Search

Offenders with severe personality pathology are at significantly increased risk of serious and violent offending. In England and Wales, offenders who are likely to meet criteria for a diagnosis of personality disorder are managed within a network of ‘Offender Personality Disorder Pathway’ services. We conducted a retrospective cohort study over 6 years, using linked routine datasets, to examine the effectiveness of these services on male offenders (n = 28,321). We compared the outcomes of those who received a simple case formulation and had not been referred to Pathway services (the ‘Comparison group’), with a group of offenders who had received a complex case formulation and been referred to Pathway services (the ‘Treatment group’). Over time, significant improvements occurred in re-offending risk scores, and lower rates of behavioural disturbance among both Treatment and Comparison groups of offenders. However, no statistically significant differences were detected in the rates of improvement between Treatment and Comparison groups. Offending rates in both groups significantly increased over time, although there was no significant difference in the increase in offending rates between the Treatment and Comparison groups. Currently, there is no statistical evidence that the Pathway is associated with changes in offender behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the growing interest in forensic neuroscience, a pressing question concerns whether or not neurobiological evidence and explanations can make a useful contribution to understanding and managing crime. Here we argue that neuroscience methodologies, such as EEG and fMRI, can provide a valuable source of information about phenomena related to criminal behaviour, which complements traditional sources such as interviews and self-report scales. However, despite this optimistic message, there is good reason to be cautious in interpreting neurobiological data. It is tempting to see this type of evidence as somehow ‘privileged’ over other sources. However, elucidating the neurobiological mechanisms that support a behaviour does not tell us what led to that behaviour. Given how little we currently know about the relationship between neural activity and specific mental functions, we should be cautious about inferring psychological processes on the basis of brain activity measures alone. Finally, we should always keep in mind that every neuroscience study is predicated upon a psychological framework, and this framework affects all aspects of the project. Therefore, the evidence obtained from a neuroscience study is only ever as good as the psychological framework on which that study was founded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relative impact of five alibi components on the assessment of alibi veracity was investigated using a policy-capturing methodology. Participants (N = 115) were instructed to assume the role of a homicide investigator and evaluate 32 alibis that varied on five dichotomous variables: Salaciousness; Legality; Change in Details; Superfluous Details; and Specific Details. Participants evaluated the believability of each alibi, and the likelihood of the alibi provider's guilt. Results indicated that participants tended to disbelieve suspects when illegal or salacious behaviours were mentioned within the alibi. Few decision policies contained Change in Details, Superfluous Details, or Specific Details. The potential implications for alibi assessments during police investigations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about why some ex-armed forces personnel become involved in the criminal justice system, however, they represent the largest known occupational group in prison. In-depth interviews were employed to explore possible pathways to offending. Twenty ex-armed forces personnel in prison were recruited from five prisons in England. Data were analysed using a combination of thematic analysis and constant comparison methods rooted in grounded theory. Four predominant themes were identified:experiences of trauma and adversity; belonging; impulsivity and creating a soldier. Participants had experienced a number of traumatic incidents and adversity in their lives, encompassing pre, during and post-service but felt a sense of belonging in the armed forces. Participants demonstrated impulsivity in a number of areas with links to both their service in the armed forces and offending behaviour. The creation of the identity of ‘soldier’ was perceived to impact participants’ lives in a number of ways, including their offending, alcohol use and coping with trauma. The interplay of these themes and their potential impact on participants’ pathways to offending are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Predicting the risk an offender poses is vital for protecting the public and/or the offender themselves; thus reducing recidivism rates. Dynamic risk factors are useful for informing treatment programmes because of their changeability. However, the current conceptualisation of dynamic risk factors has recently been under scrutiny within the rehabilitation literature, because their categorical nature lacks description and cannot explain the underlying causal mechanisms of offending behaviours. Expertise is a new area within the rehabilitation literature that examines the decision-making processes involved across the offending episode (prior, during, and after a crime). It is one example of how looking more closely at the processes the offender employs across the offending episode might help to understand more clearly some of the mechanisms underlying dynamic risk factors. This article first discusses the literature and theoretical models that have been proposed with regard to risk prediction and offender expertise, before exploring the links between the two. Using a theoretical framework, which moves away from a deficit-based focus to one in which emphasis is placed on the offender's own personal agency, the authors describe how the competencies underpinning cognition can be used as a starting point for positive change. Implications for offender treatments are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research indicates a strong association between gang membership and increased offending behaviour. Several risk factors for gang membership have been identified and incorporated into integrated and developmental theories of gang membership. Despite this, little is known about the psychological processes that underpin gang membership and enhance the rate of offending within this context. Even less is known of the differences in such psychological processes between gang offenders and those who offend in other contexts. The current study builds on previous research by exploring the role of moral disengagement as one potential process in a prison sample of 269 offenders. The first part of the study found that street gang offenders were more likely than non-street gang offenders to utilise moral disengagement strategies in order to deactivate their usual moral standards. The second part revealed that street gang offenders were more likely than individual offenders or those who have affiliated, but not offended with, street gangs to morally disengage. There was no difference in the tendency to morally disengage between street gang and group offenders. Overall, certain conditions that exist within a street gang and other group contexts may increase an individual's tendency to morally disengage and enhance offending behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many empirical studies have explored the relationship between anger dysregulation and aggression; few have explored the association between emotion regulation more generally and aggressive