Journal of Forensic Practice最新文献

Purpose

Adolescents with harmful sexual behaviors (AHSB) who drop out of treatment are more likely to continue offending than are those who complete treatment; therefore, it is important to identify factors that heighten the risk of dropout, so they can be detected early. The purpose of this paper is to present the predictors of treatment dropout derived from a community sample of AHSB in New Zealand.

Design/methodology/approach

Pretreatment data on 100 males (aged 12–16) in community-based treatment for harmful sexual behavior were analyzed. Data on 50 adolescents who dropped out were matched by age and ethnicity to 50 adolescents who completed treatment. Pretreatment variables were identified using the Estimate of Risk of Adolescent Sexual Offence Recidivism. The degree to which these variables influenced treatment dropout was tested using logistic regression.

Findings

Compared to those who completed treatment, adolescents who dropped out were more likely to have a prior history of personal victimization, to deny or minimize their behavior, to have been mandated to attend treatment and to have engaged in noncontact offences.

Practical implications

Screening for a prior history of personal victimization, denial or minimization, mandated treatment and noncontact offences may facilitate the prediction of dropout risk more confidently. Addressing these pretreatment risk variables has the potential to improve treatment completion rates.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to highlight treatment dropout predictors in a New Zealand community sample.

Purpose

Understanding of wellbeing has improved in recent years, and the literature has established some links between wellbeing and aggression, which appears to be theoretically supported. “Hedonia” (maximising positive emotions and minimising negative emotions) and “eudaimonia” (living well and with meaning), two core components of wellbeing, are targeted by the Stoicism programme, which is currently being run in a prison for male foreign national offenders. The purpose of these studies was therefore to measure the impact of the programme on self-reported participant wellbeing and aggression.

Design/methodology/approach

Two studies have been completed with foreign national offenders who participated in the Stoicism programme. The studies aimed to evaluate the impact of this programme using pre- and post-programme self-report measures of wellbeing and aggression. Supplementary manifest content analysis was also used with sub-samples of participants.

Findings

Both studies found significant improvements in participant wellbeing. Study 1 found significant improvement on self-reported hostility (a subscale of the aggression measure), but not in the other subscales or in aggression overall. Study 2 found improvements across all scales. The findings suggest that the Stoicism programme is achieving changes in wellbeing, could be contributing to aggression reduction and provides support for the relationship between wellbeing and aggression.

Practical implications

It is possible the findings suggest the Stoicism programme may provide a further approach to improving safety in His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Services (HMPPS), that the gymnasium environment may in itself be conducive to prisoner wellbeing and engagement, and that philosophical approaches may have meaningful benefits in the prison setting.

Originality/value

There are limitations to these studies, most notably in the sample sizes, lack of control group and the research design focused solely on participant self-report. However, the programme has not been previously evaluated, so these initial findings are important in understanding the possible impact of the programme. Future research would therefore benefit from evaluating the programme itself (including the environment in which it is run), examining the specific sub-types of wellbeing separately and examining participant aggression in further depth and with a larger sample.

Purpose

This study aims to explore the potential impact of applying the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF), to develop a collaborative formulation with those serving Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection (IPP), where there have been serious concerns with sentence progression.

Design/methodology/approach

Given little research has focused on the utility of the PTMF with this cohort, a case study approach was adopted. Participants developed a formulation, discussing their experience of serving an IPP sentence with the opportunity to share their formulation with supervising professionals. Notes were recorded including: participants’ comments, researcher’s observations and professionals’ feedback. The data was analysed using thematic analysis.

Findings

Four themes were developed: “Insight”, “Working alliance”, “Gives ‘power’ back” and “Motivation”, including some sub-themes. These findings provide some support for the use of the PTMF with this cohort.

Practical implications

The small number of participants mean the findings cannot be generalised to the wider IPP cohort. This study indicates that using a PTMF formulation approach to discuss the impact of the IPP sentence, in a manner that mitigates the power imbalance between professionals and prisoners, has the potential to improve engagement and working alliance.

Originality/value

The current study sought to add to the limited literature focusing on the use of the PTMF with unreleased IPPs on a one-to-one basis. The findings act as a foundation for future research exploring the use of the PTMF more widely within custodial settings.

Purpose

Research indicates the challenges indeterminate sentenced prisoners (ISPs) face within open prison may have a potentially devastating impact on rehabilitation and prison sentence progression. The authors conducted a study in an English open prison to explore whether the closed prison environment within England and Wales is sufficiently preparing ISPs for the transition to open conditions. There is currently a gap in existing research concerning this issue, which this paper aims to narrow for the purpose of informing good practice and improving sentence progression and rehabilitation outcomes within His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative and exploratory. Reflexive thematic analysis was conducted to identify themes (Braun and Clarke, 2019).

