Prison officers as observers of offence paralleling behaviours: an untapped resource?

Abstract

The concept of Offence Paralleling Behaviours (OPBs) has attracted attention within the forensic psychological risk assessment field given its focus on understanding the relevance of current behaviours. The current study employed thematic analysis on the data produced from two focus groups of prison officers working in an English high security prison. The focus groups explored whether potential OPBs are being observed in prisoner behaviours, and the reasons why some potential OPBs may not be reported. A variety of possible OPB observations emerged from the data, many of which resemble the kinds of manifestations that would be expected to derive from empirically established risk factors. The results suggest that prison officers should be considered an untapped resource by those seeking to complete meaningful forensic psychological risk assessments on offenders. Researchers and risk assessors should acknowledge and seek to ‘tap’ this important resource to attend to current manifestations of risk, but should be aware that in doing so, the stability of officer-inmate relationships may be disrupted.