Effectiveness of the Restorative Justice Process on Crime Victims and Adult Offenders in Thailand

In this paper, the researchers draw on research findings of the restorative justice process for adult offenders in Thailand run by probation officers during the pre-investigation stage. The evaluation study was conducted in 2009, aiming to analyze the effect of restorative justice on victims and offenders. The researchers investigate various key aspects, such as rates of satisfaction and perception of fairness, changing attitudes of victims and offenders, response to the victim’s needs, offender’s accountability, and reoffending rate. Factors associated with these aspects were also analyzed. A quasi-experimental research design was applied and the research findings showed that victims and offenders participating in the restorative justice process were significantly more satisfied with almost all evaluated outcomes than those who did not. However, the study did not find any significant difference in the re-offending rate between offenders in the experimental and comparison groups. Finally, the study found that two factors, i.e. victim’s income and victim–offender relationship, significantly related to the victim’s satisfaction. Victims who had low income were more likely to be satisfied with the outcome than those who had high income and victims who previously knew the offender were more likely to be satisfied with the process than those who did not.     

The onset of adult offending: A neglected dimension of the criminal career

The conventional wisdom in criminology is that adult onset of offending is a rare event. Closer examination of the extant literature that use official records, however, reveals that an average of 50 percent of adult offenders initiate offending at age eighteen or older. Although criminological research has investigated late onset offending in adolescence, there is little research on adult onset offending and the correlates of adult offending. Using police contact and interview data from the 1942 and 1949 birth cohort data from Racine, WI, this study investigated the correlates of crime for adult onset and persistent offenders. The results show that employment is the only correlate to affect the probability of adult offending differently for previously delinquent and nondelinquent offenders. This article concludes by highlighting the neglect of research on adult offenders, specifically the large percentage of adult onset offenders, and calling for more research on this topic.     

Working Through Work Release: An Analysis of Factors Associated with the Successful Completion of Work Release

In line with reentry and life course research that has shown increases in desistance for individuals connected with employment, work release programming attempts to achieve desistance from crime by linking criminal offenders to the labor market while in the correctional system. Recent research has speculated that the completion of rigorous employment programming may serve as a signal to employers that criminal careers have ceased and the offenders are employable. Therefore, it is important to understand factors associated with successful program completion. This study utilizes a sample of jail-based work release participants to explore factors correlated with program completion. Consistent with prior research, we find that offenders who are older, Caucasian, and employed at time of arrest are more likely to complete the program and that minority participants and those with prior mental health treatment are less likely to complete the program.     

COMPARING DELINQUENCY CAREERS IN COURT RECORDS AND SELF‐REPORTS*

Most knowledge about delinquency careers is derived from official records. The main aim of this paper is to compare conclusions about delinquency careers derived from court referrals with conclusions derived from self‐reports. Data are analyzed from the Seattle Social Development Project, which is a prospective longitudinal survey of 808 youths. Annual court and self‐report data were available from age 11 to age 17 for eight offenses. The prevalence of offending increased with age, in both court referrals and self‐reports. There was a sharp increase in the prevalence of court referrals between ages 12 and 13, probably because of the reluctance of the juvenile justice system to deal with very young offenders. The individual offending frequency increased with age in self‐reports, but it stayed constant in court referrals, probably because of limitations on the annual number of referrals per offender. There was significant continuity in offending in both court referrals and self‐reports, but continuity was greater in court referrals. The concentration of offending (and the importance of chronic offenders) was greater in self‐reports. An early age of onset predicted a large number of offenses in both self‐reports and court referrals. However, an early onset predicted a high rate of offending in court referrals but not in self‐reports, possibly because very young offenders who were referred to court were an extreme group. About 37% of offenders and 3% of offenses led to a court referral. The more frequent offenders were less likely to be referred to court after each offense, but most of them were referred to court sooner or later. There was a sharp increase between ages 12 and 13 in the probability of an offender and an offense leading to a court referral. It is concluded that criminal career research based on self‐reports sometimes yields different conclusions compared with research based on official records.     

Demographic and offence characteristics: a comparison of sex offenders convicted of possessing indecent images of children,committing contact sex offences or both offences

This paper reports the findings of a study evaluating demographic and offence characteristics of 230 offenders who had been convicted either of possessing indecent images (Internet offenders n?=?74) or committing actual direct abuse of children (contact offenders n?=?118) or committing both offences (Internet-contact offenders n?=?38). All data were collected in the Greater London Offender Management Service. The group of Internet-contact offenders exhibited more diverse characteristics than the Internet and contact sex offenders and they were more likely to have been accused of a prior contact offence without being charged. The majority of the Internet offenders were white male, younger than the contact child sex offenders, more likely to be single and to have never been married, were better educated and more likely to have stable employment. They were also less likely to have had previous convictions. Contact offenders were more likely to report childhood difficulties including sexual abuse; there were no group differences in mental health contact or history of substance abuse. Future research should take into account the heterogeneity of Internet sex offenders to enable the development and delivery of appropriate services for this group so that preventative and therapeutic approaches can be developed.     

