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BACKGROUND: There are high rates of mental disorders among prisoners. Prisoners are also likely to have difficulties with intimate relationships, perhaps related to the imprisonment, but their mental health may be relevant. There is a dearth of research on intimate relationship qualities and mental health of offenders and their partners over time. AIMS: To explore mental health and relationship trajectories among men in prison, and their partners, before the men's release, through a time 6 months post-release, and then again 8 years later, and to test associations between relationship quality and mental health. METHOD: Data stem from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded longitudinal 'Families and Imprisonment Research' (FAIR) project on paternal imprisonment and family resilience. Inclusion criteria for the study were men serving a short- to medium-term prison sentence who were within 4 months of release; with a current or ex-partner with whom they have at least one child; and for whom there were data on mental health and relationship factors during imprisonment, and at 6 months and 8 years post-release. Similar data were also obtained for their (ex-)partners. RESULTS: The main sample comprised 39 men and 39 women who were in the same 'family set' for the first two waves, and after 8 years, 26 men and 30 women were retained. Just over 40% of the men and their (ex-)partners each disclosed that they had a mental health problem preceding his release. Proportions fluctuated slightly over time, with some dissonance between self-perceived disorder and self-ratings on a symptoms rating scale. Twenty-nine couples sustained their relationship during the transition between prison and release, but after 8 years, only four remained together. There was little evidence of association between measures of mental health and relationship quality among either the men or their partners. CONCLUSIONS: The findings challenge assumptions about the extent to which partners can play fully supportive roles in a former prisoner's transition from institutional life back into the community, as partners are also likely to be experiencing difficulties during this time. Thus, former prisoners and their families should be afforded equal access to support and assistance during offender rehabilitation.

Funder: Bavarian State Ministry of Justice, BACKGROUND: Various studies have demonstrated that people who do not complete sex offender treatment have higher recidivism rates than completers or untreated controls. The mechanism behind this association, however, remains unclear. One explanation is that responsivity issues are more prevalent in high-risk offenders, making treatment failure and recidivism more likely, especially if treatment intensity is insufficient to match criminal needs. In addition, dropout may have a negative effect on offenders by increasing feelings of frustration or self-doubt. AIMS: To retest for a link between treatment discontinuation and recidivism by sex offenders and analyse the mechanisms mediating the link between treatment discontinuation and their recidivism. We hypothesise that non-completion has a negative effect on recidivism after controlling for a priori differences in risk of recidivism. METHODS: We analysed data from all sex offenders released from Bavarian prisons between 2004 and 2015 who had participated in prison-based social-therapeutic treatment and compared non-completers (n = 100) to offenders ending treatment as planned (n = 428). Criminal risk, offence characteristics, and treatment-related propensities were measured by a comprehensive assessment instrument, including the Static-99. Recidivism data were obtained from Federal Official Records with an average time-at-risk of 9.43 years (SD = 3.29). RESULTS: Treatment non-completion was significantly associated with recidivism after controlling for criminal risk, offence characteristics and treatment duration. This was mainly accounted for by men who had spent at least two years in treatment before premature termination and return to an ordinary prison setting. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings aid understanding the potentially negative impact of discontinuing social-therapeutic treatment for male sex offenders; termination after substantial commitment may be particularly problematic. Future research should encompass large enough sample sizes to study details behind staff or prisoner decisions to return the prisoner to ordinary prison conditions and to mitigate harms by loss of privileges.

