Adult Offenders Research Articles

Prisoners with neurodevelopmental difficulties: Vulnerabilities for mental illness and self-harm.

Research into neurodevelopmental disorders in adult offenders has tended to be disorder specific, so hindering service planning for a group of offenders with similar vulnerabilities. To examine vulnerabilities for mental illness and self-harming behaviours among male prisoners screening positive for a range of neurodevelopmental difficulties-including but not confined to disorders of intellectual ability, attention deficit hyperactivity, and in the autistic spectrum. In a cross-sectional study, prisoners who screened positive for neurodevelopmental difficulties were compared to prisoners who screened negative for the same on indicators of suicide-related and self-harm behaviours, mental illness, and substance misuse using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Of 87 prisoners who screened positive for neurodevelopmental difficulties, 69 had full MINI mental health data. In comparison with 69 neurotypical men in the same prison, the neurodevelopmental difficulties group was significantly more likely to have thought about self-harm and suicide in the last month and to have significantly higher rates of concurrent mental disorders including psychosis, anxiety, depression, personality disorder, and substance dependency disorders. This is one of the first studies to examine the mental health of adults with neurodevelopmental difficulties in a prison setting. This group, unlike those who meet diagnostic threshold, is not routinely considered by mental health or correctional services. The study found prisoners with neurodevelopmental difficulties showed greater vulnerability to mental disorder and thoughts of suicide and suicide-related behaviours than other prisoners. Accordingly, we recommend routine early screening across the criminal justice system for any neurodevelopmental difficulties to inform decision-making on the most appropriate disposal and support.

The impact of care farms on quality of life, depression and anxiety among different population groups: A systematic review.

Care farming (also called social farming) is the therapeutic use of agricultural and farming practices. Service users and communities supported through care farming include people with learning disabilities, mental and physical health problems, substance misuse, adult offenders, disaffected youth, socially isolated older people and the long term unemployed. Care farming is growing in popularity, especially around Europe. This review aimed to understand the impact of care farming on quality of life, depression and anxiety, on a range of service user groups. It also aimed to explore and explain the way in which care farming might work for different groups. By reviewing interview studies we found that people valued, among other things, being in contact with each other, and feeling a sense of achievement, fulfilment and belonging. Some groups seemed to appreciate different things indicating that different groups may benefit in different ways but, it is unclear if this is due to a difference in the types of activities or the way in which people take different things from the same activity. We found no evidence that care farms improved people's quality of life and some evidence that they might improve depression and anxiety. Larger studies involving single service user groups and fully validated outcome measures are needed to prove more conclusive evidence about the benefits of care farming.

Distinguishing prisoners who think about suicide from those who attempt suicide.

Many people who consider suicide do not translate these intentions into action. Although prisoners constitute a particularly high-risk group for suicide, little is known about the factors that distinguish those who think about suicide from those who attempt suicide. Participants were 1326 adult offenders (1203 men) randomly selected from 15 Belgian prisons, representing 14% of the national prison population. Multivariate regression analysis compared prisoners who attempted suicide (n = 277) with those who thought about suicide but never made an attempt (n = 312) on a range of established risk factors. Among the 589 participants reporting a lifetime history of suicidal ideation (44% of the total sample), almost half (47%) had made a suicide attempt. Relative to those who only thought about suicide, participants who attempted suicide were more likely to be violent offenders (aOR 2.33, 95% CI 1.49-3.62) and have a history of non-suicidal self-injury (aOR 3.19, 95% CI 2.09-4.86). The presence of self-reported mental disorder diagnosis (aOR = 2.84, 95% CI 1.91-4.24) and illicit substance abuse (aOR = 2.01, 95% CI 1.24-3.28) also independently differentiated prisoners who attempted v. considered suicide. This study provides preliminary evidence that behavioural and mental health factors are implicated in the transition from thoughts to acts of suicide in prisoners. Prospective studies are warranted to explore whether these risk factors predict progression from ideation to action over time.

Splintering the gamer’s dilemma: moral intuitions, motivational assumptions, and action prototypes

The gamer’s dilemma (Luck in Ethics Inf Technol 11(1):31–36, 2009) asks whether any ethical features distinguish virtual pedophilia, which is generally considered impermissible, from virtual murder, which is generally considered permissible. If not, this equivalence seems to force one of two conclusions: either both virtual pedophilia and virtual murder are permissible, or both virtual pedophilia and virtual murder are impermissible. In this article, I attempt, first, to explain the psychological basis of the dilemma. I argue that the two different action types picked out by “virtual pedophilia” and “virtual murder” set very different expectations for their token instantiations that systematically bias judgments of permissibility. In particular, the proscription of virtual pedophilia rests on intuitions about immoral desire, sexual violations, and a schematization of a powerful adult offending against an innocent child. I go on to argue that these differences between virtual pedophilia and virtual murder may be ethically relevant. Precisely because virtual pedophilia is normally aversive in a way that virtual murder is not, we plausibly expect virtual pedophilia to invite abnormal and immorally desirous forms of engagement.

