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Showing papers in "International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology in 1978"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the role perceptions and activities of correctional officers in a treatment-oriented institution and find that there is a discrepancy between the way correctional officers perceive their role and the way they carry it out.
Abstract: THE main focus of this paper concerns those characteristics of a &dquo; treatment facility that operate to impede the successful achievement of the treatment goals of that facility. A large body of literature in the fields of correction and mental health documents the fact that certain social arrangements (organizational structure) are facilitative of treatment goals while others are facilitative of custody goals. While both goals are important in dealing with offenders, an effort to maximize one of the goals often reduces the effectiveness of efforts to achieve the other. This paper will attempt to assesss the way in which treatment oriented correctional institutions attempt to balance the demands of these sometimes inconsistent goals by examining the role perceptions and activities of correctional officers. The major problem this paper examines is the discrepancy between the way correctional officers perceive their role and the way they carry it out. The problem arises because administrative demands for social control in the institution placed on correctional officers are often at odds with the officers’ commitment to a treatment ideology ; thus the officer finds himself experiencing conflict between treatment demands and administrative demands for custody. In the treatment oriented prison the role of the guard has been sharply bifurcated. Here guards must preserve some measure of order and discipline, since this is essential to a prison’s custodial goal, but they must also contribute to accomplishment of an institutional treatment goal.1 I

29 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors found that strong family and community relationships with residents while in prison are related to lower recidivism rates and that Satisfactory family functioning during the period of incarceration enhances the offender's own rehabilitation.
Abstract: INCARCERATION presents a crisis for the family. From the time an individual is accused to the period following release from prison and his community reintegration, the whole family goes through numerous stages of stress. Incarceration puts heavy burdens on them in terms of role changes, the loss of a parent, child rearing difficulties and continual financial deprivation. While often the result is a broken home, it is important to consider how far preventive efforts during this period of stress can help. Satisfactory family functioning during the period of incarceration enhances the offender’s own rehabilitation. Adams and Fischer (1976) found that &dquo;strong family and community relationships with residents while in prison are related to lower recidivism rates&dquo;

17 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Another case of murder-suicide is reported in this article, where a young woman who had killed her baby boy by stabbing him ten times was treated by a nurse for two years.
Abstract: SEVERAL years ago I treated a young woman who had mur~ dered her baby boy by stabbing him ten times. She killed him after a number of personally distressing experiences which began with another beating from her psychotic husband. She had been trying to get her husband into an emergency psychiatric hospital, and had requested help from social workers, Salvation Army staff, YMCA housing personnel, the police and local prosecuting attorney, to no avail. Even the husband’s psychiatrist had refused to intervene, as his Veterans’ Administration Mental Hygiene Clinic was about to close for the evening. Her older son then developed a fever of 105° and although the hospital pediatrician expressed fears that the boy might have meningitis, his condition turned out to be measles; he was hospitalized. The young woman took her other baby back home and, after a call to her father resulted in only another rejection of her urgent cry for help, she killed the child. After killing her youngest son, she stabbed herself in her left breast area twice and waited to die, lying next to her dead son. As death did not come she tried taking an overdose of her husband’s tranquilizers, drowning herself in a bathtub, strangling herself and finally, ingesting some lye. The next day her father, who had thought about their conversation the night before, began calling her steadily until she weakly answered the phone. He called the police and she was taken to the hospital, treated, later transferred to jail, tried and acquitted by reason of temporary insanity. She was treated by me for two years and has fully recovered. Another child has replaced her dead son. She has divorced her husband, has a good job and is handling her life very well. Another case of murder-suicide. Carmello DeJesus, a cannery worker of Rochester, New York, shot himself in a field leaving a small handgun, a Spanish Bible and a suicide note at his side.’ He wrote, &dquo;I have killed four persons and that is the reason I want to end my life. I have been having trouble with my heart and don’t want to kill anyone else.&dquo; The victims were all women.

