Book•
The Psychology of Criminal Conduct
01 Jan 1994-
TL;DR: For instance, the authors investigates the relationship between the beginning and maintenance of criminal activity and diverse risk predictors (singular and social, static and dynamic) in the development of criminal behaviour.
Abstract: Throughout the last decades the so-called Psychology of criminal conduct, which agglutinates scientific knowledge surrounding criminal phenomena, has been taking shape. We can find among the principal fields of interests an explanation for antisocial behaviour where learning theories, analyses of individual characteristics, strain-agression hypotheses, studies on social vinculation and crime, and the analyses of criminal careers are relevant. This last sector, also denominated ‘developmental criminology’, investigates the relationship between the beginning and maintenance of criminal activity and diverse risk predictors (singular and social, static and dynamic). Their results have had great relevance in the creation of crime prevention and treatment programs. Psychological treatments of offenders are aimed at the modification of those risk factors, known as ‘criminogenic needs’, which are considered to be directly related to their criminal activity. In particular, treatment programs attempt to provide criminals (whether juveniles, abusers, sexual aggressors, etc.) with new repertoires of prosocial behaviour, develop their thinking, regulate their choleric emotions, and prevent relapses or recidivisms in crime. Lastly, nowadays the Psychology of criminal conduct places special emphasis on the prediction and management of the risk for violent and antisocial behaviour, a field which will be addressed in a subsequent paper of this same monograph.
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TL;DR: Evidence is provided that Indigenous status may play a significant role in the relationship between ID and offending in juvenile offenders on community orders, which has clear implications for the 'risk', 'needs' and 'responsivity' principles of offender classification for treatment.
Abstract: Background Intellectual disability (ID), age and aboriginal status have been independently implicated as risk factors for offending to varying degrees. This study examined the relationship between age, ID and the Indigenous status of juvenile offenders. It also examined the outcomes of the sample's offending in terms of court appearances and sentencing, criminogenic needs and risk of reoffending.
Method The sample comprised 800 juvenile offenders on community orders of whom 19% were Indigenous, who completed the New South Wales Young People on Community Order Health Survey between 2003 and 2005. Risk and criminogenic needs were evaluated using the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (Australian Adaptation) (YLS/CMI: AA).
Results Those with an ID were found to have a higher risk of reoffending than those without an ID. Those with an ID were also more likely to be younger and Indigenous. For Indigenous young offenders, there was no difference between those with and without an ID in risk category allocation or number of court dates. For non-Indigenous young offender, those with an ID had higher risk scores and more court dates.
Conclusions This study provided evidence that Indigenous status may play a significant role in the relationship between ID and offending in juvenile offenders on community orders. These findings have clear implications for the ‘risk’, ‘needs’ and ‘responsivity’ principles of offender classification for treatment. Emphasis is placed on the requirement for addressing the needs of Indigenous juvenile offenders with an ID.
49 citations
TL;DR: Two service innovations developed specifically to work with stalkers are presented as options to overcome current management deficiencies and enhance therapeutic efficacy.
Abstract: Legal sanctions alone are often ineffective in preventing stalking because, in the absence of treatment, the fundamental problems driving the stalker remain unresolved. Criminal justice interventions can be problematic because of difficulties in framing antistalking legislation and inconsistencies in their application. Civil remedies in the form of restraining orders may be ineffective or counterproductive. Treatment of stalkers involves pharmacotherapy when mental illness is present, but the mainstays of treatment for non-psychotic stalkers are programmes of psychological intervention. These depend on accurate assessment of the risks inherent in stalking and on the identification of psychological deficits, needs, and responsivity factors specific to the individual. Treatment can then be tailored to suit the stalker, thereby enhancing therapeutic efficacy. Developing a framework for identifying the risk factors and shaping the delivery of treatment is crucial. Two service innovations developed specifically to work with stalkers are presented as options to overcome current management deficiencies. Copyright # 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Stalking is a problematic and damaging behavior which affects at least 8% of women and 2% of men at some stage of their lives (Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998) with some estimates being considerably higher (Dressing, Kuehner & Gass, 2005; Purcell, Pathe ´ & Mullen, 2002). The harm that it causes has been increasingly recognized in Western countries over the past 20 years, amongst the public and in legal and clinical circles. This has been reflected in increased media attention, the spread of anti-stalking legislation and the expansion of dedicated research, and in the increasing number of stalkers coming before the courts or being recognized by mental health professionals (Mullen, Pathe ´ & Purcell, 2009).
48 citations
Cites background from "The Psychology of Criminal Conduct"
...Responsivity Factors In exploring how to increase the efficacy of offender treatment, Andrews and Bonta (2007) suggested a model based on the individual’s risks, needs and responsivity Copyright # 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Behav....
