Showing papers in "International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology in 1976"

A Study of Institutional Treatment Programs

Abstract: Since its inception only a few years ago, the proliferation of behavior modification programs throughout the corrections field has been remarkable. Its introduction was heralded by extravagant claims and impressive promises but, as yet, there is little convincing evidence that would support such claims (Davidson & Seideman, 1974; Ross & McKay, 1974; Ross & Price, 1975). Several years ago the Psychology Department of the University of Waterloo (Canada), in collaboration with the Ministry of Correctional Services of the Province of Ontario, engaged upon a longterm treatment-research project which aimed to assess the efficacy of behavior modification strategies in the treatment of female adolescent offenders who were housed in a special unit of a correctional institution in Ontario. Throughout the course of the project we were faced with results which perplexed us at the time and which we now feel will generate considerable controversy regarding behavioral programs with offenders. Our attempts to understand the paradoxical results which we obtained led us to the development of

Drug Abuse among Suicide Attempters

Abstract: SUICIDE prevention calls for the early identification and initiation of treatment of high risk populations. The present study focuses on the correlation of suicidal behavior and drug abuse. The role of alcohol abuse as a statistically significant correlate of suicidal behavior is well documented.’ 2 The role of drug abuse has received less study. The literature interpreting drug abuse itself as a form of suicidal behavior3 4 finds some support in research findings of a high incidence of suicide attempts among drugs abusers. O’Donnel &dquo;

Group Therapy with Adult Offenders in Scotland

Abstract: IN the early months of functioning of the Douglas Inch Centre when a sufficient out-patient case load had built up it was decided to start group therapy, which seemed to be the most beneficial treatment approach for the majority of the patients. The writer’s previous experience of group therapy with offenders had mainly been in penal establishments where-despite many other difficulties in setting up a group-the patients are at least there, and attendance assured. Difficulties were expected in getting patients to attend group therapy in the out-patient setting, an expectation which was fully realised. Early in 1965 two out-patient therapeutic groups were started-one for adolescent boys and one for adult males. (The number of female patients is always much less than males, and none at that time were considered suitable for

Trust: Its Implication in the Etiology and Treatment of Psychopathic Youths:

Abstract: THE psychopath has become increasingly common. Whether as -*the thief, spy, pimp or swindler (to name a few) his life-style, goals and world-view often have become tacitly accepted and sometimes even actively emulated. Former ideas pertaining .to the etiology of psychopathy no longer seem to be as relevant. In the past psychopathy had been explained as a constitutional weakness (Stott, 1962); it had been viewed as an outcome of a specific familial interaction (Heaver, 1943; Greenacre, 1945); and it had been conceptualized as a defense against an underlying neurotic or psychotic disturbance (Karpman, 1948). More recently psychopathy has been termed a &dquo;means of survival&dquo; (Grier and Cobbs, 1968); it has been recognized as a necessary &dquo;style&dquo; to succeed in the

Relationship Therapy: Making Contact:

Abstract: ~SYCHOTHERAPY is often called therapy based on talking, yet many therapists are not good at conversing. Whenever I lecture to therapists, the question I am most frequently asked is dbut what do you say?d dHow do you say it?d dWhat then?d dWhat do you do when the patient remains silent? d In contrast to journalists and diplomats who regard their ability to make contact as an important tool of their trade, and shopkeepers and beauticians who find the personal touch an asset, the dhelping professionsd are not taught how to talk, and indeed many

Recidivism: In Search of a More Comprehensive Definition

Abstract: As simple as that sounds, there may be a great deal more to the situation than what the statistics suggest. The authors first searched the literature in terms of what others had said in reference to this issue. The major discovery was that little was stated other than the acceptance of the recidivist definition. Numerous studies have looked at recidivism and institutional and demographic indicators of those who have the potential to break the law and return to the correctional system. (Wenk, Frank 1973: 30-37; Unkovic, Ducsay 1969: 340-344; Laulicht 1963: 163-174; Landis, Mercer, Wolf 1964: 35-40; Arnold 1965: 212-220; Shihadeh, Nedd 1973: 229-238; Dunfiam 1954: 77-91; Reckless and Sindwani 1974: 369-375; Miller and Dinitz 1973: 417-426.) Some have reviewed types of treatment and recidivism (Pittman and Gray 1974: 37-54; Shireman, Mann, Larsen, Young 1972: 38-59). Others have researched the area of social and psychological characteristics of those who recidivate (Bapp and Blazer 1970: 67-81; Witter 1968: 79-83). Yet, only a few studies (Moberg, Erickson 1973: 50-57; Logan 1972: 378-387; Hood 1968, Richardson 1961) asked the leading question about recidivism. Is partial success possible? If an individual is first incarcerated for a major crime and then returns again for violation of parole, is that the same kind of recidivism as an individual who

