Low-risk Offenders Research Articles

Perceived Effectiveness of Probation System under Criminal Justice Administration: Evidence from the Punjab, Pakistan

The probation system, as a functional part of criminal justice administration, deals with low-risk offenders to rehabilitate and bring them into mainstream socio-cultural and family life. The probation system provides opportunities to convicted offenders conditionally and releases them under the supervision of a probation officer. This empirical highlighted the importance and effectiveness of the probation system and its impacts on probationers. The primary data was collected from probationers who had experience imprisonment before probation order from ten districts of Punjab province. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire, and results revealed that the probationers who were ex-prisoners perceived the probation period very positively, with significant impacts on their physical, psychological, and social life. The probation system was found effective in the process of rehabilitation of offenders under criminal justice administration. Therefore, the offenders incarcerated for minor offenses may be released on probation orders instead of constructing new prisons.

Predicting Prison Misconduct: Role of Criminogenic Cognitions of Adult Convicted Prisoners

Prison misconduct is violation of prison rules through which prisoners are governed to regulate their behavior by the prison authorities. The aim of present study was to examine relationship between criminogenic cognitions of prisoners and prison misconduct in the Punjab, Pakistan. Conducting a survey of 363 adult convicted prisoners from the Punjab prisons, data were collected by using structured questionnaires and analyzed in SPSS-26. The study concluded that the relationship between criminogenic cognitions of prisoners and prison misconduct was found strong and positive. On the basis of these findings, criminogenic cognitions—dynamic risk factors of the prisoners may be assessed by the prison authorities at the time of prisoners’ entry into custody which would help them in an appropriate and scientifically based classification. This classification would clearly distinguish the high, medium, and low risk offenders and their probability in engaging in future criminal activities inside the prisons and after their transition into society. Policies based on these conclusions derived from the classification would reduce prison misconduct as well as enhance the chances of institutional adjustment which would provide a conducive environment for prison management to run rehabilitation programs for prisoners. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that prison authorities in Punjab, Pakistan, incorporate assessments of criminogenic cognitions as part of the intake process for convicted prisoners.

“How mentoring impacts on recidivism after prison: Differences between low risk and high risk offenders”

“How mentoring impacts on recidivism after prison: Differences between low risk and high risk offenders”

Reliability and Validity of the ARMIDILO-S in Sex Offenders with Intellectual Disabilities

ABSTRACT Background The ARMIDILO-S is advocated as a promising tool for assessing dynamic risk factors in sex offenders with intellectual disabilities (SOIDs). However, research remains scarce. The present study aimed to further validate this instrument in SOIDs. Method The study prospectively followed 38 SOIDs for up to one year to test the accuracy of the ARMIDILO-S in predicting violent and sexual incidents. Results Overall predictive accuracy was moderate to high. The ARMIDILO-S further showed excellent prospective qualities in identifying both high-risk and low-risk offenders for violence. Regarding sexual offending, it was only good at prospectively detecting low-risk individuals. Conclusions This study provided further evidence of the good predictive validity of the ARMIDILO-s in predicting future sexual and violent incidents in SOIDs. More research in preferably larger samples as well as field validity studies are recommended.

Evaluation of the Predictive Validity of a Risk-Need-Responsivity Assessment Tool (RNR-A) in the Swedish Prison and Probation Service

To appraise the “real-world” implementation of the risk principle, this study examined the predictive validity of a Risk-Need-Responsivity assessment in the Swedish Prison and Probation Service. Reconviction rates at 24 months follow-up in a cohort of 2,442 offenders were used to assess calibration and discrimination indices. Results indicated acceptable predictive accuracy (AUC = .68–.74), with scope for improvement among young adult offenders. The tool's utility was supported foremost by its ability to screen out low-risk offenders, while over-prediction of recidivism among medium- and high-risk offenders calls for more comprehensive assessment to inform the effective planning of rehabilitative service intensity.

