Forensic and Criminological Psychology

Legal Psychology

Gerhard Ohrband

ULIM University, Moldova

2nd lecture

Correctional Treatment

Course structure

Lectures:

•1. Introduction into Legal Psychology – Theories of crime

•2. Correctional treatment

•3. Victimology

•4. Police psychology

•5. Testimony assessment

•6. Criminal responsibility

•7. Judicial judgments

•8. Psychological assessment of families

Course structure

Seminars:

9. Eyewitness testimony

10. Jury decision-making

11. Child abuse

12. Prostitution

13. Rape

14. Tax evasion

15. Stereotypes and prejudices in the law system

1.Institutions for treatment of offenders

2.Correctional treatment in prison

3.Social therapy institutions

4.Treatment in youth prison

5.Treatment in a forensic psychiatric hospital

6.Treatment indications for offenders

7.Treatment of sex offenders

8.Evaluation of offender treatment

9.Effects of prisonization

10.Victim-offender reconciliation

Film: The Stanford Prison Experiment

Content

1. Institutions for treatment ofoffenders

3 ways of stationary

treatment

(in Germany)

Forensic-psychiatric

institutions

(since the 1930ies)

Social-therapeutic

institutions

(since the 1960ies)

Stationary treatment

in therapeutic

communities

for drug-addicted

offenders (since 1983)

Results of offender treatment

•The different approaches cannot be directlycompared in terms of effectiveness since theydo not include identical groups

•Social-therapeutic institutions: consistant effects,effect size r = .11; that is, in terms of recidivismor other criteria clients of social therapy show11% better results than inmates in regularprisons (Lösel, Köferl and Weber, 1987).

•Participants in addiction treatment finish theirtherapy more often than inmates participating inprograms on their own initiative; 50% vs. 20 or30% (Kurze, 1994).

2. Correctional treatment in prison

•German StVollzG, § 2, 3 and 4: preventionagainst recidivism, health care andmotivational work.

•Two directions:

1.Psychotherapy for present problems

2.Interventions for preventing recidivism

Justification: loss of freedom alone does not workfor individual prevention; sometimes evencontrary effects can be found (McGuire, 2002)

3. Social therapy institutions

•Since March 2004 in Germany 43 social-therapeutic institutions, partial institutionsor departments with 1.742 places (96%growth from 1997 with 888 places)

•55% sexual offenders (Kröniger, 2004).

•Integrative social therapy

•Three phases: test phase (ca. 3 months),main phase and end phase (ca. 6 – 10months)

Indications for social-therapeuticinstitutions

•If a repetition of dangerous crimes isprobable because of the offenders’ socialand personal development

•If the offenders show a disposition to tryattitudinal and behavioral change

•If the offenders possess the necessaryintellectual and linguistic requirements forparticipation

Counterindications

Offenders

•For which other treatment will be sufficient

•For which other treatment is indicated becauseof the degree of addiction (drugs, alcohol), adisorder or debilitation of the CNS or seriouspsychological disorders

•For which the rest time in prison is either to shortor to long for integrative social therapy

•Who do not want to stop substance abuse

•Who categorically reject the treatment

4. Treatment in youth prison

Goals

Offers/measures

School and vocational support

Courses in reading and writing,language courses for foreigners,school diploma, vocational training,special job qualifications

Enhancement of social competencies

Social therapy, social skills training,prison in living groups, compentencytrainings

Free-time activities

Sports, culture, hand-work,ergotherapy, discussion groups,religious groups

Offense-specific offers

Anti-violence training, addictiontherapy, addiction counseling, self-help groups

Complementary measures

Crisis intervention, preparation forrelease, debths counselling, vocationalcounselling, driver’s license

5. Treatment in a forensicpsychiatric hospital

•Patients: offenders with psychiatric disorders(e.g., schizophrenic and affective psychoses,organic brain disorders, reduced intelligence,disorder of sexual preferences – exhibitionism,pedophily).

•30% sexual offenders

•General problems: external compulsion andtherapy motivation

•Treatment: psychotherapy in single and groupsettings, psycho-educational measures, socialtherapy, ergotherapy, drug therapy

6. Treatment indications foroffenders

General principles for offender treatment:

1.Risk principle: intensity of treatment has to beoriented on the risk for recidivism

2.Need principle: the program objectives haveto target the specific developmental andpsychological problems which relate to thecriminal behavior

3.Responsitivity principle: therapy methodsshould be chosen in regard of the capacitiesand preferences of the client.

7. Treatment of sex offenders

•In the past focus on psychoanalitical treatments

•Today predominantly cognitive-behaviorprograms and Relapse Prevention Programs(RPP)

•Increasingly in group settings; this createstherapeutic possibilities for confrontation andoffers sexual offenders an opportunity toovercome isolation and shame

•Cognitive-behavior therapy: Sex OffenderTreatment Program (SOTP)

Units in the BPS (Behandlungsprogramm fürSexualstrattäter)

Offense-unrelated part

Offense-related part

Conversational behavior

Personal life story

Self- and other-perception

Cognitive distortions

Giving and receiving feedback

Steps in the commiting of sexualoffenses

Stress management

Apparently unimportant decisions

Awareness of feelings

Risk situations

Moral behavior and empathy

The problem of immediatesatisfaction

Contact and communicationtraining

Control of sexual fantasies

Sex-role stereotypes

Offense scenario

Control of substance abuse

Empathy with victims

Human sexual behavior

Prevention against recidivism

8. Evaluation of offender treatment

•Lipton et. al. (1975): Most treatments lack methodicallyfounded evaluation research.

•Other arguments against offender treatment: high costs,pathologization of social problems, low punitivity orproportionality with the deed, informalization of law.

•In the 90ies: change from “nothing works” to “whatworks?”

•Meta-analyses: r = .10 in international research

•Effectiveness depends on a) treatment type, b)implementation quality, c) treatment context and d)offender characteristics

9. Effects of prisonization

•Clemmer (1958): Process of adaption in whichnewly confined inmates adopt norms, valuesand habits of the other inmates.

•Adoption of criminal attitudes and behaviors

•Makes the resocialization and reintegration inthe society more difficult

•Key elements during the process:oppositional and hostile behavior towards prisonstaff, lack of cooperation and deviant behavior.

Theories of prisonization

1. Deprivation model

Sykes (1958): “Pains of imprisonment”

•Loss of freedom

•Loss of material and immaterial goods

•Loss of heterosexual relations

•Reduction of autonomy

•Lack of security in the presence of other inmates

2. Import model

3. Stress-coping paradigm

10. Victim-offender reconciliation

•Decide conflicts in a voluntary andpersonal meeting between victim andoffender under participation of a neutralthird party without recurring to a courts

•Bases: free will, tolerance and asufficiently clear case

•Restorative justice

Literature

•Bilsky, W. (1990). Extrajudicial mediation andarbitration: Evaluation of German Victim-Offender-Reconciliation Programs. TheInternational Journal of Conflict Management, 1,357-373.

•Hill, A., Briken, P., Kraus, C., Strohm, K. &Berner, W. (2003). Differential pharmacologicaltreatment of paraphilias and sex offenders.International Journal of Offender Therapy andComparative Criminology, 47, 407-412.