Findings

Findings indicated the need for policy in closed prisons to better prepare ISPs for open prison and the need for policy in open prisons to better support ISPs during the liminal phase.

Practical implications

Findings aimed to inform consideration for improvements to enhance preparation for, and transition to, open conditions. A 17-month follow-up after dissemination of the research found evidence for the practical application of the findings at a local level within HMPPS and potential for wider applications linking to strategy and ISP initiatives.

Originality/value

If applied more widely across HMPPS in both closed and open prisons, the research findings have the potential to improve sentence progression and rehabilitation outcomes for ISPs.

Purpose

This paper describes qualitative research evaluating the impacts of parkrun in a female prison. The extended methodology section explains why HMPPS psychologists have been ideally suited to investigate custodial parkrun whilst successfully partnering with a range of stakeholders, conferring benefits that could not have been achieved in any other way.

Design/methodology/approach

Purposive sampling resulted in 15 semi-structured interviews with prisoner parkrunners and volunteers at a women’s prison in England.

Findings

A range of highly positive parkrun experiences were described, which were grouped into four themes with sub-themes; improved mental and physical health, a sense of purpose, enhanced connections to others and stabilisation in prison. Women struggled when custodial parkrun was inconsistently delivered.

Research limitations/implications

Custodial parkrun offers an opportunity for women to develop factors underpinning health and well-being, harnesses elements which engage women in physical activity and mitigates some gendered barriers to exercise. The findings also describe factors which are important to desistance, the development of a rehabilitation culture, self-determination theory (Ryan and Deci, 2000) and a trauma-informed approach. The opportunity for women to participate in parkrun through the gate may offer an important and sustainable “catalyst for change” (Maruna, 2001, p. 96).

Practical implications

The paper discusses how parkrun might be further utilised across the female prison estate. It adds to the evidence base regarding the benefits of physical activity for women, which might be considered when developing a sports strategy specific to the female estate. Additionally, HMPPS managers hoping to further develop the rehabilitation culture in their establishment might be persuaded as to the benefits of parkrun in this regard. Finally, the work provides an exemplar of how HMPPS psychologists can work with stakeholders to enhance practice evaluations.

Originality/value

This is only the second published research paper focusing on the impacts of parkrun in the custodial estate, and the first looking at women. Additionally, its inclusion in this Special Edition mean it is among the first published works describing how HMPPS psychologists can successfully partner with stakeholders to support evidence-based practice.

Purpose

A recent Ministry of Justice inquiry highlighted the need for more awareness of neurodivergent conditions in the Criminal Justice System. Although evidence suggests a prevalence rate of 25% for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) within the UK prison population, there is no research to date that has explored the experiences of people with ADHD in prison. Therefore, this study aims to address this gap in the literature.

Design/methodology/approach

Data was collected within an adult male Category B prison. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight prisoners who had a formal diagnosis of ADHD. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to look for patterns across the data that addressed the research question.

Findings

Five themes were generated from the analysed data that included “The unsuitability of the prison environment”; “The impact of the prison regime”; “A lack of resources”; “The importance of staff and prisoner relationships”; and “Response to medication”.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of this study may be difficult to generalise given the specific characteristics of the participants. The participants were all adult males with a formal diagnosis of ADHD, taking prescribed medication, recruited from one prison and all resided on one wing that had been adapted to support neurodivergent people. Although qualitative research is not intended to be generalisable in the broad sense, the findings of this study may be transferable to individuals in other settings who share similar characteristics with the current study where parallels can be drawn.

Practical implications

Participants described the prison environment as being unresponsive to their neurodiverse needs. Findings support the need for awareness training for staff along with a compassionate approach to working relationships and psycho-educational work for prisoners for all to have a better understanding of the needs of this group of people.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are currently no qualitative studies that have sought to learn from individuals living with ADHD in prison themselves.

Purpose

The New Me MOT toolkit is part of the His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) accredited offending behaviour programmes, consisting of a series of short exercises that enable offender managers to support graduates of the programmes to generalise their learning. This study was commissioned by HMPPS with the aim to evaluate the delivery of the toolkit in custody, through exploring probation prison offender managers’ (POMs’) delivery experiences.

Design/methodology/approach

Convenience sampling was used to recruit participants from male prisons in England and Wales via semi-structured interviews (n = 8), and data was analysed through thematic analysis.

