Showing papers in "International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology in 1985"

Job Stress and Burnout among Probation/Parole Officers: Perceptions and Causal Factors:

Abstract: Perceptions and causes of job stress and burnout among a representative population (N= 108) of Alabama probation/parole officers responding to a survey instrument were subject to analysis. After examining reported levels of job stress and burnout, findings were compared to those from other studies. Multiple regression procedures were then utilized to identify significant predictors. Results indicated that a number of potentially alterable, organizational factors had a significant impact on officer perceptions; accordingly, several intervention strategies are offeredfor consideration.

Contributions of Psychiatric Consultation in the Investigation of Serial Murder

Abstract: This article focusses on enhancing communication between investigative officers assigned to serial murder cases and their psychiatric consultants. In view of the interdisciplinary interest in this topic, it must be pointed out that my purpose in presenting this article is not for the validation of psychiatric diagnosis of psychodynamic formulations. For those who are primarily interested in the validity of psychiatric formulations as applied to violent crime and predictions of dangerousness, standard texts are recommended where metapsychological issues are thoroughly discussed, and the very important issues of the validity of psychiatry. The reader, if not already acquainted with the literature of "Antipsychiatry", of Laing (1967), and the literature of Szasz (1961) can read these authors concerning the issues of validity in the field of psychiatric consultation to the criminal justice system. A well-known dilemma in clinical psychiatry is the retrograde reconstruction of clinical material, both fantasy a...

Treatment of a Sex Offender in a Maximum Security Forensic Hospital: Detecting Changes in Personality and Interpersonal Construing:

Abstract: In recent years the personal construct systems of mentally abnormal offenders have increasingly become the subject of clinical research interest. This single case study examines a much underresearched aspect in this area, namely long-term changes in construing by a rapist. Essentially, this report illustrates that whereas psychometrically assessed hostility levels failed to show reduction, the patient's construing processes have indeed undergone marked changes. Although the patient's self-esteem shows some enhancement, in general his more recent pattern of construing points to increasing self isolation from others, especially relevant women. The flexibility and comprehensiveness of the personal construct approach was indicated to have more clinical utility than psychometric tests in the evaluation of change.

Relapse in NGRI Outpatients: An Empirical Study

Abstract: The adjustment and rehospitalization of 39 NGRI outpatients was studied for a 20 month period. Each patient was evaluated at the beginning of the study and periodically assessed with the SADS-C at 3-4 month intervals. The study found that rehospitalized patients consistently demonstrated from the beginning greater psychological impairment with a wider range of more severe symptoms. Therefore, NGRI patients with GAS scores of less than 50 or more than seven SAD-C symptoms should be considered at high risk in community placement.

Treatment Environments in Secure Psychiatric Units: A Case Study

Abstract: The recent development of regionally based interim andpurposebuilt secure psychiatric units in England and Wales is described, highlighting certain factors which are expected to influence their mode of operation. A case study of one such Interim Secure Unit is reported, using questionnaire measures of "social climate" to describe the evolving milieu in the new Unit from both staffs' and patients' perspectives. Comparisons across time, within staff and patient groups, and between secure settings, are effected to reveal the "character" of the treatment environment and discern practical implications for the operation of the Unit. It is argued that social climate measures offer a salient method for studying the evolution of these new forensic psychiatric facilities, whose idealform and comparative efficacy are as yet uncertain.

Psychotherapy in Correctional Settings

Abstract: This article addresses difficult and unique problems in psychotherapy within the framework of a correctional setting. An apparent lack of success in such endeavors is reviewed in some detail. Barriers to therapeutic efforts within the prison setting are enumerated and reference is made to obstacles in the therapeutic alliance between psychotherapist and prison inmate. Current research suggests the value of a treatment model based on differential diagnosis and the matching of therapist and prison inmate. The need for further research on overcoming identified barriers, developing and adapting therapeutic approaches, and effectively matching inmates to them is emphasized.

Group Dynamics and the Prison Guard Subculture: Is the Subculture an Impediment to Helping Inmates?

Abstract: It is often argued that correctional officers as a group hold values that are antiethical to helping inmates. This assumption links "guard subculture" values to reinforcing group solidarity among correctional officers. This paper explores some of the literature on correctional officers from the perspective of the social psychology of group dynamics. Its conclusion are that factors which appear to foster group cohesion and group identification among correctional officers are relatively weak or absent. Under conditions of stress, however, these conditions are capable of mobilization. In general, this paperfinds that the guard subculture is not necessarily an impediment to positive guard behaviors.

Trends in Programs for Female Offenders: The Use of Private Agencies as Service Providers

Abstract: A national survey of state-run prisons for women indicates that a growing number of nontraditional programs are being offered for female offenders. There was a surprisingly small role played by private agencies as service providers, despite a generally positive attitude toward such agencies by prison administrators and reported efforts by administrators to locate private agencies interested in providing programs. Reasons for this contradiction are discussed.

Girls Who Kill

Abstract: Clinical case histories of two juvenile girl murderers are presented to explore possible causative psychodynamics and assess their congruence with a large series of boys who committed homicide.