Risk Management Approach and its Effects on Iran's Criminal Justice System

Criminality is a natural phenomenon in society and one of the approaches available to it is the crime risk management approach. In this approach by utilizing the gains of forensic justice and the use of criminal statistics, the risk levels of each of the crime categories are assessed and the high-risk offenders with the most severe responses and the low-risk offenders with the softest responses are encountered. There are clear examples of this approach in the approaches of the Iranian criminal justice system. Ranking and determining punishable sanctions, prohibiting the imposition of penal sanctions on certain crimes, and imposing a punitive punishment for failure to execute retribution are examples of the Iranian penal system's approach to crime risk management. In addition, criminal justice appointments, special criminal proceedings, and so on are the most important frameworks for implementing the criminal risk management approach of the Iranian criminal justice system. From these examples, it can be concluded that the criminal risk management approach is openly accepted by the Iranian criminal justice system

Stem the Tide of Predatory Stem Cell Clinics: State and FDA Coordination to Protect Patients

While stem cell therapies hold promise as regenerative treatments for combating a variety of conditions, the majority of these therapies remain in clinical trials without sufficient evidence for current clinical use. Predatory direct-to-consumer stem cell clinics (hereafter, DTC clinics), undeterred by a lack of clinical evidence, continue to offer unapproved stem cell injections to patients desperate to treat chronic conditions. These clinics can pose significant physical and financial harm to patients as their therapies are not without risks. Clinics rarely practice the requisite level of follow-up care required by clinical trials. To promote the safety and well-being of patients treated in stem cell clinics, we propose additional funding to support the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and state-level health departments’ oversight of DTC clinics. The FDA will likely experience a substantial financial burden from enforcing regulations, given that there are hundreds of DTC clinics in the U.S. This number is expected to continue rising, as evidenced by a 114% increase in DTC clinics between 2015 and 2017 (P. S. Knoepfler 2019). We propose that the FDA appropriate additional funding to support state level government enforcement and address this impending shortcoming. Additionally, we suggest state legislatures enact registry laws to prevent DTC clinics from avoiding federal regulations and enable local governments to address low-risk offenders as needed. These laws would enable states to take a more proactive role in patient protections, while also allowing the FDA to more effectively target its resources towards high-risk DTC business.

State of the Art Treatment Options for Actual and Potential Sexual Offenders and New Prevention Strategies.

Sexual violence is a significant and devastating issue for men and women throughout the world. Its consequences are not only disastrous for victims of sexual violence but are also extremely costly (estimated cost of $41,000 per rape) for society. Successful treatment of sexual offenders is therefore an important goal for society as well as for victims and offenders themselves. Over the years, multiple treatment approaches for sex offenders have been developed. Treatment programs range from the risk-need-responsivity (RNR) model, which focuses on providing tailored treatment for high-risk and low-risk offenders, to psychodynamic models. This article presents an overview for clinicians of state-of-the-art offender treatment, describing the most common treatment approaches, in particular the RNR model, cognitive-behavioral programs (relapse prevention programs, sexual offender treatment programs), psychodynamic approaches (transference-focused psychotherapy, mentalization-based therapy), the Good Lives Model, as well as pharmacological options. In addition, it provides an evaluation of the various treatment programs. However, given the fact that most acts of sexual violence will never be reported to the police, the question arises if treating convicted perpetrators is enough. Do we need rather-in terms of preventive work-a program for potential sexual offenders and men with delinquent sexual fantasies? Given the prevalence of sexual violence and its impact on victims, society, and the medical community, it would be remiss not to try to reach potential/unconvicted perpetrators. This article offers novel ideas and a project the goal of which is to prevent sexual offenses against women by introducing the "I CAN CHANGE" program from Hannover Medical School.