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...The use of the psychodynamic approach as a treatment in offender populations has been criticized on the basis that many offenders lack the necessary verbal intelligence and motivation, and that treatment fails to focus on developing pro-social contingencies (Andrews & Bonta, 2007)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the background to the DSPD initiative in England and consider issues that arise in planning and delivering treatment services, and suggest that ongoing evaluation of treatments is critical in this area of practice, given the impoverished knowledge base.
Abstract: Dangerous and severe personality disorder (DSPD) services have a relatively short history but are increasingly involved in the implementation of therapeutic programmes. We describe the background to the DSPD initiative in England and consider issues that arise in planning and delivering treatment services. Two bodies of evidence are particularly relevant: previous research into personality disorder and its treatment, which we suggest is as yet of limited value, and research into the outcomes of offender treatment programmes. The latter is clearly relevant but greater consideration of adapting programmes for the patient population and of breadth of treatment is required in the DSPD setting. The important task is to integrate components for the treatment of personality disorder and offending behaviour in a holistic manner. We describe three further challenges in delivering treatment and suggest that ongoing evaluation of treatments is critical in this area of practice, given the impoverished knowledge base.
48 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop a sociological analysis and critique of including socioeconomic factors such as education, employment, income and housing in risk assessment tools that inform sentencing decisions, and conceptualize risk-based sentencing as a meaning-making process through which (access to) resources and recognition are distributed among offender populations.
Abstract: This article develops a sociological analysis and critique of including socioeconomic factors such as education, employment, income and housing in risk assessment tools that inform sentencing decisions. In widely used risk assessment tools such as the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) (Canada, US), the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS) (US), the Offender Assessment System (OASys) (UK) and the Recidive InschattingsSchalen (RISc) (the Netherlands), socioeconomic marginality contributes to a higher risk score, which increases the likelihood of a (longer) custodial sentence for underprivileged offenders compared to their more privileged counterparts. While this has been problematized in relation to gender and racial/ethnic bias, the problem of socioeconomic bias in itself has received little attention. Given the already marginalized position of many justice involved individuals and longstanding concerns about such disparities, and the adverse effects of imprisonment on socioeconomic opportunities, it is essential to evaluate the unintended social consequences of assessing socioeconomic marginality as ‘risk factor’. Elaborating on earlier critiques, I conceptualize risk-based sentencing as a meaning-making process through which (access to) resources and recognition are distributed among offender populations. Through tracing in detail two cultural processes – stigmatization and rationalization – I analyse how risk assessment is likely to produce sentencing disparities as well as to reproduce, and possibly exacerbate, social inequalities more generally.
48 citations
TL;DR: A Bayesian network model for violence risk analysis in released prisoners that allows for specific risk factors to be targeted for causal intervention for risk management of future re-offending and demonstrates significantly higher accuracy.
Abstract: A Bayesian network model for violence risk analysis in released prisoners.Higher predictive accuracy compared to other established models within this area.Allows for specific risk factors to be targeted for causal intervention.Interventions modelled allow for risk management of future reoffending. Forensic medical practitioners and scientists have for several years sought improved decision support for determining and managing care and release of prisoners with mental health problems. Some of these prisoners can pose a serious threat of violence to society after release. It is, therefore, critical that the risk of violent reoffending is accurately measured and, more importantly, well managed with causal interventions to reduce this risk after release. The well-established predictors in this area of research are typically based on regression models or even some rule-based methods with no statistical composition, and these have proven to be unsuitable for simulating causal interventions for risk management. In collaboration with the medical practitioners of the Violence Prevention Research Unit (VPRU), Queen Mary University of London, we have developed a Bayesian network (BN) model for this purpose, which we call DSVM-P (Decision Support for Violence Management - Prisoners). The BN model captures the causal relationships between risk factors, interventions and violence and demonstrates significantly higher accuracy (cross-validated AUC score of 0.78) compared to well-established predictors (AUC scores ranging from 0.665 to 0.717) within this area of research, with respect to whether a prisoner is determined suitable for release. Even more important, however, the BN model also allows for specific risk factors to be targeted for causal intervention for risk management of future re-offending. Hence, unlike the previous predictors, this makes the model useful in terms of answering complex clinical questions that are based on unobserved evidence. Clinicians and probation officers who work in these areas would benefit from a system that takes account of these complex risk management considerations, since these decision support features are not available in the previous generation of models used by forensic psychiatrists.
48 citations
Cites background from "The Psychology of Criminal Conduct"
...Involvement in crime and a criminal lifestyle has been long known to be associated with violence (Andrews & Bonta, 1994), either through the instrumental use of force by criminals to obtain goals (e.g. in robbery) or through a tendency for criminal activities that may not be violent in themselves…...
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References
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TL;DR: It is suggested that delinquency conceals 2 distinct categories of individuals, each with a unique natural history and etiology: a small group engages in antisocial behavior of 1 sort or another at every life stage, whereas a larger group is antisocial only during adolescence.