Enabling change: An assessment tool for adult offenders that operationalises risk needs responsivity and desistance principles

This article examines the extent to which the risk needs responsivity (RNR) model and desistance principles have been integrated and operationalised in the development of the Enablers of Change assessment and sentence planning tool developed by a Community Rehabilitation Company provider in England. We consider the constructs that underpin the tool, identifying points of departure and similarity between RNR principles (Andrews and Bonta, 2007), the ‘good lives’ model (Ward and Maruna, 2007) and desistance principles (McNeil and Weaver, 2010) and their integration. We examine how these constructs have been operationalised in the tool, which aims to assess needs, strengths, protective factors and contribute to risk assessment. Given the tool’s innovation, this article is of international significance and will make an original contribution to the evidence base on operationalising desistance in the management of people with convictions in England and Wales and other jurisdictions.

Impaired processing of threat in psychopathy: A systematic review and meta-analysis of factorial data in male offender populations.

BackgroundPsychopathy is a personality disorder characterised by two underlying factors. Factor 1 (affective and interpersonal deficits) captures affective deficits, whilst Factor 2 (antisocial and impulsive/disorganised behaviours) captures life course persistent antisocial behaviours. Impaired processing of threat has been proposed as an aetiologically salient factor in the development of psychopathy, but the relationship of this impairment to the factorial structure of the disorder in adult male offenders is unclear.ObjectivesTo investigate whether threat processing deficits are characteristic of psychopathy as a unitary construct or whether such deficits are specifically linked to higher scores on individual factors.Data sourcesA systematic review of the literature was conducted by searching PubMed, Web of Science and PsycINFO.MethodsStudies were included if they (1) reported physiological measures of threat response as the primary outcome measure (2) indexed psychopathy using a well-validated clinician rated instrument such as the PCL-R (3) investigated male offenders between 18 and 60 years of age (4) reported threat processing analyses using both Factor 1 and Factor 2 scores (5) provided sufficient data to calculate effect sizes and (6) were published in English-language peer-reviewed journals. We identified twelve studies with data on 1112 participants for the meta-analysis of the relationship with Factor 1 scores, and nine studies with data on 801 participants for the meta-analysis of the relationship with Factor 2 scores. We conducted the meta-analyses to calculate correlations using random-effects models.ResultsPCL-R/SV Factor 1 scores were significantly and negatively related to threat processing indices (r = -0.22, (95%CI [-0.28, -.017]). Neither PCL-R/SV Factor 2 scores (r = -0.005, 95%CI [-0.10, 0.09]), nor PCL-R total score (r = -0.05, (95%CI [-0.15, -0.04]) were related to threat processing indices. No significant heterogeneity was detected for the Factor score results.ConclusionsThe meta-analyses of the distinct psychopathy factors suggest that the threat processing deficits observed in male offenders with psychopathy are significantly associated with higher scores on Factor 1. A similar relationship does not exist with Factor 2 scores. Our findings highlight the importance of investigating the potentially discrete relationships between aetiological variables and the two factor constructs in the disorder.

The Moral Asymmetry of Juvenile and Adult Offenders

Many commentators agree that the trend to try juveniles as adults fails to recognize that there should be an asymmetry in our treatment of juvenile and adult crime such that all else being equal juvenile crime deserves less punishment than does adult crime. This essay explores different rationales for this asymmetry. A political rationale claims that the disenfranchisement of juveniles compromises the state’s democratic authority to punish juveniles in the same way it is permitted to punish adults. A developmental rationale claims that juveniles deserve to be punished less than adults because their immaturity makes them less responsible and, hence, less culpable for their wrongdoing. Gideon Yaffe’s new book The Age of Culpability expresses skepticism about the developmental rationale and defends a version of the political rationale. By contrast, this essay finds important limits to the political rationale and defends a qualified version of the developmental rationale. In the process, it argues against treating the asymmetry between juvenile and adult crime as a categorical one.