Psychopathy, Neuroticism, and Abusive Behavior in Low Risk Child Sex Offenders

ABSTRACTPersonality traits are considered as an important aspect in the assessment of child sex offenders (CSOs). The current study sought to elucidate the association between neuroticism, psychopathy, and abusive behavior in low risk CSOs. 43 pedophilic CSOs and 21 controls (CTLs) completed the NEO-Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R), Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV), and Multiphasic Sex Inventory (MSI). Our results revealed small differences in PCL scores between CSOs and CTLs, with comparatively low levels of psychopathy in both groups. Higher levels of neuroticism were associated with higher PCL scores, in both CSOs and CTLs. However, higher PCL scores in CSOs did not correlate with higher MSI total scores on the subscale child molest. These findings suggest an ambiguous role of psychopathy in CSOs: higher levels of psychopathy co-occur with higher levels of neuroticism, but psychopathy does apparently not modulate abusive behavior, at least not in low risk offenders, as currently investigated.

Judicial Reliance on Risk Assessment in Sentencing Drug and Property Offenders: A Test of the Treatment Resource Hypothesis

For almost two decades, Virginia has used risk assessment to justify “alternative” nonprison sentences for eligible drug and property offenders. In Study 1, we examined how frequently alternative sentences actually were imposed. We found that alternative sentences were given to only 42% of low-risk offenders. In Study 2, we tested the hypothesis that a lack of treatment resources explains why many judges fail to offer alternative sentences. We focused on the availability of mental health and substance abuse treatment resources across judicial circuits. Our findings support the “treatment resource hypothesis” as one explanation for variation among courts and judges in the extent to which alternative sentences are offered to low-risk offenders. To the extent that treatment resources available in a jurisdiction lead to increased judicial use of risk assessment to sentence low-risk offenders to nonjail alternatives, providing these resources will be crucial in reducing mass incarceration.

Typology of substance using offenders of IPV: violence and substance use outcomes

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether aggression and substance use assessed during treatment differ based on risk level for substance-using male offenders of intimate partner violence (IPV).Design/methodology/approachSecondary analyses were conducted using data from Easton et al.’s (2017) study on substance-dependent IPV offenders. A cluster analysis was utilized in order to classify participants into typology groups. Analyses of covariance were conducted in order to determine group differences in aggression and substance use during treatment.FindingsThe paper provides results-related response to treatment based on offender typology. Results appear to reflect two typology groups with significant differences in psychopathy among groups. High-risk offenders demonstrated higher rates of violence throughout treatment compared to moderate- and low-risk offenders; however, no differences in substance use outcomes were found.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation of the study is the extent to which the results can be generalized beyond substance using IPV offenders. Further investigation of treatment outcomes including alternate measures is needed in order to better translate theoretical typologies to clinical settings.Practical implicationsResults provide support for differentiating treatment for substance-using male offenders of IPV based on typology as those with low/moderate risk level appear to be distinctly different and have different treatment outcomes compared to high risk level offenders.Originality/valueAlthough the relationship between risk level and treatment outcomes has been researched with Drug Court Offenders, treatment outcomes based on typology has not been evaluated among substance using male offenders of IPV.

Low Risk Offenders Under Probation Supervision: Risk Management and the Risk-Needs-Responsivity Framework

Community supervision agencies commonly use resource allocation models to identify the amount of monitoring and treatment to provide individuals under supervision. The risk-needs-responsivity model guides these decisions, suggesting the level of supervision should align with one’s risk level, with fewer services provided to those at a lower risk of recidivism. However, probation officers often operate under a risk management model with perceptions of risk guiding decisions. Using qualitative data, the current study examined the implementation of a telephone monitoring system for low risk offenders. This research explored (a) probation staff perceptions of telephone monitoring, (b) probation staff adaptations of telephone monitoring, and (c) individual and external influences related to telephone supervision use. Findings suggest officer perceptions of risk and liability affect use of telephone supervision for low risk probationers. Results highlight challenges associated with implementing the risk principle given tendencies to oversupervise as a means to protect public safety.