16 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The two primary proponents of this approach have been Frazier (1932, 1934, 1939) and Moynihan (1965, 1967) as mentioned in this paper, who portrayed the black American family as a group with social pathology.
Abstract: as being a highly disorganized and disintegrated grouping. The two primary proponents of this approach have been Frazier (1932, 1934, 1939) and Moynihan (1965, 1967). They, among others, have portrayed the black American family as a group &dquo;rife with social pathology&dquo;. Consequently, many other social scientists have used this pathological approach as a framework for analyzing black Americans in general and the black lower-class in specific. One excellent example of this pathological approach, seemingly drawn from the Frazerian model, is the work of Kardiner and Ovessey (1951) who studied schizophrenic blacks and then took their findings

9 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: One distinguishing characteristic of a society is its rule-making process as discussed by the authors, by constantly creating, adjusting and readjusting norms, society establishes boundaries whereby some behavior falls within and is deemed acceptable, while other falls outside and is labeled deviant.
Abstract: ONE distinguishing characteristic of a society is its rule-making process.’ By constantly creating, adjusting and readjusting norms, society establishes boundaries whereby some behavior falls within and is deemed acceptable, while other falls outside and is labeled deviant. Norms are relative to their social milieu. They are made and enforced by members of society aggregated by and representative of certain traditions, interests and leaders. There are usually many such groups in a society and among them there tends to be a considerable sharing of values. It is, however, when various groups conflict that the subjectivity, prejudices and power struggles of the rule-making process become most apparent.2 2

6 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a historical perspective to the rights of the individual in Canada, focusing on the role of the courts in preserving those rights and the &dquo;rule of law.
Abstract: RECENT developments in Canada and elsewhere make it timely -~. to recall that the prison environment can be used for evil ends.’ Through either brutish and oppressive physical conditions or the more rational but more far-reaching use of science and medicine, the state may use the prison environment in an attempt to train and condition the imprisoned citizen to its purposes. Isolation, degradation, conditioning, chemotherapy or psycho-surgery may be used to bring the offender to heel. Whether the object be reformation or punishment, this type of state conduct does violence to the rights of the citizen-inmate. The following pages provide a historical perspective to the rights of the individual in Canada-the relationship between citizen and state and the limits on state power to interfere with the rights of individual citizens,* particularly those who are imprisoned. This perspective focuses on the role of the courts in preserving those rights and the &dquo;rule of law&dquo;. Where the courts persistently turn a deaf ear to the pleas of the citizen for redress from official abuse of state power, and where other legal institutions provide no redress, it is suggested that the citizen has ultimate resort to disobedience. Thus, under conditions prevailing in some of the segregation units of our prisons, it is predictable not only from a psychological point of view that prison riots will result, but resort to violence also follows in the face of a broken social contract and

3 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors sketch what they consider to be the main component of this approach-personal self-disclosure by,the correctional helper, and conclude that an entirely different model of therapeutic intervention is needed for the clients in she criminal justice system.
Abstract: AFTER several years of working with offenders and non-offenders in a variety of therapeutic settings (e.g. individual counseling group therapy, halfway house programming), I have come to the conclusion that an entirely different model of therapeutic intervention is needed for

3 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Schmideberg and Whiskin this paper discussed the differences between counseling probationers and non-probation clients, and found that many offenders on probation tend to experience little anxiety, at least little of the type of anxiety that is conscious and therefore available for constructive use in counseling.
Abstract: A VARIETY of difficult problems are presented to a counselor by clients who are legal offenders on probation. One problem most probationers share-in addition to whatever other difficulties they may suffer-is a tendency toward characteristics of psychopathy or behavior disorder. These behavioral disorders have been identified primarily in terms of deficits-lack of anxiety, of guilt, of impulse control, or responsibility, empathy, and maturity, together with a generalized difficulty in maintaining relationships (Hare, 1970; McCord, 1964; Whiskin, 1969). Sometimes these differences are jarring to counselors, and lead them to question the relevance of their training, when their most deeply-held values seem threatened by failures with their clients. Perhaps because of the characteristics described, probation clients with behavior disorders have been very difficult to treat by traditional methods of counseling, so that counselors who work with these clients tend to develop innovative methods (e.g., Schmideberg, 1970; Warren, 1971; Whiskin, 1969). Probationers also differ from traditional counseling clients in other ways, to be discussed in later sections of this paper. Because of these differences, techniques for counseling probationers must differ from techniques for non-probation clients (e.g., Schmideberg, 1970; Whiskin, 1969). The established methods have primarily involved techniques designed for &dquo;normal&dquo; or for neurotic clients who suffer excess anxiety. However, many offenders on probation tend to experience little anxiety, at least little of the type of anxiety that is conscious and therefore available for constructive use in counseling.