Offender Decision-Making and Displacement

Rational choice approaches to offender decision-making typically focus on the choice to offend or not. In this mixed-method study, we explore how offenders respond to crime control and prevention measures using a framework incorporating displacement options. Semi-structured interviews of 200 adult offenders convicted of burglary, robbery, or theft were conducted in Texas. Subjects first described experiences in which they wanted to offend but chose not to do so due to a control measure. They then evaluated a list of control measures and indicated whether they led to desistance or displacement. Finally, they were given situational crime vignettes involving a prevention measure, followed by five displacement choices and a desistance option. Responses often favored crime displacement, highlighting the need to go beyond a dichotomized offend/desist choice, and suggesting displacement is more prevalent than previously thought. Displacement should be considered when designing crime control measures to help maximize their impact.

‘Neurorecht’ in Nederland

Abstract‘Neurolaw’ in the Netherlands: The justification of the new adolescent penal law from a neurophilosophical perspectiveThe possible and actual normative influence of neuroscientific research has been discussed in numerous publications. One particular part of that debate covered a number of US Supreme Court decisions since the early 2000s on the constitutionality of death or lifetime sentences for minor offenders. The present paper connects these topics to the new Dutch adolescent penal law which allows to treat adult offenders until the age of 22 years under certain conditions according to the rules for minors. The justification of this law referred to adolescents’ and young adults’ brain development in a unique manner. This paper does not only describe the essential steps of the lawmaking process and the legal justification of the new adolescent penal law, but also analyzes in depth in how far the used neuroscientific findings are able to support the normative conclusions.

Predicting Attrition and Engagement in the Treatment of Young Offenders

Premature treatment termination in offender treatment is linked to negative consequences for clients, practitioners, and the criminal justice system. Therefore, identifying predictors of treatment attrition is a crucial issue in offender rehabilitation. Most studies on this topic focus on adult offenders; less is known about adolescent offenders. In our study, therapy attrition and engagement were predicted via logistic and linear regression to examine the link between pretreatment variables, engagement, and treatment failure in 161 young offenders treated in a social-therapeutic unit in Germany. Engagement could be predicted by motivation, disruptive childhood behavior, low aggressiveness, and higher age. In turn, low motivation, substance abuse, and young age predicted attrition, but their impact diminished when engagement was added to the model with only substance abuse remaining significant. The effect of substance abuse on attrition disappeared, when the offender's initial motivation was high. Implications for assessment and treatment planning are discussed.

A Latent Profile Analysis of Violent Offenders Based on PCL-R Factor Scores: Criminogenic Needs and Recidivism Risk.

Clinicians and theorists have often proposed the two psychopathic subtypes of “primary” and “secondary” psychopathy, with recent research indicating some empirical support for both psychopathy subtypes, though the findings across studies are far from uniform. For the current study, latent profile analysis was used to investigate if homogeneous latent classes exist within a sample of 215 adult male violent offenders from Berlin, Germany. The age of the offenders at the time of the index offense ranged from 19 to 59 years. The results indicated a solution with four latent classes, which we refer to as prototypical psychopaths (LC1), callous-conning offenders (LC2), sociopathic or dyssocial offenders (LC3), and general offenders (LC4). Validation of the four subtypes involved examination of differences on recidivism risk; criminogenic needs; and general, violent, and sexual reoffending. The results also are discussed in terms of the issue of treatment amenability.

Unsuccessful life style in middle-aged official and self-reported types of offenders

PurposeThis research investigates how types of convicted offenders (C-types: life-course-persistent; adolescence-limited; late-onset; non-offenders) compare with the corresponding types of self-reported offenders (SR-types: SR-LCP; SR-AL; SR-LO; SR-NO) in life adjustment. MethodsIn the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, 411 London males have been followed up from age 8 to age 48 in face-to-face interviews, and from age 8 to 61 in criminal records. This article focuses on the unsuccessful life style scale based on interviews at ages 32 and 48. ResultsBoth convicted and self-reported offenders manifested a more unsuccessful life style in comparison with C-NO and SR-NO. Physical fights, and high alcohol and drug abuse featured in the lives of C-LCP and C-AL at age 32, and in the lives of all C-type offenders at age 48. SR-LCP and SR-AL reported higher levels of alcohol and drug use in comparison with SR-NO, while SR-LO reported a higher level of drug use. ConclusionsCriminality is one aspect, and not the most important one, that impinges upon the quality of life. Other dimensions contribute to altering life-adjustment. Addressing these issues might promote an improvement in the quality of life in adult offenders, and foster criminal desistance.