Clinical Criminology in Israel

Abstract: In the world of criminology, as in that of all developing professions, there are constant discussions about the nature of the discipline. We represent various professions: lawyers, psychiatrists, doctors, sociologists, psychologists, social workers, educators and all sorts of therapists. Each one brings with him the approach, orientation, methodology, nomenclature and tradition of his profession. Criminology has been divided into numbers of sub-sections, and its trend differs from country to country. We decided that in order to discover for ourselves the quality, nature and direction of clinical criminology, we should review the subject both from the literary sources and through our day to day work.

Recidivism: The Fallacy of Prediction

Abstract: upon a variety of sources including psychiatric, psychological, educational and vocational assessments; prior criminal record; progress in the institutional program; and organization and resources of the family. Implicit in procedures of evaluating courtadjudicated delinquents for discharge from correctional institutions is the assumption that this available information relates to recidivism.’ This process, however, is reduced to a matter of human judgment. Designated staff members at correctional institutions for juvenile offenders are empowered to judge the degree to which a youth has been &dquo;rehabilitated&dquo;. Research efforts to develop valid and reliable recidivism prediction criteria on which to base such judgments have been controversial and frustrating.2.7 No standards have yet been established for determining the extent to which

Homicide Committed by Canadian Indians and Non-Indians

Abstract: Comparative Data on Homicide among North American Indians IN the five decades between 1924 and 1974, the population of Canada increased 2.5 times, and the population of British Columbia increased 4.4 times, mainly as a result of immigration. In the same period the number of statutary registered Canadian Indians increased 2.6 times in the whole oountry and 2.1 times in British Columbia-without immigration. The total population of Canadian Indians, registered and non-registered, is considerably higher and in the 1971 census was given as 1.4 per cent of all Canadians and 2.4 per cent of all British Columbians, on the basis of self-reporting. If we compare the homicidal death rates of registered Indians with those of the total population (including Indians), we note that for registered Indians in British Columbia the risk to die from homicidal violence is on the average ten times as great as for the total population of British Columbia and Canada. A sombre picture is also revealed with regard to Indian death rates from accident, suicide and hepatic cirrhosis, which is a good indicator of chronic alcohol abuse. Analogous situations obtain in other western provinces Turning to criminal statistics, we have searched in vain in the rich materials made available to us by the Judicial Division of Statistics Canada for figures on homicidal or other offences committed by Canadian Indians. Ethnic or racial categories are apparently not applied in the official recording of criminal data in Canada. In the United States of America crude homicide death rates for American Indians have consistently been about three times as high as the rates for all races, and age-adjusted homicide death rates have been 3.5 to 4.1 times as high (Ogden et al, 1970). Both in the general US population and among American Indians, age-specific

The Female Psychologist in an All-Male Correctional Institution in Philadelphia

Abstract: DURING the year 1973-74, I served as a doctoral level psychology intern at a State Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania where I did diagnostic and psychotherapeutic work with residents. The treatment department that I entered, along with two other students, was concerned primarily with routine classification and with processing such psychiatric emergencies as had to be moved to a hospital facility. There was little in the way of treatment aside from a group or two, and that is why we were there. And there were no women anywhere, with the exception of one woman behind the scenes in a supervisory role, and clerical staff behind locked doors.