2 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Abstract: WHEN member states of the United Nations met in April-May 1974 for the sixth special session of the General Assembly, they proclaimed their determination to work for the establishment of a new international economic order based on &dquo;equity, sovereign equality, interdependence, common interest and cooperation among all states, irrespective of their economic and social systems, which shall correct inequalities and redress existing injustices, make it possible to eliminate widening gaps between the developed and developing countries and for social development and peace and justice for present and future generations.&dquo; The very purpose of the New International Economic Order (NIEO) goes beyond the economic sphere proper. It is concerned first and foremost with providing a basis for the full development of the human being who after all is the center of the universe. The concept of equality of rights, of which we hear so much, is made meaningless by the innumerable irregularities practised and observed everywhere. A concern for true equality should give priority to promoting the rights of the most seriously deprived, disadvantaged, the handicapped and the juvenile delinquents. Any genuine effort, therefore, to arrive at a new international human and social order for the juvenile delinquents implies critical thinking giving thought to the attitudes, systems of values, beliefs and practices which have hitherto been regarded as obvious, utilitarian and relevant but are now, from a mental health standpoint, beginning to be questioned. In many developing countries today through lack of sufficient

2 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Society for the Advancement of Community Drama (SAD) is an umbrella organization for community drama in the State of Israel as discussed by the authors, which has achieved a certain degree of recognition by both government ministries and local authorities.
Abstract: Community drama has only recently been introduced into Israel. The first group was started in the Katamon, one of the poorest neighbourhoods of Jerusalem, in 1972. Since then, however, a large number of other workshops have been set up in the slum areas of the major cities and in various development towns. An umbrella organization (The Society for the Advancement of Community Drama) was soon established and has already achieved a certain degree of recognition by both government ministries and local authorities. Within a relatively short time, therefore, community drama has become an accepted part of the Israeli scene. The workshops were set up with two aims in mind. The most

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Schmideberg as mentioned in this paper employed a non-experimental case-study design to report her methods of treatment of a young adolescent who had been referred to her with a diagnosis of psychopathology.
Abstract: VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper by Schmideberg was to report the efforts of a psychiatrist in the treatment of a juvenile psychopath. METHODOLOGY: The author employed a non-experimental case-study design to report her methods of treatment of a young adolescent who had been referred to her with a diagnosis of psychopathology. A 16 year old South American boy, Juan, was referred with a history of destructive and disruptive behavior, with a passive and indulgent mother and a hostile and explosive father. FINDINGS/DISCUSSION: The author made every effort to establish and maintain friendly contact with her patient. Believing in the importance of working with a patient's family, she met with the boy's father, and emphasized the importance of his appreciation of any improvement his son would make, as well as the need to treat Juan better. The author tried to explain to her patient why certain behaviors were wrong and unacceptable, as no-one had done this for him before. She tried to teach him consideration and respect for others by showing him consideration and affection herself - Juan had no examples of appropriate behavior and values from his family. She tried to see things from Juan's point of view, and was constantly reducing his anxiety and unconscious hostility. The author was sympathetic towards Juan, providing him with personal contact and friendship, and helping him to learn in an adult way. She firmly believed that he was not psychopathic. Juan was treated every day for nine months, and then for one month two years later. As Juan improved, so did his family. Ten years later, the author received a letter from Juan, telling her about how normal his life had become - to the point where he was going to marry. The author concluded that Juan had normalized to an extent that, when she had first met him, would have seemed extremely unlikely. EVALUATION: The author presents an insightful and interesting account of her efforts at rehabilitating an adolescent who was considered to be beyond help. Discussion of implications of her work would have provided a valuable follow-up to her report, as would have thoughts about the generalizability of these efforts to other patients she encountered. Nonetheless, the paper provides a hopeful examination of the success that can be achieved with the type of people that are often neglected by society and considered to be too difficult to deal with. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado) KW - Countries Other Than USA KW - South America KW - Family Relations KW - Parent Child Relations KW - Juvenile Offender KW - Juvenile Male KW - Juvenile Violence KW - Juvenile Treatment KW - Juvenile Psychopathology KW - Male Violence KW - Male Offender KW - Offender Treatment KW - Offender Psychopathology KW - Psychopathology Treatment KW - Family Environment KW - Mental Health Treatment KW - Mental Illness KW - Mentally Ill Juvenile KW - Mentally Ill Offender KW - Offender Rehabilitation KW - Violence Treatment KW - Violence Intervention KW - Case Studies KW - Hispanic Juvenile KW - Hispanic Male KW - Hispanic Violence KW - Hispanic Offender KW - Offender Characteristics Language: en