영아살해죄의 주관적 동기에 대한 일반인들의 인식

Because of the past legislative intention for the infanticide were different from now, difficulty of judging subjective motivation requirement of infanticide, and sentence reduction requirement for infanticide compared to murder, maintaining the infanticide law raised many questions among legal scholars and practitioners. Previous research studies on the infanticide are mostly discussed in terms of maintenance, abolition, or amendment of the infanticide law. However, public perceptions and legal sentiments of subjective motivation of infanticide have not been empirically examined. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine whether the sentence reduction requirement for infanticide corresponds to public perceptions, especially to examine how public perceive the subjective motives of infanticide. For the study, 480 adults participated. They were randomly assigned into one of four mock infanticide trial scenarios where the defendant’s subjective motivations to kill the infant was manipulated. The manipulated subjective motivations of the defendant were 1) to conceal shame of an adult offender, 2) to conceal shame for an minor offender, 3) impossible to nurture a baby, and 4) other considerable motives (abnormal mental state of the offender due to childbirth). The results of this study are as follows. First, the subjective motivation of offender’s abnormal mental state due to childbirth was mostly punished the defendant as a case of infanticide than a murder and this subjective motivation was rated as most fit category of “other considerable motives”. Second, the lowest sentence were imposed to the defendant with abnormal mental state due to childbirth and viewed as most valid subjective motivation to lower the sentence compared to murder. Based on the results, it is the right time to discuss the criminal law policy and the amendment of the infanticide. Limitations of the study was also discussed.

Children's human right to sexual health: age of consent

The Mexican criminal law system sanctions under the crime of statutory rape adult offenders who have sexual relations with minors below the age of consent in order to protect their legal right to a healthy psychosexual development. 27% of criminal codes of federal entities set the age of consent at 12 years old. It is claimed that the age of 12 is too low to make teenagers legally responsible for the free exercise of their sexuality due to the serious effects it can cause on their dignity and sexual health. The aim of this article is to make an interpretation of criminal law under the concept of guarantism, to argue based on the best interest of the minor, the State obligation of legislating to set in a homogenous way in the criminal codes of the country, the minimum age of consent at 15 years old.

Influence of Correctional Facility Environment on Juvenile Recidivism

Juvenile crime and the problem of juvenile recidivism are on the increase in Kenya. Most of adult offenders are also noted to have begun their criminal behaviours in their juvenile years, making the need to contain criminality to be so glaring at the moment. The rate at which juveniles are recidivating in Kenya is alarming while the root causes are yet to be determined. The Government of Kenya introduced rehabilitation institutions to deal with rehabilitation of child offenders and prevent them from recidivating. While statistics indicate juvenile crime and recidivism to be on the increase, studies on the phenomenon of recidivism among juveniles in correctional institutions in Kenya are scanty. The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of socio-demographic characteristics on recidivism among juveniles in rehabilitation institutions in Kiambu and Kirinyaga counties of Kenya. The study objectivewas to establish the influence of correctional facility environment on juvenile recidivism. The study was based on Robert Merton’s 1938 strain theory. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population for the study was 333 juvenile recidivists and 60 correctional staff in Wamumu and Kirigiti rehabilitation schools in Kirinyaga and Kiambu counties of Kenya respectively. The data for the study was collected by use of questionnaires, Focused Group Discussion, in-depth interview schedules and document analysis and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Pilot study was carried out to ascertain the reliability of the instruments by use of test retest technique at 0.8 reliability index, while experts assisted in determining the content validity of the instruments. The study suggested a correlational study to determine if a statistical relationship exists between Correctional Facility Environment and Juvenile Recidivism. Keywords: Correctional Facility, Environment, Juvenile Recidivism DOI : 10.7176/JLPG/87-01 Publication date :July 31 st 2019

Latent constructs in the measurement of risk and protective factors for violent reoffending using the HCR-20v3 and SAPROF: implications for conceptualizing offender assessment and treatment planning

ABSTRACTThis paper describes a retrospective data analysis, examining the relationship between protective factors against violence, as measured by the Structured Assessment of Protective Factors for Violence Risk (SAPROF), and conceptually similar risk factors assessed in the Historical-Clinical-Risk Management-20 Version 3. The sample comprised 201 adult male violent offenders who completed a violence intervention programme in an Australian prison. Structural equation modelling revealed that conceptually similar risk and protective factors loaded onto correlated, but independent, factors. This suggests that these items from the two assessment tools may assess distinct latent constructs relevant to violence risk. SAPROF items did not, however, load onto the domains that are commonly targeted in violence treatment programmes. This study’s conclusion that assessment of protective factors may offer supplementary conceptual value in clinical practice with violent offenders is tempered by limitations, including the retrospective file review design, small sample, and lack of predictive validity of SAPROF ratings.