Abstract: This chapter suggests that delinquency conceals two distinct categories of individuals, each with a unique natural history and etiology: A small group engages in antisocial behavior of one sort or another at every life stage, whereas a larger group is antisocial only during adolescence. According to the theory of life-course-persistent antisocial behavior, children's neuropsychological problems interact cumulatively with their criminogenic environments across development, culminating m a pathological personality. According to the theory of adolescence-limited antisocial behavior, a contemporary maturity gap encourages teens to mimic antisocial behavior in ways that are normative and adjustive. There are marked individual differences in the stability of antisocial behavior. The chapter reviews the mysterious relationship between age and antisocial behavior. Some youths who refrain from antisocial behavior may, for some reason, not sense the maturity gap and therefore lack the hypothesized motivation for experimenting with crime.
9,425 citations
28 Jul 2017
TL;DR: In Causes of Delinquency, Hirschi attempts to state and test a theory of delinquency, seeing in the delinquent a person relatively free of the intimate attachments, the aspirations, and the moral beliefs that bind most people to a life within the law.
Abstract: In Causes of Delinquency, Hirschi attempts to state and test a theory of delinquency, seeing in the delinquent a person relatively free of the intimate attachments, the aspirations, and the moral beliefs that bind most people to a life within the law. In prominent alternative theories, the delinquent appears either as a frustrated striver forced into delinquency by his acceptance of the goals common to us all, or as an innocent foreigner attempting to obey the rules of a society that is not in position to make the law or define conduct as good or evil. Hirschi analyzes a large body of data on delinquency collected in Western Contra Costa County, California, contrasting throughout the assumptions of the strain, control, and cultural deviance theories. He outlines the assumptions of these theories and discusses the logical and empirical difficulties attributed to each of them. Then draws from sources an outline of social control theory, the theory that informs the subsequent analysis and which is advocated here. Often listed as a "Citation Classic," Causes of Delinquency retains its force and cogency with age. It is an important volume and a necessary addition to the libraries of sociologists, criminologists, scholars and students in the area of delinquency.
3,690 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2005TL;DR: Haug, Sorensen, Gruber, Song, Relapse Prevention for Opioid Dependence, and Wheeler, George, Stoner, Enhancing the Relapse prevention model for Sex Offenders: Adding Recidivism Risk Reduction Therapy to Target Offenders' Dynamic Risk Needs.
Abstract: Marlatt, Witkiewitz, Relapse Prevention for Alcohol and Drug Problems. Blume, de la Cruz, Relapse Prevention among Diverse Populations. Kadden, Cooney, Treating Alcohol Problems. Shiffman, Kassel, Gwaltney, McChargue, Relapse Prevention for Smoking. Carroll, Rawson, Relapse Prevention for Stimulant Dependence. Haug, Sorensen, Gruber, Song, Relapse Prevention for Opioid Dependence. Roffman, Stephens, Relapse Prevention for Cannabis Abuse and Dependence. Kilmer, Cronce, Palmer, Relapse Prevention for Abuse of Club Drugs, Hallucinogens, Inhalants, and Steroids. Collins, Relapse Prevention for Eating Disorders and Obesity. Shaffer, LaPlante, Treatment of Gambling Disorders. Wheeler, George, Stoner, Enhancing the Relapse Prevention Model for Sex Offenders: Adding Recidivism Risk Reduction Therapy to Target Offenders' Dynamic Risk Needs. Zawacki, Stoner, George, Relapse Prevention for Sexually Risky Behaviors.
2,866 citations
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a theory of criminality, heredity, and environment for criminality and apply it to the problem of illegal behavior in the United States.
Abstract: 1. Introduction.- 2. The Constitutional Theory of Criminality.- 3. Crime and Personality.- 4. Criminality, Heredity, and Environment.- 5. A Biological Theory of Criminality.- 6. The Function and Effectiveness of Sentencing.- 7. The Prevention and Treatment of Illegal Behavior.- 8. Sexual Deviations.- 9. Summary and Conclusions.- References.
404 citations
Book•
27 Apr 1993
TL;DR: The Measurement and Distribution of Crime, Criminology, and Psychology as mentioned in this paper The Measurement of and distribution of crime, crime, and mental health disorders, and the effectiveness and ethics of intervention with offenders.
Abstract: Crime, Criminology, and Psychology. The Measurement and Distribution of Crime. Classification of Offenders. Social and Environmental Theories of Crime. Individually Oriented and Integrated Theories of Crime. Biological Correlates of Antisocial Behavior. Familial and Social Correlates of Crime. Personal Attributes of Offenders. Aggression and Violent Crime. Crime and Mental Disorder. Sexual Deviation and Sexual Offending. Forensic Psychology and the Offender. Psychological Interventions with Offenders. Treatment of Dangerous Offenders. The Effectiveness and Ethics of Intervention. References. Index.
373 citations