Prevalence of internalizing, externalizing, and psychotic disorders among low-risk juvenile offenders.

To effectively allocate mental health services, agencies must be able to predict what proportion of youth will have a mental disorder. Prevalence estimates are available for juvenile offenders at intake, detained youth, and incarcerated youth, but there is limited research on prevalence of mental disorders for juvenile offenders who are low-risk to reoffend, many of whom are first time offenders (i.e., low-risk youth). To complicate matters, ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented in the justice system, and specifically, little is known about culturally sensitive clinical interviewing. To aid service providers and administrators in allocating mental health resources for low-risk offenders and to contribute to knowledge on culturally sensitive clinical assessment techniques, the present study reports the prevalence of mental disorders for a mostly Mexican American sample of 503 low-risk youth in diversion programming. We found that approximately 1 of every 6 (17.1%) low-risk juvenile offenders had a current affective, anxiety, or psychotic disorder, and 24.9% of low-risk juvenile offenders met criteria for a current substance/alcohol abuse disorder. These results suggest that allocating a portion of specialty mental health services and substance abuse treatment for low-risk juvenile offenders may help agencies combat the issue of repeat offending by offering public health interventions proactively to indirectly prevent recidivism rather than reacting afterward. Lastly, recommendations are given to help service providers incorporate culturally sensitive techniques into clinical assessment in order to better identify Mexican American juvenile offenders with mental health needs. (PsycINFO Database Record

Validation of the Ceredigion Youth Screening Tool.

Evidence suggests that only a small minority of youth offenders will continue their behaviour in the longer term and largely independent of any interventions they may receive (Bateman, 2011; Haines & Case, 2015). Hence, "screening out" this larger low-risk cohort could have a positive impact upon the individual through a reduction in stigmatisation/labelling and free up resources for higher risk clients. This article outlines development of the Ceredigion Youth Screening Tool (CYSTEM)-developed and tested to address the two facets of criminality and vulnerability-closely aligned to the eight key risk indicators identified in the Risk-Needs-Responsivity (R-N-R) literature (Andrews & Bonta, 2010). Initial results with two cohorts of 372 young people indicate good convergent and discriminative validity in screening out the lowest level referrals, while also identifying 90% of potential future offenders. More importantly, CYSTEM is able to screen out approximately 35% of the low-risk offenders that are unlikely to require formal evaluation and/or intervention. It is suggested that the streamlining of this process using CYSTEM reduces demand on staff time and decreases the stigmatisation of young people referred for minor offences. Potential improvements to the tool and future developments in statistical risk prediction are also discussed.

Risk-need-responsivity model: Contrasting criminogenic and noncriminogenic needs in high and low risk juvenile offenders

The Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) offender rehabilitation model contends high risk offenders benefit more from intervention programs than low risk offenders (risk principle), and interventions are more effective if they target criminogenic needs (need principle) and engage offenders. A field study was undertaken in order to assess the relation between the risk of recidivism (high and low) and criminogenic and noncriminogenic needs in juvenile offenders. 101 juvenile offenders classified as either of high or low recidivism risk on the Youth level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) were evaluated in terms of school failure, behavioural disorders, psychological adjustment, and social skills. The results showed higher rates of school failure and behavioural disorders (criminogenic needs) in high risk than in low risk juvenile offenders, and higher rates in low risk offenders than in the general population. As for psychological adjustment and social skills (noncriminogenic needs), the results revealed higher deficits in high risk than in low risk juvenile offenders, and no differences between low risk offenders and the general population. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Religious and Spiritual Support, Reentry, and Risk

Systems and agencies intent on pursuing an evidence-based approach to correctional interventions have widely adopted the risk principle. For a variety of reasons, many studies have found that giving treatment to low risk people has little impact on reducing recidivism and can even increase recidivism. Because of the risk principle, many prison and community correctional systems now target their treatment resources to medium and high risk. This study tests whether the effects of religious/spiritual support on reentry success generalize across offenders as a function of risk. Results from random effects count models suggest that religious and spiritual support does have a strong and robust effect on the likelihood of ex-offenders desisting from substance abuse. Findings also reveal that the risk principle was not supported; religious and social support was associated with significantly lower levels of substance abuse among low risk offenders, but not among higher-risk offenders. On the other hand, religious and spiritual support did not significantly relate to criminal offending at any risk level. Implications for religious programming and services, as well as the study of religion and reentry, are discussed.

