Criminal Psychology Unit 3

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Criminal PsychologyUnit 3
Psychology

• Treatment Programmes

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• Aim
• To examine the use of an offender treatment
• programmes and its effectiveness
• Learning Objectives
• By the end of these sessions you will be able to
• Describe and evaluate Irelands (2000) study
• Describe and evaluate anger management treatment
  programmes

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After a Guilty Verdict - Treatment Programmes

• Anger Management

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• Breakdown of Sessions 12 x 1hour over 3
  days
• Session 1 Content of sessions, rules of the
  course. Importance of using anger diaries.
• Session 2 Triggers for angry behaviour,
  understanding the consequences of temper loss.
  Anger Management Therapy With Young Male
  Offenders 183
• Session 3 Cycle of angry behaviour, importance
  of body language in signalling anger.
• Session 4 Replacing aggressive body language
  with non-aggressive body language.
• Session 5 Importance of thoughts. Using
  non-angry thoughts. The parts of an angry
  incident i.e. before, during and after.
• Session 6 Using non-angry thoughts before,
  during and after angry incidents. Importance of
  self-praise following avoidance of anger-loss.
• .

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• Session 7 Importance of bodily arousal in
  relation to angry behaviour. Learning how to wind
  down.
• Session 8 Relaxation techniques to help cope
  with feeling wound-up.
• Session 9 Choosing how you behave towards
  others.
• Session 10 Learning to express anger
  assertively.
• Session 11 Recognising and dealing with
  criticisms and insults. Peer group pressure and
  how to deal with this.
• Session 12 Identifying high-risk situations
  and lapse/relapse

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Ireland (2000)

• Aim
• To assess whether anger-management programmes
  work within a group of young male offenders
• Procedure
• Quasi experiment - Two groups

Control Group (37 participants) No intervention
or treatment programme
Experimental Group (50 participants) Received
CALM anger management programme
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Ireland (2000)

• Procedure
• Each participant was measured on the following...
• 1. Their responses to a cognitive behavioural
  interview
• 2. Wing Behavioural Checklist (WBC) - Completed
  by prison officers rating 29 angry behaviours
• 3. Anger Management Assessment (AMA) - A
  self-report questionnaire on anger management
  with 53 items completed by the prisoners
  themselves

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Sample

• 50 prisoners who had completed an anger
  management course and a control group of 37
  prisoners who had been assessed as suitable for
  such a course but had not actually completed one.

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Ireland (2000)

• Results There was a significant reduction in
  prison wing-based aggression in the experimental
  group but not in the control group.
• Prisoners who had completed CALM rated
  themselves lower on the AMA questionnaire and
  were rated lower on the WBC by the prison
  officers.
• There was no significant reduction in either of
  these measures in the control group.
• 92 of the treatment group showed improvements
  on at least one measure of aggression, 48 showed
  improvement on both measures.
• 8 showed no improvement or deterioration on
  both measures.

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Ireland (2000)

• Conclusion
• The CALM programme seemed effective and
  prisoners appeared to be helped by the programme.
  
• However, there is no re-offending data so it is
  unclear whether these programmes have a long-term
  effect.
• Also, the fact that 8 of prisoners appeared to
  get worse requires investigation.

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Ireland (2000)- Evaluation

• Method Quasi Experiment
• This allows a cause and effect relationship to
  be inferred as we can assess the offenders
  aggressive behaviours before and after the
  intervention
• However, there is a lack of control over other
  extraneous variables which may have affected
  inmates anger such as relationships with other
  inmates, news from family, etc.
• Some ecological validity as carried out in the
  institutional setting, however it is unclear
  whether these results apply when prisoners are
  released

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Ireland (2000) - Evaluation

• Method (contd...)
• It wasnt possibly to randomly assign
  participants to each group, so they couldnt be
  matched on variables such as age or offence type
• There are inherent difficulties in using
  self-reports in a forensic setting where there
  may be clear incentives for individuals to appear
  successful following treatment e.g., for parole
  purposes

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Ireland (2000) - Evaluation

• Sample
• The sample comprised all male young offenders
  (mean age of 18-19 years) in a young offenders
  institution serving sentences of less than 3
  months on average.
• Therefore, the results cannot be generalised to
  other settings and groups such as female
  offenders, released offenders or those in a
  prison.

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Ireland (2000) - Evaluation

• Reductionism vs. holism
• This study is reductionist as only looks at the
  effect that the CALM intervention has on
  aggressive behaviour. Many other factors can
  potentially influence aggressive behaviour.
• Situational vs. individual explanations
• This study suggests that completing the CALM
  programme will reduce aggressive behaviour. Is it
  the prison situation that causes this effect due
  to prisoners wanting early release? Or has the
  individuals behaviour changed for good? Unsure,
  as there is no re-offending data.

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Results (cont.)

• Quantitative data
• 70 reduction in drug related incidents from six
  months pre treatment to six months post
  treatment.
• 41 reduction in serious incident reports.
• 42 reduction in positive drug testing results
  (mandatory).
• 33 reduction in positive drug test results
  (voluntary).

16
Watch the Louis Theroux clip and design a
treatment programme to improve the conditions of
living in Miami County Jail.http//www.youtube.c
om/watch?vPx2kTQKZaSU
17
Evaluate the effectiveness of your proposal.