General Systems Theory in Psychotherapy

Abstract: THE Malden Court Clinic has now been in operation for six years and during this time we have evolved a distinctive approach that combines elements of Emotional Cognitive Structuralism and General Systems Theory, and it is this approach that we wish to describe. The Malden District Court itself is the fourth busiest in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Referrals to the Court Clinic number some 350 a year, of which roughly 100 are juveniles and their families, referred either as children in need of services or because of offenses ranging from breaking and entering, to armed robbery, auto theft, assault and battery, and disorderly conduct. We also work with young adults usually before the court on charges of breaking and entering, theft, assault and sexual exhibitionism. We operate under two important constraints. The first is the large number of cases we see in a clinic with a full time staff of only two people. This requires relatively brief but effective treatment, and this has led us to a general systems approach in deciding on the areas that we feel are profitable to work on and which will afford as quick a re-entry to the normal community life of school or work as possible, for we believe that delinquents need a life with structure in order to be able to grow and develop in their own right. Also because of the dissolution of institutions for juveniles in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the previous practice of supplying structure in the form of institutionalization is no longer possible, so we have had to rely on the structure we can supply in the ongoing psychotherapy and the structure that can be supplied by integration

What is Rehabilitation

Abstract: REHABILITATION has generally been defined as returning &dquo;independently functioning&dquo; individuals to society. This implies that an individual, isolated both by his life style and its consequences, has adjusted in such a way as to participate in the major social institutions of society. The usual index used in assessing the degree of adjustment has traditionally been the individual’s employment status. The term adjustment is crucial to traditional rehabilitation enterprises. When one adjusts, one adjusts to something, and in this

A Therapeutic Community in Birmingham (England

Abstract: ELLIOTT HOUSE is a British Home Office approved probation hostel for adult offenders within the age-range of 21-30 years. Many of the residents have long criminal records and have spent considerable periods of time in children’s homes, detention centres, approved schools (community homes), borstal institutions and prisons. A small percentage have also undergone psychiatric treatment in mental hospitals. In addition many have been placed on probation more than on one occasion, but this type of treatment proved to be inappropriate, lacking the intensity of involvement

A British Therapeutic Community for the Persistent Offender

Abstract: Viewpoint Since accounts of such programmes vary considerably with the motivation of the writer, it is preferable to state one’s personal interest in the matter. I am an Australian Methodist minister and clinical psychologist, completing a post-graduate year in the Department of Theology at Birmingham University. As such, two days per week are spent at Elliott House, participating as fully as possible in the programme. With a designation of (unpaid) &dquo;student&dquo;, I am neither staff member nor resident; this may contribute to objectivity of observation.

The Treatment of the Mentally Abnormal Offender at the Van der Hoeven Klinik in Holland

Abstract: the same period, 2,886 people were detained, 2,503 of them in correctional and 383 in treatment institutions.* 44.1 per cent of the former category were remand prisoners. The treatment institutions comprise five private and two state institutions as well as the Selection Institute at Utrecht. The Selection Institute is a state institution which decides on the institution that is most appropriate for a mentally disturbed offender who has been sentenced. The decision is taken on the basis of very comprehensive reports, compiled by the staff of the institution, and of intensive observation carried out over a period of at least six weeks. An institution of this kind is necessary as the treatment institutions do not yet operate regionally, and also vary widely in treatment methods and facilities and in grades of security. More than 80 per cent of the mentally disturbed offenders committed to the treatment institutions have gone there under a special penal measure, which came into force in 1929. When this measure is ordered, the offender is &dquo;placed at the disposal of the Government&dquo; (the literal translation of the relevant Act) for the purpose of treatment. In common parlance this measure is called &dquo;TBR&dquo;, the abbreviation of the Dutch phrase. The Court may impose a TBR when it presumes &dquo;diminished responsibility&dquo; or, in exceptional cases, &dquo;no responsibility&dquo; on the part of the accused. Psychiatric reports provide the basis for a judgement like this. But diminished responsibility is not enough for imposing a TBR: a serious crime (or a series of crimes) must have been committed and there must be an obvious risk of further criminality.

b. "Diversion" and its Relationship to Probation

Abstract: Rehabilitation vc. Reintegration Within recent years there has been a movement away from a correctional model stressing rehabilitation toward one stressing reintegration. The former saw the criminal as analogous to the mentally ill patient: the one suffered from a disease of the social conscience and the other suffered from a disease of the mind. Translated into practice &dquo;rehabilitation impli(ed) that prisons became hospitals, crime(s) became disease(s), and criminals cease(d) to be the authors of their own acts. At least this is how C. S. Lewis viewed rehabilitation in his chapter &dquo;The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment, in Contemporary Punishment&dquo;.’ Central to this model is the idea that counseling on the part of the probation officer, or treat-