Is the Nature of Communication Relevant to the Supportiveness of Women's Relationships With Probation and Parole Agents?

This article reports on a study of the connection of probation and parole agents' communication with relationship supportiveness as perceived by both women offenders and agents. For a sample of offenders and their agents, multilevel modeling was used to control for nonindependence of data for women assigned to the same agent. Consistent with communication theory, a conversational approach was positively related to measures of a supportive relationship, and an authoritarian/ conformity pattern of communication was negatively related to a supportive relationship. For low-risk offenders, attention to client-identified problems was positively related to more supportive relationships. For women with high risk for reoffending, the agents viewed themselves as less supportive if they addressed a high proportion of offender-identified needs. Findings suggest the efficacy of training to promote agents' conversational communication and attention to offender-identified problems. Findings also suggest the need to more fully explore agents' experience in working with very high-risk offenders.

Reinventing Community Corrections

AbstractCommunity corrections in the twenty-first century faces three challenges: how to be an alternative to imprisonment, how to be a conduit for reducing recidivism, and how to do less harm to offenders and their families and communities. Community corrections will reduce imprisonment only if its use is viewed as a legitimate form of punishment and is incentivized, which involves subsidizing the use of community sanctions and making communities pay to imprison offenders (e.g., a cap-and-trade system). To reduce recidivism, it will be necessary to hold officials accountable for this outcome, to ensure that evidence-based supervision is practiced, to use technology to deliver treatment services, and to create information systems that can guide the development, monitoring, and evaluation of interventions. Doing less harm—avoiding iatrogenic effects—will require nonintervention with low-risk offenders, reducing the imposition of needless constraints on offenders (i.e., collateral consequences), and creatin...

Time-Free Effects in Predicting Recidivism Using Both Fixed and Variable Follow-Up Periods

We provide a comparison of analyses used to estimate predictive validity, across fixed (logistic regression and area under the curve receiver operating characteristic [AUC-ROC]) and variable (Cox regression and Harrell’s C) lengths of follow-up. This study adds to research demonstrating a relationship between time at risk offense free and recidivism in two ways. First, reoffending hazard rates were calculated across levels of general offending risk to better understand how failure relates to time at risk. Second, this research compared validity estimates derived from Cox and logistic regression analyses to examine the importance of variable versus fixed follow-up periods. Results show that risk declines as a function of time offense free for all but low risk offenders. In addition, findings demonstrate remarkable stability in estimates of validity after just 7 months of follow-up. Finally, comparisons of Cox and logistic regression analyses, along with their related Harrell’s C and AUC-ROC validity estimates, revealed little substantive differences in prediction

Using Graphs to Improve Violence Risk Communication

We examined the use of graphs as an aid to communicating statistical risk among forensic clinicians. We first tested four graphs previously used or recommended for forensic risk assessment among 442 undergraduate students who made security recommendations about two offenders whose risk differed by one actuarial category of risk for violent recidivism (Study 1). Effective decision making was defined as actuarially higher risk offenders being assigned to greater security than lower risk offenders. The graph resulting in the largest distinction among less numerate students was a probability bar graph. We then tested this graph among 54 forensic clinicians (Study 2). The graph had no overall effect. Among more experienced staff, however, decisions were insensitive to actuarial risk in the absence of the graph and in the desirable direction with the addition of the graph. Further research into the benefit of graphs in violence risk communication appears viable.