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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.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: More than 80% of the offenders were reintegrated into a lower-security facility without relapsing and being returned to the supermaximum institutions within a follow-up period of 20 months, and have lower institutional offense rate postreintegration compared to prereIntegration.
Abstract: Offenders who have committed serious violent acts while incarcerated are often segregated and housed in supermaximum security facilities. Given the highly restricted regime under which they are detained, it is often difficult to decide if they are safe enough to be discharged. However, there is a need to reintegrate them into the general offender population in a lower security institution for humane, correctional, and financial reasons. We propose a transitional strategy to facilitate their reintegration by way of a maximum-security step-down treatment-oriented facility within which both their security requirements and treatment needs could be adequately met. The present study reports the results of such an approach. More than 80% of the offenders (n = 31) were reintegrated into a lower-security facility without relapsing and being returned to the supermaximum institutions within a follow-up period of 20 months. They also have lower institutional offense rate postreintegration compared to prereintegration.

31 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It appears that the MOTS-R may prove to be a valuable tool for use with an offender population, particularly because of the simple, intuitive structure of dysfunctional thinking that it represents.
Abstract: The Measure of Offender Thinking Styles (MOTS) was originally developed to examine the structure of dysfunctional thinking exhibited by criminal offenders. In the initial investigation, a three-fac...

31 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examines how values of various types guide and shape action at the level of scientific inquiry, influence the construction of rehabilitation theories, and shape the concepts of dynamic risk and protective factors and proposes ways in which researchers and practitioners can acknowledge these challenges while also respecting the factual basis of science.

31 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the predictive validity of the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) within an institutional setting and used it to predict institutional misconduct.
Abstract: Offender assessment in corrections has advanced considerably over the last several decades. Currently, it is not uncommon to find correctional professionals using any number of objective standardized assessment instruments. While many of these instruments possess face validity as well as statistical predictive validity, more work is needed to test classification protocol on new populations, and in various correctional environments. The current paper investigates the predictive validity of the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) within an institutional setting. Specifically, the composite score rendered from the YLS/CMI is used to predict institutional misconduct. The YLS/ CMI was found to effectively differentiate between two levels of offender risk/ need, and was significantly related to outcome using several different statistical techniques.

31 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This essay illuminates how the CPAI can be used to guide the development of a prison whose goals and practices advance offender rehabilitation.
Abstract: Since the founding of the penitentiary, the hope has persisted that incarceration could serve reformative purposes. This intent to create a truly therapeutic prison is no longer a utopian dream. A ...

30 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
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

BookDOI
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 2005
TL;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

BookDOI
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