An Empirical Study of a Peer Support System in Rehabilitation of Psychiatric Patients

The application of peer-support system in rehabilitation of psychiatric patients is explored from the perspective of recovery. This paper discusses the source of the recovery theory, the foundation and the factors of the peer support system, and its localized practice. This research presents an important path for peer support by building up an organization of mutual help among the mental-disease patients, a platform of mutual support among the families of these patients, and a social support network among the peer groups. It provides positive significance in the rehabilitation of the mental-disease patients.     

Desistance and dynamic risk factors belong together

ABSTRACT

Depending on definitions, dynamic risk factors and desistance are either highly intertwined or aligned with distinctly separate paradigms. This paper describes and critiques each concept, and then reviews research on how they may be linked, including some preliminary findings from a longitudinal study of the early phases of desistance in high-risk offenders. I argue that seeking to understand how reductions in dynamic risk work together with the development of the psychological components of desistance will shed the most light on how offenders move from persistence to the maintenance of desistance.     

Picking battles: Correctional officers,rules, and discretion in prison

To outsiders, prisons vacillate between visions of regimented order and anarchic disorder. The place of rules in prison sits at the fulcrum between these two visions of regulation. Based on 131 qualitative interviews with correctional officers across four different prisons in western Canada, we examine how correctional officers understand and exercise discretion in prison. Our findings highlight how an officer's habitus shapes individual instances of discretionary decision‐making. We show how officers modify how they exercise discretion in light of their views on how incarcerated people, fellow officers, and supervisors will interpret their decisions. Although existing research often sees a correlation between “rule‐following” by incarcerated individuals and official statistics on such misdeeds, our data highlight that official statistics on rule violations do not easily represent the rate or frequency of such misbehavior. Instead, these numbers are highly discretionary organizational accomplishments. Our findings advance an appreciation for correctional officer discretion by focusing on the range of factors officers might contemplate in forward‐looking decisions about applying a rule and how they rationalize the nonenforcement of rules.     

Measuring the subjective perceptions of risks and rewards of Chinese juvenile thieves

Offenders’ readiness to engage in changes that will reduce their risk of reoffending is now recognized to be as important as the design and delivery of programmes that support such change. Interest is growing in both how to increase engagement in change processes, and how to measure any improvements in engagement. This study evaluated the effects of a brief offending-focused motivational interviewing (MI) intervention on reconviction in male prisoners serving sentences for diverse crimes. Men who undertook MI were significantly less likely to be reconvicted than those who did not. The results also served to validate a stage-based measure of readiness to change derived from Prochaska and DiClemente's Transtheoretical Model. Prisoners who were offered MI increased their readiness to change by an average of one stage, while the scores of men who were not remained unchanged. Furthermore – whether men undertook MI or not – change in stage of change predicted reconviction. This was a high-risk sample, making the results intriguing for at least two reasons. First, reductions in recidivism are usually achieved only with much more intensive programmes for high-risk men. Second, according to ‘traditional’ cognitive–behavioural rehabilitation theory, programmes need to target change in dynamic risk factors directly to reduce reconviction risk. That these results were obtained with men whose initial motivation was low, and in the absence of any ‘traditional’ criminogenic rehabilitation, raises questions about whether there is more than one mechanism involved in desistance.     

Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing for offence-related trauma in a mentally disordered sexual offender

Abstract

Research demonstrates a high incidence of offence-related trauma in mentally disordered offenders convicted of violent and sexual offences. The adaptive information processing (AIP) model offers a theoretical framework for understanding the hypothesised relationship between offence-related trauma and reoffending. Evidence suggests that for a sub-population of offenders presenting with offence-related trauma: (1) therapy may retraumatise them, and (2) unresolved trauma severely blocks the positive benefits of talking therapies. Thus, it is postulated that traumatised violent and sexual offenders may be released into the community when they are still at risk of reoffending. A single case study is presented, which describes the application of eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) for a sexual offender presenting with offence-related trauma, whose offences occurred in the context of serious mental disorder. The identification of offence-related trauma and subsequent resolution of trauma symptomatology are discussed in regard to effective offender rehabilitation. Furthermore, the idiosyncratic nature of offence-related trauma and the application of the standard EMDR protocol for a single traumatic event are considered.     

Depictions of correctional officers in newspaper media: an ethnographic content analysis

The public relies on the media for most of its information about the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, media depictions of justice actors are not always accurate which, in turn, can lead to distorted images about the system and its operations. Using ethnographic content analysis to analyze 489 articles from major newspapers across the United States, this study seeks to discern how correctional officers and the jobs that they perform are portrayed in print media. The results suggest that correctional officers are overwhelmingly portrayed negatively, with 79.6% of the articles in the research sample presenting one of six distinct negative themes. A typology of these themes is explored in detail, along with its implications for societal support for corrections and correctional officers, especially with regard to the media’s potential contributions to officers’ job stress, burnout, and job dissatisfaction.     

论以刑法修正案形式规范劳动教养——侧重于劳动教养制度的实体法完善研究

以刑法修正案形式规范劳动教养具有可资借鉴性、相对合理性和技术可行性。我国劳动教养是具有保安处分性质的人身强制性预防措施,可以借鉴国外保安处分制度的法理与实践,以契合我国劳动教养法治化的基本需要。关于劳动教养改革,我国学界目前提出的劳动教养完善方案中,劳动教养独善其身的小修方案具有比较突出的相对合理性。《刑法修正案(八)》比较好地完成了作为保安处分措施的刑事禁止令的法规范设置,其为以刑法修正案形式规范我国单项保安处分措施提供了立法经验,而劳动教养无疑可以成为这种立法经验的"第二块试验田",因而我们有充分理由期盼近期制定出台刑法修正案,以有效实现由刑法规范劳动教养制度的设想。新的刑法修正案应当以实体法与程序法内容相结合的规范形式,确立兼具实质合理性与形式合理性的劳动教养法规范体系。