Soccer Hooliganism in Black Africa

Abstract: Some incidents occurring in Black Africa during soccer matches are reported. Theories regarding causation are presented, as well as tendered suggestions for the lessening of violence and disorder for this phenomenon.

Patterns of Homicide in North India: Some Sociological Hypotheses

Abstract: Numerous and varied incidents of homicide are provided. The typical psychiatric and criminological hypotheses appear to be inadequate. Rather a sociological explanation based on rapidly shifting societal major upheavels seem to be a sounder hypothesis.

Parental Home and Deviance

Abstract: Investigation of variables associated with parental home, child, and type of offense reveals some significant-and at timessurprising findings.

The Core Boundary: A Conceptual Analysis of Interspousal Violence from a Construct-Systems Perspective

Abstract: A conceptual analysis is presented of anger and violence from the perspective of personal construct theory and systems theory. A beginning integration is made between concepts derived from both personal construct theory and systems theory. This leads to the recognition that anger can be defined as both a positive and negative emotion and violence is defined as the attempt to ward off or replace constructional emptiness with hostility constructs, leading to an inability or unwillingness to reconstrue core structure. The relationship between psychological distance (in terms of social control, social understanding) and violence is the major theoretical construct of the model.

Causes of Conformity: An Application of Control Theory to Adult Misdemeanant Probationers

Abstract: The present study represents an attempt to expand Hirschi's social control theory of delinquency causation to include adult misdemeanant offenders on probation; in addition, the study proposed to see if social control theory can provide a theoretical framework for probation prediction studies. A quota sample of 328 cases was drawn from a population of 3,320 closed case files in three Florida counties where misdemeanant probation supervision was provided by a vendor agency from the private sector. The authors hypothesized that various measures of three bonding elements (attachment, commitment and involvement) were positively associated with conformity (successfulprobation outcome). Results indicated qualified support for several of the hypotheses with education and time on present job emerging as salient variables. Analysis of the data directed attention to several methodological problems and suggestions for future research.

A Developmental Study of Aggression and Self-Destruction in Adolescents Who Received Residential Treatment

Abstract: Self-destructive and aggressive adolescents who had received residential treatment were followed up after discharge to the community. Severity of acting out prior to treatment or during residential treatment was not predictive of follow-up status. Frequency of early separations from parents and the age at which they occurred during thefirst six years was found to be related to outcome after treatment. Disruptions of parenting during the first year in particular were predictive of an inability to profit from treatment. A relationship between age at separation from the parent and type of acting out is also suggested.

Development of Scales to Measure Sexual Aggressives

Abstract: Thorne's Sex Inventory has been utilized to form a Sexual Psychopathology Scale (S.P.S.) by modifying twenty nine items from dichotomous items to a five-point item scale. The research results indicate that the S.P.S. can differentiate between sexual aggressiveness and normals.

Issues Regarding Admissions from a Correctional Facility to a Hospital Forensic Unit

Abstract: This article provides both theory and experience of the forensic services of the Calgary General Hospital. Based on the experience, suggestions are given.

The High Cost of Alabama's Habitual Felony Offender Act: A Preliminary Assessment

Abstract: A partial evaluation of Alabama's Habitual Felony Offender Act is conducted using case studies of inmates serving life without parole sentences. The centrality of the investigation focuses on the effect of the lift without parole sentencing, a practice which is assumed by many to be based on sound political practice, but may also be viewed as a questionable social policy. The authors suggest that Alabama's get-tough policy dealing with habitual criminals has effectively increased the prison population, but the consequences of the Act appears to be very costly in terms of the increasing number of L WOP inmates and the potential life threat to communities.

Transition Processes: Healthy versus Pathological in Youth Groups

Abstract: Relying largely on Winnicott's ideas about transitional phenomena and transitional objects, this paper reviews the ways in which group experience can be psychologically meaningful, even necessary, for many young people. A distinction is made between healthy and pathological, or antisocial uses of the group, and some of the possible dynamics determining involvement with antisocial groups are discussed. Study of ways in which groups can be organized that will assist youth to work through developmental issues in a pro-social fashion is strongly recommended.

The Rehabilitation of Young Isralei Offenders: A Kibbutz Experiment

Abstract: A promising delinquency rehabilitation experiment that is virtually unknown to the American student is the kibbutz rehabilitation project. This program officially began in January 1983 and included, as of December 1984, 30 delinquents placed in separate kibbutzim. Following Group Dynamics and Social Learning theories an experimental program was designed in a natural non-coercive environment: the kibbutz. Within this social milieu the delinquent has an opportunity to change his learned criminal oriented cognitions and deviant life style. Through work and a regular schedule he hopefully would learn the importance of "time" and regularity. His peer-work group becomes his reference group and he tends to adopt its values, attitudes, and behaviors.

American Forensic Psychiatry in the Eighties

Abstract: In these litigious days every large American city has one or more psychiatrists who devote much of their time to forensic issues. I am one of these people, in solo private practice in Portland, Oregon. What is a forensic psychiatrist? What do I do? What special problems and challenges does my work present? What have I learned about the American legal system? These are some of the issues I will address.