Assessing crossover in a sample of sexual offenders with multiple victims

Purpose . This study examined the proportion of sexual offenders in England and Wales who exhibited ‘crossover’ in their choice of victim, as defined by age, gender and relationship to the offender. It subsequently aimed to identify criminal and demographic variables predictive of crossover. Method . The sample comprised 1,345 adult male sexual offenders. All had offended against multiple victims and had been discharged from custody in England and Wales between 1992 and 1996. Offence summaries within police records were used to collect victim details for each sexual conviction for each offender, and criminal conviction histories were obtained from the Offenders Index for the sample. Results . A quarter of the sample (24.5%, n = 330) demonstrated crossover behaviour in regard to at least one of the victim dimensions examined (i.e. age, gender or relationship). Using the risk predictor Static‐99, these offenders were found to be significantly riskier than those who did not display crossover behaviour. Multinomial regression failed to identify reliable variables predictive of crossover. Conclusions . The findings from this study are likely to represent an underestimate of the prevalence of crossover within sexual offenders in England and Wales. Reasons for this are discussed, and the implications of crossover for offender risk assessment, treatment, community supervision and policing practices are explored.     

Characterising the psychiatric comorbidities among adults with ADHD who have a history of offending

The prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among adult offenders is significantly higher than in the general population. Adults with ADHD often present with multiple psychiatric comorbidities. This study aims to characterise the comorbidities presented by adults with ADHD who have offended and also to investigate predictors of offending among this population. Seventy-three participants with a diagnosis of adult ADHD were divided into a group with a history of offending behaviour (n = 30) and a group of non-offenders (n = 43). Groups were compared on measures of ADHD symptoms, substance use and DSM-IV Axis I and Axis II disorders using the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory – 3rd Edition. Major depression, cannabis use and childhood hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms predicted offending. These findings indicate that adults with ADHD who have a history of offending behaviour are more likely to present with complex psychiatric needs.     

De Novo Advanced Adult‐Onset Offending: New Evidence from a Population of Federal Correctional Clients

Adult antisocial behavior is almost always predated by delinquency during childhood or adolescence; however, there is also evidence of adult‐onset criminal offending. This study examined this controversial subgroup of offenders using self‐reported and official data from a total population of federal correctional clients selected from the Midwestern United States. Difference of means t‐tests, chi‐square tests, and logistic regression models found that 11.7% of clients had an adult onset of offending and 2.7% of clients (n = 23) had an onset occurring at age 60 years or older. This group—introduced as de novo advanced adult‐onset offenders—had high socioeconomic status, mixed evidence of adverse childhood experiences, and virtually no usage of drugs with the exception of alcohol. These offenders were primarily convicted of social security and white‐collar crimes and evinced remarkably low psychopathology and criminal risk. More research is needed to replicate the phenomenon of de novo advanced adult‐onset offending.     

‘If you’d had my life,you’d have done it too’: exploring the experiences of adult males who rape elderly females

This study focused on adult males who have committed a sexual offence against elderly victims (aged 55 and over) in order to increase our understanding of this group of offenders. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five such individuals. Interview data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Four main themes emerged: life's been really tough (where participants talked about difficulties they had faced); I’m not bad, I did what anyone would do (where participants sought to explain their behaviour); Other people haven’t helped or have made things worse (where participants highlighted challenges they faced in relationships and the impact they felt this had); and Coping and pleasure (which highlights the use of sex and alcohol in their lives). Implications for the practice and treatment of individuals offending against elderly victims are discussed.     

Public Mass Murderers and Federal Mental Health Background Checks

The litany of public mass murders, from Aurora, Newtown, Charleston, Las Vegas, and Parkland to less well‐known incidents that occur yearly, has focused national attention on federally mandated mental health background checks of prospective gun purchasers. The call has been to put more gun‐disqualifying mental health records into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System database to prevent “deranged” murderers from buying guns and running amok. Our study examines whether increasing the robustness of the mental health background database will likely prevent potential public mass murderers from buying guns. Building on research that shows that serious mental illness contributes little to the risk of interpersonal violence and, further, that few persons with serious mental illness acquire gun‐disqualifying mental health records, we examine whether public mass murderers are among the small percentage of those with serious mental illness who do have gun‐disqualifying mental health records. Using a large sample of 106 US offenders who used a firearm to commit a public mass murder from 1990 to 2014, we find that half of the offenders had a history of mental illness or mental health treatment but that less than 5 percent had gun‐disqualifying mental health records. Implications of these findings and recommendations for further research are discussed.     

