International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology最新文献

The Proposed Specifiers for Conduct Disorder (PSCD) is a promising novel scale that measures psychopathic traits and includes an additional conduct disorder factor that taps the antisocial dimension of psychopathy. The current study sought to broaden the application of PSCD by examining the factor structure, convergent and discriminant validity, and connections to delinquency in a young adult sample (N = 450; M = 31.91 years, SD = 13.02 years) obtained from the Brazilian community. Participants completed a self-report version of the PSCD along with other theoretically meaningful psychometric measures. Results supported a four-factor intercorrelated factor structure, with male participants scoring significantly higher than female participants on the PSCD total, grandiose-manipulative (GM), callous-unemotional (CU), daring-impulsive (DI), and conduct disorder (CD) factors. The four factors of the PSCD mainly presented positive, moderate to high significant inter-correlations and adequate reliability. The convergent validity with measures of the dark tetrad of personality, difficulties in emotion regulation, and self-reported delinquency also revealed positive moderate significant associations. Our findings support the use of the PSCD as a promising short, time-effective self-report measure of psychopathic traits in young adults.

According to the Risk-Need-Responsivity model, criminogenic needs are important in predicting violent behavior. Eight criminogenic needs are considered strong predictors: history of antisocial behavior, antisocial personality traits, criminal attitudes, criminal associates, substance abuse, family problems, poor work performance, and lack of involvement in prosocial leisure/recreation activities. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether seven criminogenic needs predict institutional misconduct in the first year of admission of Dutch patients who were admitted to a forensic hospital. Hospital records of 234 male patients were used to retrieve criminogenic needs assessed with the HCR-20^V3, with exception of criminal associates which was coded based on file review. The frequency of institutional misconduct was rated for verbal aggression, physical aggression, and sexual aggression. Exploratory analyses examined whether there was a (predictive) relation between psychopathy facets (PCL-R factors) and HCR-20^V3 clinical and risk management scales, and institutional misconduct. This study finds that criminogenic needs did not predict physical and sexual institutional misconduct, but a history of antisocial behavior and criminal attitudes were negative predictors for verbal aggression. Psychopathy facets and HCR-20^V3 scales did not predict institutional misconduct.

Despite cultural references to the dangers of hitchhiking, particularly for sexual homicide, no published research investigates these incidents from both an offender and crime scene perspective. Using the Sexual Homicide International Database (SHIelD), we explore lifestyle risk by comparing sexual homicide cases involving hitchhiking victims to those involving victims engaged in sex trade work. The results, based on the use of bivariate and multivariate statistics, indicate that offenders view hitchhiking victims as opportunities for confinement without physical restraint, often engaging in sexual acts and theft. While not primarily sadistic or sexually deviant, many offenders partake in criminal activities, exhibit psychological disorders, and possess weapons. Hitchhiking facilitates perpetrator-victim encounters due to its environmental characteristics. Victims in the sex trade, typically found in isolated locations, are at the mercy of offenders who drive them to unknown destinations. In contrast, murderers targeting low-risk victims display more sexual preoccupations, inserting foreign objects and engaging in postmortem activities. These distinctions suggest distinct offender profiles for each lifestyle.

Although sentencing is often described as a human process, the subjective experiences of those subject to sentencing are seldom discussed or highlighted as an important source of guidance for how sentencing might be made more fair, consistent, or proportionate. Tyler's work on the links between experiences of procedural justice and perceptions of legitimacy in the criminal justice system show that how people are treated during sentencing and/or when serving their sentence matters in that it impacts their long-term compliance with the law. However, we suggest here that it may not only be long-term compliance that is impacted; subjective experiences of imprisonment, in terms of the pains of imprisonment, may also be exacerbated for those whose experiences of the sentencing process are predominantly negative. This article draws on 37 in-depth interviews with Irish prisoners that explored their subjective experiences of their own sentencing in court and how this related to their subjective experiences of their prison sentences. Those who felt they had received unreasonably harsh or unfair sentences, or who felt they were effectively excluded from the sentencing process, were more likely to experience specific pains and increased salience of punishment. The article concludes by arguing that these findings have a role to play in educating sentencers about how their treatment of convicted persons during sentencing can have meaningful, long-term consequences on the subjective experiences of those serving prison sentences.

This paper investigates the underlying causes of children's involvement in criminal behavior, and the rehabilitation programs which seek to reintegrate them into society after their release. The data needed were gathered from children's case files and semi-structured interviews with professionals who work in a child education institution. The findings of the study, which include the demographic and socio-economic background of children who offend, the types of crimes they have committed, their causes, and the nature of the applied rehabilitation programs provided for the children who were serving their sentences in the education center are explained and discussed. It is found that these children are victims of social, cultural, economic, and political structures of the society. They are generally from migrants' families with middle and low incomes and live in gecekondu neighborhoods.¹ Poor living conditions, lack of parental affection, poverty, deprivation, neglect, abuse, addiction, the lack of preventive and protective institutions, the lack of NGOs which work with children, are, inter alia, among the causes of youth crime in Turkey. A lack of engagement or intervention by local authorities or municipalities to tackle the problem of youth crime in their regions is a further factor. The problems are aggravated by a trial and prosecution process that takes up to 2 years. When pending trial, children receive almost no training or rehabilitation in institutions, and this impairs their personal development. There is an urgent need to establish a monitoring system which can regularly monitor children who offend and provide support for at least several months after their release. This would help children to reintegrate into society on a more positive level.