behavior in adults. This study sought to determine whether adaptive emotion regulation was associated with aggression in adult offenders, and whether proficiency in three emotion skills – emotional awareness, emotional acceptance, and access to a variety of emotion regulation strategies – was related to adaptive emotion regulation. Results suggest that offenders with a maladaptive emotion regulation style reported more extensive histories of aggression than those with an adaptive emotion regulation style. It was also found that self-reported emotional awareness and access to effective emotion regulation strategies contributed to adaptive emotion regulation. These findings indicate the potential utility of including emotion-related modules in treatment programs for violent offending populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the factors that predicted marital separation in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, which is a prospective longitudinal survey of 411 London males. We found that dishonesty, having a wife with a conviction(s), convictions, a poor relationship with parents, no exams passed, unprotected sex and having a shotgun marriage predicted marital breakdown. Males from broken homes due to marital conflict had a moderate risk of suffering marital breakdown themselves but the effect was mediated by having conviction(s). An analysis in which separated men were matched with controls on age at marriage, prior convictions and a propensity score predicting the likelihood of separation showed that a man's convictions increased after becoming separated. However, if a man formed a new intimate relationship, the increase in convictions after separation was reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some of the themes arising in this Special Issue are discussed and suggestions made as to future research and theoretical needs. It is noteworthy that increased academic and research attention is being focused on violent behaviour, balancing that devoted to sex offending. More sophisticated theoretical models are being developed, with an increasing recognition of the importance of situational factors, of the heterogeneity of offender groups and of the role of affective states as antecedents. Such developing knowledge needs to influence the future development of therapeutic and rehabilitation programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationships between alcohol-aggression proneness, general alcohol outcome expectancies, hazardous drinking, and alcohol-related violence were explored in a sample of violent offenders. The hypothesized model was that alcohol expectancies and hazardous drinking would mediate the relationship between proneness to alcohol-related aggression and alcohol-related violence. Additionally, expectancies would predict drinking. Ninety-eight male prisoners were recruited, all serving sentences for violent offences of which 21 were not alcohol-related and 77 were alcohol-related. Measures were the Alcohol-Related Aggression Questionnaire (ARAQ), the Drinking Expectancy Questionnaire (DEQ), and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). The model was empirically supported. The ARAQ, the DEQ, specifically the DEQ-Increased Confidence (DEQ-IC) scale, and the AUDIT all predict offence type. The DEQ, particularly the DEQ-IC scale, and the AUDIT, mediate the relationship between the ARAQ and offence type. The DEQ total score predicted the AUDIT score. The inclusion of all three variables (ARAQ, DEQ-IC, and AUDIT) in the model most accurately classified the participants. Implications for treatment are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the first to compare correlates of participation and frequency of violent and property offending by male and female offenders. The criminal career approach suggests that different features of criminal careers may have different correlates and predictors, whereas Gottfredson and Hirschi argued that all criminal career features have the same correlates and predictors. This paper investigates how much 24 explanatory constructs, derived from social learning, labelling and personality theories, were related to participation and frequency of offending. Samples of 118 male prisoners and 93 female prisoners in Trinidad were interviewed to determine whether they participated in violent and property crimes and the frequency with which they committed these crimes. The results showed that these theoretical constructs (especially labelling) were much more related to participation than to frequency, but they were similarly related to violent and property offending. They were similarly related to male and female frequency but not to male and female participation in offending. In general, different factors influenced participation and frequency, although impulsivity was related to both for males and females. It is concluded that existing theories need to be improved to explain the frequency of offending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence suggests that care staff have difficulty recognizing offending behaviour in adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) and that they are reluctant to report such behaviour to the police. Whilst there has been speculation as to why there may be such reluctance, there are no empirical studies. In this study, questionnaires using vignettes of fictitious crimes were completed by 80 care staff in residential homes and 65 police officers. The fictitious perpetrators in the vignettes were described either as non-disabled or as having ID. Care staff and police ratings of causal attributions and affect were compared, and the effect of perpetrator status (with or without ID) was also examined. The findings confirmed that care staff are still reluctant to report incidents by people with ID to the police. Carer and police views were generally in accord concerning perpetrators without ID but there were significant differences between groups rating perpetrators with ID. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forty patients who left the three high security ("special") hospitals for England and Wales between 1987 and 1991 went on to be convicted of a serious offence by 31 January 1993. The aims of the study were to describe their characteristics, their psychiatric care and the circumstances of the offences. A comparison group, matched for time at risk but unmatched on other variables, was generated by identifying, for each subject, the next patient to be discharged who had not re-offended by 31 January 1993. Eight of the 40 who went on to be convicted of a serious offence left special hospital with no psychiatric follow-up and for a further five only informal arrangements were made. Of the 27 who left special hospital under supervision, 11 dropped out of that supervision in the period (mean 1.7 years) between discharge and offence. [Compared with patients discharged at the same time and not convicted the 40 were significantly younger, less likely to have been educated in ordinary schools, more likely to have a history of alcohol withdrawal and had more criminal convictions. In special hospital the 40 were more likely to have been detained under the legal category of psychopathic disorder, had shorter admissions and their discharge had more often been disputed by their clinical team. At discharge, the 40 were less likely to be prescribed neuroleptic medication and they were more likely to have been discharged directly into the community.] Most instances of serious re-offending after discharge are not the result of patients stopping taking medication and are not the consequence of mental state changes being observed and ignored by treating teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]