Expanding the Feminist Pathways Perspective beyond the United States: A Profile of Federal Women Prisoners in Argentina

A large body of knowledge within the criminological discipline has demonstrated that women and girls have distinct social and psychological risk factors that contribute to both their initial onset, and continued engagement, in offending behavior. However, most of this research has focused on U.S. samples of women offenders. Using mixed methods, the current research investigated the offense dynamics and possible risk factors for women’s imprisonment with incarcerated women (246 survey respondents; 12 interviewees) in the Argentine federal penitentiary system. We find that there are some similarities in the characteristics of women prisoners in Argentina and the characteristics of women prisoners in the United States, but also some distinctions, primarily in the prevalence of prior victimization. In addition, our results indicate that federal women prisoners in Argentina who reported serious prior abuse were more likely to have committed crimes against persons in comparison to women without abuse histories. Such a distinction supports the ongoing research investigating women offender profiles beyond U.S. samples.     

Sex offenders’ perceptions of the effectiveness and fairness of humanity,dominance, and displaying an understanding of cognitive distortions in police interviews: A vignette study

Abstract

Forty-three convicted sex offenders read each of four different offence vignettes that involved a man forcing a female victim into sex and the offender's subsequent police interview. The experimental manipulation involved giving participants each of four different scenarios concerning how the police interviewed the offender. These were interviews characterized by humanity, dominance, displaying an understanding of sex offenders’ cognitive distortions, or a neutral, control interview. Participants were required to rate the interviews on a variety of dimensions, such as the offender's likelihood of confessing, and the fairness of the interview. Where participants were told the man had been interviewed with humanity and compassion, they rated the offender as more likely to confess and rated the interview as fairer than the other conditions. In contrast, participants rated the offender interviewed with a dominant approach as less likely to confess, and for this procedure to be less fair than the other conditions. Displaying an understanding of sex offenders’ cognitive distortions appeared to have had no influence on perceived likelihood of confessions but was perceived to make the crime appear less serious.     

Restorative justice practice: An examination of program completion and recidivism

Studies of restorative justice programs continue to provide a review of restorative justice practice and impact. While this body of research is growing, many questions remain regarding the impact of restorative justice in reducing crime. By relying on individual and community-level data, the present study examined how offense type and poverty level influenced program completion and recidivism among juveniles in a restorative justice program. This study also examined the relationship between program completion and recidivism. Findings revealed that status offenders in the restorative justice program were more likely to complete the program and less likely to recidivate than status offenders in the comparison group. In addition, property offenders in the restorative justice program were less likely to recidivate than property offenders in the comparison group. Poverty level at the community-level had a significant influence in both program completion and recidivism.     

Victim empathy in young sex offenders in the emergent adulthood developmental phase

ABSTRACT

This article reports on a study which focused on young sex offenders’ empathy levels for sexual abuse victims in general as portrayed in a case study, as well as empathy for the offenders’ own specific victims. Beckett and Fisher’s Victim Empathy Distortion Scale (1994) was used to measure and compare 96 young sex offenders’ empathy levels. The quantitative research results indicated that research participants displayed significantly less empathy towards their own victims when compared to the empathy displayed towards a general sexual abuse victim in a case study. Following the completion of the questionnaires, in-depth, qualitative data was obtained regarding the young sex offenders’ thoughts prior to, during and directly after committing the offence. In addition, they also explained their current thoughts and feelings for the victims in their case. The divergent responses which were given by the participants is a clear indication of the heterogeneous nature of youth sex offending.     

Psychosocial characteristics of criminals committing incest and other sex offenses: a survey in a Taiwanese prison

The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychosocial characteristics of criminals who had committed incest or other sexual offenses. The participants, 240 criminals serving sentences for sex offenses in a Taiwanese prison, were divided into two groups: incest offenders (20.4%) and other sex offenders (79.6%). The psychosocial characteristics taken into consideration included age, parental survival, education, marital status, previous crime records, drug and alcohol abuse, diagnosed mental disorders, and victim abuse at the time of the offense. After an analysis of the data, the authors concluded that even though incest offenders showed fewer mental disorders, they needed psychiatric treatment and that this treatment should be focused not only on their mental disorder and related symptoms but especially to correct their abnormal behavior. Also, attention should be given to their psychosocial characteristics.     

