Offender personality disorder pathway: the impact of case consultation and formulation with probation staff

The latest government policies for personality disordered offenders emphasise the importance of a formulation-based approach to rehabilitation and pathway planning. However, research into forensic case formulation is limited. This paper examines the impact of consultation and formulation, on probation staff working with personality disordered offenders. Staff rated their knowledge, confidence, motivation, and understanding (of offenders), and satisfaction with management plans at three stages: pre-consultation, post-consultation and after receiving a written formulation. The analyses revealed that ratings on all variables examined increased after attending a consultation meeting, with no additional increase in scores following receipt of the formulation letter. The findings provide evidence that consultation has a range of benefits for probation staff, and offer support for the current model of joint-agency working. Further research is needed to clarify the benefits of providing written formulations after consultations, and to explore what features of a formulation are most useful to probation staff.     

The WORSHIP II study: a pilot of psychodynamic interpersonal therapy with women offenders who self-harm

Abstract

The Women Offenders Self Harm Intervention Pilot II (WORSHIP II) study was conducted in three female prisons in England and piloted a treatment intervention for self-harm. WORSHIP II specifically aimed to reduce thoughts and actions of self-harm and suicide risk, through an evidence-based intervention Psychodynamic Interpersonal Therapy (PIT), which is also known as the conversational model. This paper provides an outline of this pilot evaluation of using the PIT approach in prison settings. Therapeutic obstacles associated with implementing WORSHIP II in a correctional environment are discussed, together with successful strategies to overcome these difficulties. Finally, examination of some of the quantitative outcomes suggests that WORSHIP II is a promising approach for this difficult area.     

Police–victim engagement in building a victim empowerment approach to intimate partner violence cases

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been highlighted as a priority for UK governments and criminal justice agencies since the 1990s. However, whilst generating significant policy and procedural responses, the overall impact continues to be criticised. This paper examines contemporary approaches to IPV identification and response, highlighting the limitations within victim engagement and empowerment. It then moves on to specific developments and theories in victimology, demonstrating how research into victim engagement is emerging and could be utilised in practice to enhance victim empowerment. It argues that policy and procedure based upon an enhanced victim empowerment approach would be necessary in striving for positive criminal justice outcomes and for increasing victim satisfaction.     

Ulysses Contracts in Medicine

Ulysses contracts are a method by which one person binds himself by agreeing to be bound by others. In medicine such contracts have primarily been discussed as ways of treating people with episodic mental illnesses, where the features of the illness are such that they now judge that they will refuse treatment at the time it is needed. Enforcing Ulysses contracts in these circumstances would require medical professionals to override the express refusal of the patient at the time treatment is required, something that is generally problematic both ethically and legally. In this paper I will argue that despite appearances Ulysses contracts can make it the case that treating a patient in such circumstances is an instance of treating him with his consent, although safeguards are needed to ensure that this is the case. Given the potential benefits to patients I further argue that modified Ulysses contracts should be made legally enforceable.     

Modernization and Change in Social Housing: The Case for an Organizational Perspective

It is argued that past approaches to the research of housing policy and housing organizations are now inadequate and unable to provide a clear explanation of modernization and change. The modernization of social housing is associated with changing core organizational competencies and the movement towards a variety of partnership approaches. In response we develop a tripartite theoretical framework based around new institutional economics, strategic management and institutional theory. An exploratory review of the evidence at a sectoral level (examining social housing as a field, regulation and the profession) and the organizational level (focusing upon changing organization behaviour) is used to illustrate the legitimacy of this approach. In conclusion a research agenda is outlined.     

The Living Present as a Materialist Feminist Temporality

Abstract

Bringing together the work of Barad and Deleuze, this article develops the concept of the living present as a frame for an emerging feminist temporality. Within feminist and queer theories, there has been much discussion of the value of non-chronological time in opening up a transformative and unknown future. The author expands on this arena by discussing not only the future, but also the echoes, resonances and traces of the past—a past whose material effects continue to act as living, changing forces on the present and the future. Described as the present of retention and expectation, the living present is never a static ‘now’, but always a stretching between past and future as it contracts all past experiences and expects those yet to come. As it builds on the work of Grosz, Colebrook and others, the living present encourages non-linear, open-ended readings of past events, and therefore represents a new lens through which to approach documented and assumed histories. By opening up collaborative lines of flight between new materialism, Deleuze and feminism, the thick time of the living present reveals a past of forceful, intra-active materialities. It is a realm of possibility to which one is accountable, but not bound.