Findings

Five overarching themes with related subthemes were identified: New Me MOT is useful, flexible toolkit, motivation of the prisoner, limited resources and lack of structured guidance.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should consider investigating POMs’ experiences from other prison establishments, to explore any possible additional findings about what impacts New Me MOT delivery in custody.

Practical implications

Suggestions were made to improve the future delivery of the toolkit across HMPPS. This is fundamental to support the behavioural change process.

Originality/value

No previous research on New Me MOT exists. This study findings showed that, based on the experiences of eight POMs interviewed, there are factors which aid and obstruct the toolkit delivery. This suggests that POMs might miss opportunities to prioritise generalisation of work for those most in need, target their criminogenic needs and tailor the toolkit content according to participants’ personal circumstances.

Purpose

Incidents of violence and aggression are a regular occurrence within adult forensic mental health inpatient settings and often lead to the use of restrictive practices such as seclusion. Such events are frequently attributed to the complexity of the patients. Research commonly focuses on patient’s characteristics and their association with seclusion use. Less attention has been centred on forensic mental health nurses’ attitudes to seclusion and the association of nursing staff characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional survey was undertaken using a standardised questionnaire, “Survey of Nurses’ Attitudes to Seclusion”. Responses were received from n = 147 nurses at a high secure forensic mental health hospital in the UK.

Findings

Key findings indicate that most participants believed seclusion should remain part of clinical practice. A correlation was identified between forensic mental health nurses’ attitudes to seclusion use and their characteristics: gender, age range, educational level and experience.

Practical implications

This paper presents novel information on seclusion reduction opportunities through modifiable workforce factors such as gender-sensitive rostering and staff training and development. Furthermore, recruitment and retention strategies should be prioritised so forensic mental health is perceived as an attractive career and a safe workplace.

Originality/value

The paucity of research in this area has prompted calls for further research to explore nursing staff characteristics and seclusion use. This is particularly important now due to the current global difficulty in the recruitment and retention of mental health nurses.

Purpose

This paper aims to make a contribution to the offender-based perspective when researching white-collar and corporate crime. Previously, the offender-based perspective has emphasized general characteristics of actors such as social and occupational status, respectability and power.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents categories of offender types in their roles when offending.

Findings

Based on the theory of convenience with 14 convenience propositions along three dimensions, it is possible to identify eight offender categories.

Research limitations/implications

Alternative theories for identification of offender categories might be applied in future research to compare with categories presented in this paper based on convenience theory.

Practical implications

These offender categories are labeled opportunist, illusionist, manipulator, ignorer, defender, reactionist, rescuer and controller.

Social implications

The offender-bases rather than the offence-based perspective is needed to increase law enforcement understanding of white-collar and corporate crime.

Originality/value

When researchers study the extent of seriousness of white-collar and corporate crime in the future, it is suggested that they use such labels to distinguish between serious and less serious offenders.

Purpose

Re-entry refers to the process of transitioning back into society after incarceration, and it is a complex phenomenon that requires further exploration. Therefore, this study aims to identify the readiness for re-entry among pre-release prisoners in Sarawak, Malaysia.

Design/methodology/approach

Using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory as the theoretical foundation, quantitative place-based research was conducted among 384 pre-release prisoners in Kuching, Sri Aman, Sibu, Miri, Bintulu and Limbang prisons.

Findings

This study’s results indicated that most respondents were Malay male offenders between the ages of 25 and 29, Malaysian citizens, single and had completed their education up to the upper secondary level. Most respondents had multiple prior convictions (52.3%), were convicted for drug-related offences (50.3%), had served sentences ranging from two to five years (56.0%) and were scheduled for release in 2023 (60.7%). The findings also demonstrated that factors such as personal development, perceived employability, social development and health development significantly predict readiness for re-entry among pre-release prisoners [F(4, 379) = 96.269, p < 0.01].

Practical implications

The findings of this study provide place-based evidence for the state government to understand the prisoner profile for further policy intervention measures and to enhance the personal development, perceived employability, social development and health development of pre-release prisoners. Given that most offenses were drug-related, it is crucial to highlight the state government’s need to invest in evidence-based drug treatment programmes. Synergy among different stakeholders is important to devise appropriate drug treatment programmes tailored to the current needs of the prison population to ensure successful reintegration into society and to actualise their potential.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research study conducted in Sarawak, Malaysia, that examined re-entry readiness among pre-release prisoners. It contributes to the knowledge pool by providing place-based evidence that takes into account readiness for re-entry among pre-release prisoners in Sarawak, Malaysia, from an Asian perspective to promote the attainment of SDG16.