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The most serious crimes both to victims and the accused are those of violence, such as murder, armed robbery, rape, and assault as discussed by the authors, and a study of detainees charged with such crimes awaiting trial indicates a common complaint of easy loss of temper over the slightest reasons (real or imagined).
Abstract: THE most serious crimes, both to victims and the accused are those of violence, such as murder, armed robbery, rape, and assault. A study of detainees charged with such crimes awaiting trial indicates a common complaint of easy loss of temper over the slightest reasons (real or imagined). Long-term drug use to cut down on tensions has fostered drug dependency. Some are unable to remain calm in their prison milieu without some form of tranquilizer or psychotropic medication. Those kept in detention centers such as the Brooklyn House of Detention for Men and the New York City Correctional Institution for Women, have been unable to meet the bail requirements or are held without bail. Almost a11 are impoverished and represent the most deprived elements of society. With little or no education, little

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners have evolved considerably since they were drafted in 1929 by the International Penal and Penitentiary Commission (IPPC). An analysis of the Rules now requires a re-examination of issues which are of basic concern to persons in both the correctional and legal fields.
Abstract: THE United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners have evolved considerably since they were drafted in 1929 by the International Penal and Penitentiary Commission (IPPC). An analysis of the Rules now requires a re-examination of issues which are of basic concern to persons in both the correctional and legal fields. As adopted in 1934 by the Assembly of the League of Nations, the Standard Minimum Rules were originally intended &dquo;to define the minimum rights of persons deprived of liberty by decision of the judicial authorities.&dquo;’ This protective function was never seen, however, as separate from the advancement of certain basic correctional policies. Changes in the acknowledged theories of treatment and rehabilitation, therefore, had to be taken into account by the IPPC, so that a revision of the Rules was undertaken, in recognition of those changes, in 1949. Two years later, the new version, consisting of 94 articles, was submitted to the United Nations.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The reactive motivations for drug abuse by the young entails some of the following: a reaction against the structure of the scientific approach, a readiness to accept new leaders, new ideas, new lifestyles, new goals, new horizons-perhaps a new heaven.
Abstract: THE reactive motivations for drug abuse by the young entails some of the following: 1. A reaction against the structure of the scientific approach. 2. A reaction against the long years of study before an individual could &dquo;grasp-truth&dquo; or really know something. 3. A reaction against the middle aged and elderly-&dquo;the overthirty-group&dquo; who couldn’t be trusted-except the gurus. 4. A reaction against some of society’s values, principles and goals-against being &dquo;square&dquo;. Yet, the reactive factors in themselves were not sufficient. It would seem that the positive dynamics or motivations were stronger, which include: (a) A desire to know one’s self, now-without the lengthy, difficult and expensive route of psychotherapy. (b) A desire to be wise in a philosophical or religious sense. (c) A desire to be in contact with the cosmos-with nature, with the sun, with the moon, with the stars; to be, in short, a modem day St. Francis! (d) The excitement of something new; by identification, the &dquo;drop-outs&dquo;, &dquo;fail-outs&dquo;, and the &dquo;misfits&dquo; could gain-immediately -a new and admired image and status. (e) The desire to be in on a new frontier. (f) The readiness to accept new leaders, new ideas, new lifestyles, new goals, new horizons-perhaps a new heaven. God is not dead but alive in a new form. In any movement, as the phenomenon increases, there is a rush for leadership. Usually, the lunatic fringe rises to the top first. Overnight experts, self-appointed gurus, arose to proclaim the benefits they personally derived from the wide use of illicit drugs. Once indoctrinated, some of the young began a type of missionary life, either by active recruitment or by modeling the new life-style. Numerous young people yearned to travel to the &dquo;new-holy-land&dquo; -Haight Ashbury in San Francisco. What began as a gathering of flower children in the early 1970s terminated in sordid scenes, regressive behavior, and psychotic episodes. Quick and poorly devised studies were undertaken and results promulgated suggesting that the use of drugs would do little harm