Perceived parental attachment, personality characteristics, and cognition in male incest

The aim of this study was to investigate the multiple pathways of perceived child-rearing practices, cognitive-executive functions, and personality characteristics in incest and other sexual offenders. The participants consisted of 217 male sexual offenders who were in custody in southern Taiwan. Participants were divided into two groups of 25 incest and 192 nonincest sexual offenders. The incest offenders tended to be less extraverted and worse in abstract reasoning ability, and to have more perseverative thinking, and perceived less parental care than other sexual offenders. Moreover, the structural equation model showed that the effect of parental care on the type of sexual offense is mediated by cognitive-executive functions and personality traits. This finding suggests that the personality traits, cognitive function, and parental attachment of incest offenders differ from other sexual offenders. This result can be a helpful reference in sexual-offender intervention programs for relapse prevention.     

The impact of ethnicity on probation recommendations and dispositions in Israel

The criminal justice system in Israel provides probation services to Arab and Jewish offenders. In adult probation, the administrative structure is integrated, but the probation officers are of the same ethnicity as the offenders. Previous research in the juvenile courts has uncovered a tendency toward harsher recommendations for Arab delinquents in presentence reports. The present study examines both recommendations and dispositions for a sample of 208 young adult offenders. With severity of instant offense and prior record controlled the findings indicate that Arab defendants are less likely to be recommended for probation, less likely to be granted probation, and more likely to be sent to prison when not granted probation. The Arab probation officers' more conservative recommendations may reflect their identification with the Arab community at the expense of traditional casework values. This inequality is amplified by the sentencing practices of the courts.     

Profiles in the offending process of nonserial sexual murderers

The aim of this study was to investigate specific pathways in the offending processes of nonserial sexual murderers and to examine possible relationships with different precrime, per-crime, and postcrime factors. Included in this study were 36 offenders who have committed at least one sexual murder against a female victim and they were classified using cluster analysis. Participants using the sadistic pathway planned their offenses and used physical restraints during the offenses. Furthermore, they mutilated and humiliated their victims. Finally, they hid the bodies of the victims. Participants using the anger pathway had not premeditated the homicide. Mutilation, humiliation, and physical restraints were less predominant with these participants than with those using the sadistic pathway. Moreover, these offenders were more likely to leave the bodies at the crime scenes after the killings occurred. These two profiles are compared with empirical studies addressing sexual homicide.     

The Successful Onset of Sex Offending: Determining the Correlates of Actual and Official Onset of Sex Offending

PurposeThe current study investigates the covariates of age of onset (actual and official) and cost avoidance of sex offending in first-time convicted sex offenders.MethodsThe current study utilized a large sample (n = 332) of federally sentenced first-time convicted adult male sex offenders. Actual onset was measured using self-report, victim statements, and police investigation notes. Official onset was measured using age at first conviction. Cost avoidance was measured as the time gap between actual and official onset.ResultsFirst, while most offenders initiated their sexual criminal career in their early adult years (25–35 years) they were typically not arrested until middle adulthood. Second, the covariates for official onset are in line with cost avoidance, but not actual onset. Third, offenders best able to avoid costs were early starters with a conventional background (i.e., employed, absence of a conviction for a non-sex crime), targeting prepubescent children within the family context.ConclusionsWhile early actual onset offenders were more likely to target stranger victims, early official starters exhibited an unconventional background, prior criminal record, more extensive sexual criminal career, and targeted strangers. Thus, official, but not actual onset revealed a profile in line with prior research.     

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder does not predict criminal recidivism in young adult offenders: Results from a prospective study

As the state of research on the relationship between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and recidivism can be considered controversial, our prospective study investigated whether ADHD predicts recidivism in a sample of 283 male, German, young adult prisoners. Currently existing ADHD symptoms and symptoms that were present in childhood were screened according to the DSM-IV checklist criteria. Information on general and violent recidivism was gathered using government records with a follow-up period of up to five years. The prevalence of adult ADHD was six times greater than in the general population, and the number of participants who retrospectively met the criteria for a diagnosis with ADHD in childhood was ten times greater than found in community samples. Survival analyses did not identify ADHD as a predictor of recidivism. Controlling for conduct disorder, substance dependence, and other relevant variables did not alter results. However, among individuals who were released from prison and then reconvicted for a new crime, offenders diagnosed with ADHD were found to reoffend sooner after release. These findings stress the necessity of differentiating between risk factors for delinquency and risk factors for recidivism.