass surveillance measures implemented in the European Union demonstrate that these measures are no longer merely directed at terrorists but are being applied to all citizens. Contrary to what Dworkin says, therefore, the trade-off that is actually occurring is between our rights and our security. Accordingly, this article aims at addressing the larger social consequences of this occurrence. The social consequences of one mass surveillance measure, Directive 2006/24/EC, are explored: looking in particular at the possible loss of citizens’ trust and privacy. The autonomy and aspects of human dignity that the right to privacy protects are vital to the development of individuality and consciousness of individual choice in life. Severe restrictions on privacy thus have severe repercussions on individuals.