The Impact of Juvenile Sex Offending on the Adult Criminal Career.

Although past studies demonstrated the heterogeneity of the criminal career patterns of juveniles with sexual offenses (JSOs), such studies did not directly assess whether JSOs have different adult offending outcomes compared with juvenile nonsex offenders. Using data on a subsample of males from the Incarcerated Serious and Violent Young Offender Study, JSOs (n = 78), juveniles with violent offenses (JVOs; n = 550), and juveniles with nonviolent offenses (JNVOs; n = 281) were compared across a variety of adult offending outcomes. JSOs were not associated with a specific trajectory of general offending in adulthood, nor were they associated with a range of adult criminal career parameters (e.g., frequency, severity, specialization, and versatility). However, a range of other indicators of juvenile offending were associated with general offending in adulthood. For juvenile males who experience incarceration, many elements of their offending history mattered for adult offending outcomes, but not sexual offending. Policy implications for treatment and management are discussed.

The Role of Childhood Victimization on the Severity of Adult Offending among Female Sex Offenders

ABSTRACTAlthough males comprise the majority of sex offenders, research has found that females sexually offend similarly to male sex offenders. While male and female sex offenders share commonalities, female sex offenders have higher rates of childhood sexual abuse compared to male sex offenders. In addition, previous research has indicated that childhood abuse can predict adult offending; however, severity of these offenses has not been explored for female sex offenders. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between previous sexual abuse and the severity of future sexual offending for a sample of convicted female sex offenders (n = 263) from 1995 to 2017 in a southern state. The data consisted of agency files that included police investigation reports, initial offender and victim statements (prior to conviction), court records, offender personal history questionnaires, offender assessment reports, and criminal histories. We found support for the cycle of violence hypothesis in which those who had a history of prior sexual abuse were more likely to have committed the most severe and violent offenses against a child when compared to female offenders who did not report childhood sexual abuse. Implications are discussed based on our findings.

Explaining the crime drop: contributions to declining crime rates from youth cohorts since 2005

Since the mid-90s there has been almost a 50% reduction in the volume of crime in England and Wales - a trend that has been mirrored in many Western countries (Greenberg Justice Quarterly, 31(1), 154–188, 2014). Despite previous assumptions, for example, declining birth cohorts, it is proposed here that the decline in crime for the 1995–2005 period can largely be attributed to a doubling of the probability of a crime being ‘proven’ (cf Lloyd et al. 1994; MOJ, 2012; Taylor 2016). However, in the last decade these reductions in crime rates have levelled off to a relatively stable degree. Analysis of published data relating to the performance of the criminal justice system in England and Wales suggests that reductions in crime levels since 2005 are largely accounted for by the fall in proportion of the youth population engaging in offending behaviour. It is argued that falls in rates of crime are largely independent of the offending frequency of young people or variations in the probability of offences being proven; rather, reductions in youth crime over this period could largely be attributed to policy changes, including multiagency interventions targeted at young people who were at risk of starting to offend (McAra and McVie 2015; Smith 2015). Further discussion suggests that the binary proven reoffending rate is not an accurate barometer of criminal justice system performance; rather it is argued that reductions in the youth offending population feed forward into later reductions in the number of adult offenders and further impact on overall crime rates in the longer term.

The next steps forward in determining “what works”.

In this issue, Papalia, Spivak, Daffern, and Ogloff (2019) report on their meta‐analysis that examined whether psychological treatments with adult violent offenders in correctional and forensic mental health settings are effective in preventing community recidivism and institutional misconduct. The meta‐analysis was methodologically rigorous, involving 27 independent studies, over 7,000 offenders, and adherence to the PRISMA guidelines. They found that although treatment significantly reduced violent and general/nonviolent community recidivism, the average effect for violent and general/nonviolent institutional misconduct was not statistically significant. Further, a series of moderator analyses revealed some statistical trends, but most of the effects were not statistically significant after an alpha‐level correction. Taken together, they concluded that psychological treatments, particularly if multi‐modal, have a small but positive effect on community recidivism. Recidivism and institutional misconduct have attracted attention from researchers for many years, yet meta‐analytic evidence regarding the effects of psychological treatment in reducing these outcomes has been lacking. Despite high numbers of justice‐involved individuals and near‐universal recognition of the importance of reducing recidivism and institutional misconduct, our understanding of “what works” is incomplete. Although the extant research base is limited by very few well‐controlled outcome studies and variable reporting of results, Papalia et al.’s (2019) meta‐analysis fills an important empirical gap. Based on their meta‐analysis, this commentary highlights several points that may be of interest to researchers and practitioners.