Forensic Psychiatry and Abnormal Dangerous Offenders

Abstract: THESE remarks are based on my experience as clinical director and chief-psychiatrist of the Special Institution for Psychopathic Offenders in Herstedvester, Denmark from 1942-1972. The patients referred to us during that period were almost all very serious offenders. During the same 30 years I was also psychiatric consultant to the prison department, and for many years member of the Medico-Legal Council. The Danish Criminal Code’ defines abnormal states in section 16 -&dquo;insanity and similar conditions and pronounced cases of mental deficiency&dquo;; section 17 adds &dquo;more permanent conditions of defective development or impairment or a disturbance of mental faculties including sexual abnormalities&dquo;. The avoiding of medical terms has helped to establish a satisfactory collaboration between law and psychiatry. In addition, Danish psychiatrists abstain from giving a professional opinion concerning responsibility. This is based on our legal philosophy. Only rarely are section 16 cases found to be dangerous to other people. Probably this is more common in section 17 cases, and especially in cases on the borderline between these two sections of the penal code. This has of course had its influence on the treatment used in Herstedvester (Stfrup 1968).2 Often we have been in severe doubts as to the risk constituted by the gravity of the actual case. These clinical problems of dangerousness were discussed in the Ciba foundation symposium in London 1968.3 An important question has been touched upon in the discussion: Does the abnormal dangerous offender need treatment different from the normal, in another type of institution? No agreement was reached.

a. "Diversion" and its Underlying Rationale: The Boston Court Resource Project

Abstract: &dquo;pRE-TRIAL&dquo; has arrived. The President’s Crime Commission -*has suggested the utilization of pre-trial options; the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals has concluded that &dquo;not all cases brought to the criminal justice system present issues best solved by full-scale litigation ...&dquo;. While I agree with these recommendations, I also want to demythologize pre-trial somewhat. As its designer and first director in this state, I feel I have some right to do that. Though it seems new, it is in a certain sense an old concept embedded in an unwritten district court tradition.

New Directions in Probation in the U.S.A

Abstract: EVERYTHING seems to go in cycles and much of what I shall be describing as new directions is new mainly in appearance, nomenclature, and the emphasis which it is presently receiving. I would remind readers that the &dquo;Goals and Standards&dquo; promoted by the enlightened in the ’30s prescribed as essential needs for the rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents-&dquo;removal of tonsils and adenoids, foster home placement for children of immoral and lawbreaking parents irrespective of family affection and solidarity, construction of badly needed residential schools for the feeble minded&dquo;, gave little heed to the culture conflict of the foreign-born in meeting middle class standards, and stressed getting them out of their dungarees to attend school. I am embarrassed to remember the number of tonsils and adenoids that I was responsible for the removal of, not quite, but almost, as a condition of probation. The charge for the operation at the Massachusetts General Hospital Clinic was $6.70. I don’t think those days are likely to return, yet when I compare the US Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the ’30s with the Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA) of the ’70s both of which use government funds to hire the unemployed to provide human services, I feel that economic-

The Approach of the Court Clinic in the Probate Court

Abstract: were present at the meeting. Three central issues were raised and the viewpoints of those concerned expressed. I disagreed with many of the conclusions and with much of the reasoning and spoke briefly that evening. This paper amplifies my remarks and suggests a different approach for Court Clinics in the Probate Court. The three issues raised were the relation between the court clinician and the client, the way in which decisions are made, and the way in which decisions are implemented. First, the relation between the court clinician and the client. Those working in the Probate Court Clinics said that their initial concern was to get clients to talk honestly with the clinician, to express feelings openly, and to exchange important information concerning the interaction between each spouse and the children. One psychiatrist said that he felt it was necessary for some, if not all, clients to waive their civil rights because of the importance of the questions to be decided, especially the custody of children. To me, however, the expectation that clients would talk honestly to a clinician in the Probate Court setting, indeed the view that they should, seems misguided and wrong. For the Probate Court, at least in states having fault-based divorce, encourages dishonesty, indeed generally mandates deception on the part of the spouses seeking divorce.