Art therapy in prisons remains widely under-researched in Australia and beyond and represents a major gap in the literature. Despite evidence that art therapy can be a tool for social change, to date, there are no recorded studies in Australia which have investigated the therapeutic benefits of art in prison populations with measured outcomes. Literary analysis suggests that research tends to be hampered by limitations in methodological approaches that are suited to prison environments. By engaging "inside" with inmates over the course of an 8-week art therapy program, this research design addresses this knowledge gap. Building on 5 years of piloting, the research methodological design presented in this paper embodies a prototype that promises to overcome the limitations of previous research approaches. This research agenda promises to facilitate creative interventions through sensitively attuned art therapy delivery. Benefits are expected to accrue to diverse stakeholder groups, including inmates, chaplaincy and parole services, voluntary facilitators, policymakers, criminologists, and taxpayers, among others.

Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that was introduced in psychiatric hospitals, where psychiatric patients used painting as a way to express themselves. Nowadays, it is used in prison and has positive effects such as stress and anxiety reduction, and decrease in rates of recidivism. The main aim of this study was to analyze the effects of art therapy programs among the prison population with a diagnosis of mental illness. A systematic review was performed and a total of 12 studies were included. Positive results and beneficial effects were observed for this population; the most prominent is the decrease in the rate of recidivism. Art therapy is a form of therapy that is effective for improving socialization and decreasing anxiety and depressive symptoms in patients diagnosed with mental illnesses. It has been proved to decrease recidivism rates in inmates who participate in these programs.

Many patients in substance use disorder treatment exhibit behavior that is challenging for therapy. In Germany, offenders with addiction problems may be sentenced to treatment in forensic psychiatric institutions (Sect. 64 of the German Criminal Code). In general, therapy-challenging behavior (TCB) increases the risk that forensic addiction treatment (FAT) will fail. This article identifies a set of indicators allowing therapists to assess the risk of TCB during FAT. We define TCB as any substance use, escapes/abscondence and disciplinary incidents by patients. As potential predictors, anamnestic sociodemographic data, disorder-related variables, and delinquency-related data (set A) in addition to the therapists' assessments of the therapy process (set B) were analyzed. N = 548 records of patients, who had been in treatment for at least 12 and at most 24 months, were included in this study. Patients were treated in several forensic institutions throughout Germany. N = 187 patients showed at least one type of TCB (34.1%). In a first univariate step (applying Chi²-tests or t-test) various possible predictors were identified. Their predictive values were then analyzed in three binary stepwise logistic regression models. The first comprises set A predictors, the second set B and a third inclusive model combined both sets of variables (set AB). The combination of anamnestic and treatment-related variables (AB) proved to be superior to the other models and resulted in a significant model for prediction of TCB (p < .001). It includes seven variables and explains more than one third of TCB variance. The findings allow TCB in FAT to be more quickly identified in a population at risk and offer the possibility to provide these patients with appropriate treatment.

Although over the past 2 years several studies have been carried out on the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people, few of them investigated the pandemic as psychosocial strain and its effects on deviant behaviors. According to Agnew's General Strain Theory, a repeated objective psychosocial strain, such as the pandemic, exerts pressure on deviance when individuals associate with deviant peers and have weak attachment to parents. Using a sample of 568 young Italians (ages: 15-20 years; 65.8% females, 34.2% males) from north, central and south Italy, we tested for the possible correlation between COVID-19 as a repeated psychosocial strain, deviant behaviors and the role of some coping strategies not included in the Agnew's original theoretical formulation. Results back the thesis that, considering the COVID-19 pandemic as a repeated subjective strain, affect deviance results primarily through association with deviant peers and less through weak attachment with family. The mediating role of coping strategies was found to be weak. The predominant role of the peer group in the genesis of deviant responses to strain will be discussed.

Strain and low self-control theory are two prominent theories of crime. However, there has been little research comparing the two perspectives to examine their relationship to self-reported delinquency among institutionalized juveniles. We begin to address this gap in the literature by assessing the impacts of economic strain, negative emotions, and low self-control on the commission of property and violent crime using a near census of institutionalized delinquents from Missouri. Results indicated self-control was more essential to understanding both property and violent crime among institutionalized youth as compared to economic strain and negative emotions. Any associations between negative emotions and delinquency were mediated by the effect of low self-control. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.