Politically, religiously, and otherwise motivated radicalization and violent extremism is a topic of high priority in many countries. Therefore, beyond intelligence and police measures, there is a strong increase of psychosocial prevention programs in this field. However, little is known about their effectiveness. We aimed to fill this research gap by conducting a systematic international review and meta-analysis of outcome evaluations. We screened about 14,000 reports on the topic of extremism prevention, but in spite of broad criteria of eligibility, we only found nine more or less well-controlled outcome evaluations from seven countries. Six programs addressed religious/ethnic extremism, one targeted nationalist/separatist extremism, and one different types of extremism. Most evaluations had a quasi-experimental pre-post design, only one contained a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Overall, programs had a significant mean positive effect on behavioral and psychosocial outcomes related to extremism (d = 0.50, SE = 0.12). Regarding the specific effects of the programs on psychosocial aspects such as for example extremist attitudes alone, we found similar results (d = 0.56, SE = 0.11). We found stronger effects for programs with target groups from mixed ethnic backgrounds and approaches addressing both at-risk individuals and participants from the general population. Despite these promising results, the low internal validity of most evaluations and small number of eligible studies limit generalization. More high-quality evaluations are clearly needed. These would help to allocate resources in an evidence-oriented manner and provide a better understanding of the mechanisms of successfully preventing radicalization and violent extremism. RESUMEN La radicalización y el extremismo violento por causas políticas, religiosas o de otro tipo es un tema prioritario en muchos países. Además, más allá de las medidas de servicios de inteligencia y policiales, hay un aumento de los programas de prevención psicosocial en este campo. Sin embargo, no se sabe mucho de su eficacia. Para llenar este vacío en la investigación llevamos a cabo una revisión sistemática internacional y un meta-análisis de la evaluación de los resultados. Revisamos alrededor de 14,000 informes sobre prevención del extremismo, pero a pesar de que utilizamos un criterio de selección de artículos amplio solo encontramos nueve evaluaciones de resultados más o menos bien controladas de siete países. Seis programas abordaban el extremismo religioso/étnico, uno el nacionalista/separatista y uno consistía en un ensayo controlado aleatorizado (ECA). En general, los programas mostraron un efecto promedio positivo y significativo en los resultados comportamentales y psicosociales relacionados con el extremismo (d = 0.50, SE = 0.12). En cuanto a los efectos específicos de los programas en las dimensiones psicosociales, tal como las actitudes extremistas, encontramos unos efectos similares (d = 0.56, SE = 0.11). Hallamos efectos mayores en los programas con grupos diana de antecedentes étnicos mixtos y enfoques que se dirigían tanto a sujetos en riesgo como a participantes de la población general. A pesar de unos resultados prometedores, la escasa validez interna de la mayoría de las evaluaciones y el bajo número estudios que cumplían los criterios de selección limitan la generalización. En consecuencia, se necesitan más estudios con diseños de buena calidad. Estos ayudarían a asignar los recursos sobre la base de evidencia científica y proporcionarían una mejor comprensión de los mecanismos de prevención con éxito del extremismo violento y la radicalización.

Most research on aggression and delinquency concentrates on risk factors. There has been less attention for protective factors and mechanisms, in particular with regard to biosocial influences. Based on theories of autonomous arousal and stress reactance the present study addresses the influence of adrenocortical activity as a risk and/or protective factor in the development of antisocial behavior in children. We also investigated relations to anxiousness and family stressors. In a prospective longitudinal study of 150 German boys, the first measurement took place at preschool age and contained an assessment of cortisol after waking up and 30 min later. Aggressiveness and anxiousness of the children were assessed by the kindergarten teachers with the Social Behavior Questionnaire. After 6 years, the children's behavior was rated by the teachers in middle school. Variable-oriented data analyses revealed a significant correlation between the total amount of cortisol after waking up and 30 min later (AUC G ) and anxiousness both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, but not with aggressiveness. A family stress index correlated positively with aggressiveness but neither with cortisol nor with anxiousness. There were significant correlations between aggressiveness and anxiousness at kindergarten age and the respective behavior problems 6 years later. In a linear regression analysis on aggression only family stress had a significant effect but anxiousness not. Moderator analyses on aggressiveness with anxiousness and AUC G or on AUC G with anxiousness and aggressiveness did not show any significant interactions. Longitudinally, only aggression significantly predicted aggression 6 years later in a linear regression. In addition to variable-oriented analyses, we also applied a person-oriented approach to investigate specific patterns of behavior. Children who were high in both aggressiveness and anxiousness had the highest cortisol level and those with low anxiousness and high aggressiveness the lowest. The groups with different patterns of externalizing and internalizing problems at preschool age showed significant differences in aggression 6 years later. Our results underline the need for complex pattern analyses on cortisol, aggression, and anxiousness in children and for a differentiated consideration of emotional reactive aggression and unemotional instrumental aggression.