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: ROLF as discussed by the authors is an outstanding example of a rehabilitated criminal who started as a juvenile delinquent at the age of eight, spent much of his early life in institutions, graduated to increasingly serious crimes with longer prison sentences, and has now lived a life free from crime for over six years.
Abstract: ROLF is an outstanding example of a rehabilitated criminal. He -t~L started as a juvenile delinquent at the age of eight, spent much of his early life in institutions, graduated to increasingly serious crimes with longer prison sentences. He has now lived a life free from crime for over six years, is married and successful in his work. This has been achieved by psychotherapy, by the socialising influences of people around him and by various life experiences which reacted on him to change his self-image and his life style. His life history illuminates these various factors: Rolf spent his first five years in a children’s home. His father was posted as missing during the war, his mother had become wayward; she was a primitive and promiscuous prostitute, served several prison sentences for theft and neglected the children, who soon started to thieve themselves. Her second husband, who was a notorious alcoholic, attacked her on several occasions with a knife and threatened to kill everybody round him. Rolf’s grandfather attacked him and his step-sister sexually. Rolf was average at school. He was ostracised by the other boys as a &dquo;Pole&dquo; (because his mother was a refugee from Upper Silesia) and sometimes beaten up. He ran away again and again, at first on foot, later taking the train without paying his fare, travelling to various big cities hundreds of kilometers away. In 1955, at the age of eleven, he was sent to a children’s home on the Lake of Starnberg. He was happy there, but later reverted to his vagrant life, became a thief and had some homosexual experiences. In 1956 he was sent to an educational institution at Landheim. He again continued to run away and stole when at liberty, as his mother did, but also the thefts enabled him to buy friends and gain prestige. In 1958 he spent eight weeks in a mental hospital, where he had a warm but brief relation with the woman psychiatrist who was ready





Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors use a system-specific approach to prevent recidivism in juvenile delinquents and adult offenders by isolating the dysfunctional system precursor, block its system forming potential and then proceed to modify it to functional form.
Abstract: SYSTEM specifics arose out of our long experience with psychotherapy, with general systems theory and with the treatment of juvenile delinquents and adult offenders. When clients are referred to us to determine whether they are likely to commit more offenses, we have to find some way to &dquo;cap&dquo; acting out tendencies. We must try to do this wherever possible without resorting to some form of external structure, or to intensive therapy which often takes too long to carry out, in which time further delinquencies may be committed. There are, of course, some simple cases that respond to relationship and to the emphatic setting of probation rules, such as the settling of some difficulty between husband and wife or between family and child. But in the Court Clinic, we tend to get the difficult cases; those who in the past have not responded to more usual forms of therapy or probation supervision. We have found that by the use of the systems specifics approach, it has been possible to &dquo;vaccinate&dquo; offenders so that recidivism does not occur, thus allowing for crime free time during which necessary supportive and psychotherapeutic work can be accomplished. Controlled regulation becomes quite rapidly autonomous and normal pathways of development open up, furthering autonomy. In system terms we isolate the dysfunctional system precursor, block its system forming potential and then proceed to modify it to functional form. Our initial assumption was that in addition to general