Abstract
South Africa has one of the highest crime and recidivism rates in the world. Although widely accepted that crime is a complex and multi-nodal social phenomenon, it is indubitably causally linked to South Africa’s historical and current socio-political circumstances, poverty and unemployment, as well as the ineffective rehabilitation and treatment of offenders. Anecdotal evidence suggests that offenders are often apportioned the blame for reoffending and written off as incorrigible, without any real reflection on the efficiency and/or relevance of the prison programmes to which they were subjected to begin with. Accurate and relevant assessment of criminogenic risk factors is not only connected to the major outcomes of meta-analyses, but forms the foundation for treatment-planning and decision-making pertaining to risk and safety, and ultimately abstinence from aberrant behaviour. This article critically addresses the issue of South African needs-based offender rehabilitation in a systemic and diagnostic manner by aligning theory with relevant case scenarios in order to expose the essence of the therapeutic challenges in the South African custodial environment.
Highlights
South Africa has one of the highest crime and recidivism rates in the world
It is stipulated that individual assessments are important for the development of individualised treatment programmes for offenders who have a right to an individualised assessment plan.[3]
The individual treatment of offenders is not the norm, and a one size fits all approach is often pursued by South African corrections – this despite the White Paper on Corrections underscoring the fact that there is a definite need to introduce more individualised treatment and assessment of offenders to coordinate and facilitate effective rehabilitation efforts
Summary
South Africa has one of the highest crime and recidivism rates in the world. widely accepted that crime is a complex and multi-nodal social phenomenon, it is indubitably causally linked to South Africa’s historical and current socio-political circumstances, poverty and unemployment, as well as the ineffective rehabilitation and treatment of offenders. The overarching goal of offender rehabilitation should be to increase public safety This can be achieved by adding incremental validity to the risk assessment and risk management repertoires and related treatment-planning decisions made by professionals who provide supervision and offence-specific treatment to incarcerated offenders. SA Crime Quarterly no 41 September 2012 the development itinerary of an inmate, and the needs of the offender should be harmonised with the necessary resources to ensure maximum support.[1] The time has arrived to look into offender assessment as a basis for the treatment of offenders, on a personal level.[2] This must be done against the background of a greater emphasis on human rights, visible and working treatment and development programmes, and greater efforts to reduce recidivism in a country where crime, while starting to stabilise and moderate somewhat, is still endemic.
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