LEC07 Criminal offenders

1) Demographic

- Age; children arrested before age 14 tend to have more extensive and serious criminal activity during life - Gender; men tend to be more likely to reoffend especially in violent cases

1. Retribution - Now

"Just desserts" model of retribution: - Criminals deserve the punishments they receive at the hands of the law, and that punishment should be appropriate to the type and severity of the crime - jails should be uncomfortable

Rehabilitation: History (1970s)

'Nothing works' philosophy. Studies on recidivism showed that rehabilitation didn't work

2) Mental Disorder

- Diagnosis of schizophrenia or affective disorders are more likely to engage in violence - "Threat/control override" symptoms: psychotic symptoms overriding a person's self-control or threatening a person's safety

1) Substance use

- Drug can directly lead to committing crimes as distributing/ possessing drugs is illegal , - but drugs can also indirectly lead to committing crimes because a lot of drug addicts engage in theft to support their addiction, - drug users are 15 times more likely than non-drug users to commit robberies and are 20 times more likely to commit burglaries than non-drug users.

Protective factors - adults

- Employment stability (for high-risk) e. g., having a good job - Strong family connections (for low-risk males)

What about protective factors?

- Factors that reduce or mitigate the likelihood of violence - Can help explain why some individuals with many risk factors do not become violent.

Dynamic Risk factor

- Fluctuate over time - Factors that can be changed

5. Restoration

- Focus on victim • Attempts to make the victim "whole again." • Sentencing options that seek to restore the victim have focused primarily on restitution payments that offenders are ordered to make

2) Personality characteristics

- Impulsivity as they are unable to regulate their behaviour and their thoughts - Psychopathy; tend to engage in diverse and chronic criminal behaviours with a meta-analysis showing that - for general recidivism they were 80% likely to re-offend while non-psychopaths were 32% likely - and for violent crimes psychopaths were 35% likely to re-offend while non-psychopaths were 5% likely

Problems with Actuarial or statistical method

- It is removed from the individual such that without meeting the person you can rate them on gender, age of first offence, etc and then based off these traits predict the likelihood of re-offending.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

- Often used with groups rather than individuals to help offenders realise that they aren't alone and provide support for each other - Our thoughts, feelings and behaviour all interact. Our thoughts influence our feelings and behaviour - so if we can change our thinking we can change problematic behaviour patterns - Results in cycles of thoughts, feelings and behaviours which are self-perpetuating - e.g. thinking that you are a worthless person this will make you depressed which in turn results in avoiding others which decreases the chance of positive feedback from others which then supports the initial negative thoughts of being worthless

Major decision point

- Pretrial - risk assessments during this point are to determine whether to let someone out on bail or not, also for borderline cases to determine whether to be trialled as an adult or a child - Sentencing - to convict someone or determine they are innocent - Release - for making decisions about parole

Protective factors - children/youths:

- Prosocial involvement - Strong social support - Positive social orientation (school, work) e.g., school to go to - Strong attachment (except with antisocial other) - Intelligence

Risk Assessments: Criminal Settings

- Risk assessments are conducted in both forensic and psychiatric facilities • Risk assessments conducted at major decision points in criminal and civil trials

When attempting to predict whether someone is a risk, two things need to be considered:

- Risk of offending or risk of offending in a particular way: predicting likelihood of occurrence - How likely to re-commit crime - Dangerousness: Predicting likely consequences of offending - how "serious" the offence is and how much it will be a harm to society.

Static Risk factor

--> Don't change over time - Historical e.g. age of first offence - Factors that cannot be changed (Not by treatment) Many predictive factors are static. This creates some problems - does it mean we cannot change dangerousness?

When trying to predict the future there are 4 possible outcomes

1) Predict that somebody is going to reoffend, and we let them out in society and they do reoffend - true positive 2) Predict somebody will reoffend but they don't - false positive 3) Predict someone wont offend but they do - false negative 4) Predict someone wont offend, and they don't - true negative

2 types of Deterrence

1) Specific deterrence 2) General deterrence - Capital punishment does not work as a deterrence for murder because people usually commit murder without rationally thinking about the consequences and so the consequence of capital punishment wont be thought of to help deter the person in the heat of the moment.

Important Risk Factors

1. Dispositional 2. Historical 3. Clinical 4. Contextual

Modern sentencing practices are influenced by five goals

1. Retribution 2. Incapacitation 3. Deterrence 4. Rehabilitation 5. Restoration

There are 3 types of risk and dangerousness assessment

1. Unstructured clinical judgment which are based on the experiences of the clinician 2. Statistical or Actuarial assessment which are based on evidence from previous cases which identify risk factors 3. Structured professional judgment is the combination of the two above

3. Deterrence

A goal of criminal sentencing which seeks to prevent people from committing crimes similar to the one for which an offender is being sentenced

ABC techniques

Activating events lead to Beliefs which lead to Consequences ( Feeling and actions towards the event) - the client works to understand this relationship then reframes the situation to re-interpret the situation in a more realistic way.

3. Deterrence - Goal

Crime prevention, it is different to retribution as it focuses on preventing future crimes while retribution focuses on getting revenge for past crimes

1. Retribution - Goal

Satisfaction for society knowing that the perpetuator is paying for their crime

Early 20th century:

Focus on rehabilitation, based largely on Positivist philosophies - because they were applying scientific methods to test primarily external factors that caused crime and so that if you could try to change these factors then people wouldn't commit crimes.

4. Contextual Risk Factors (situational risk factors)

If a person who comes out of prison is placed in the same environment in which they initially committed the crime they are more likely to reoffend because they have: • Lack of social support to help individual in his or her day-to-day life - same antisocial crowd • Easy access to weapons • Easy access to victims

1. Unstructured Clinical Judgment

Involves the offender meeting with a psychiatrist and then decide based on their own experiences whether this person is likely to re-offend or not

2. Incapacitation - Now

Lock 'em up approach • Goal: restraint, not punishment • Electronic confinement e.g. ankle monitors so that people have to stay under house arrest • Biomedical intervention (e.g., chemical castration for sex offenders to decrease their libido so that they are less likely to engage in criminal acts)

3. Clinical Risk factors

Mental disorders that contribute (directly or indirectly) to the likelihood of re-offending 1) Substance use 2) Mental Disorder

2. Incapacitation - Goal

Protect innocent people so the jails can be nice as there is no desire for retribution

Types of Predictors

Risk factors - measurable feature of an individual that predicts the behaviour of interest (e.g., violence or psychopathology) - Static Risk factors - Dynamic Risk factors - Acute vs. stable dynamic risk factors; initially thought that there was only static and dynamic factors but now. it is thought of as a spectrum ranging from static to stable then acute dynamic - Also, it is unclear whether personality features are static or dynamic. E.g. stable dynamic are things that change over a long period of time and these are typically targeted for treatment such as criminal attitude, coping ability, impulse control, while acute dynamic are things that fluctuate a lot and change rapidly which includes level of intoxication or mood.

Theories of Crime and Sentencing

The jury comes up with a verdict, either guilty or not guilty and if the person is guilty then sentencing occurs.

Rehabilitation: History (1930s)

Therapists such a Freud entered popular culture. Psychology introduced the possibility of a structured approach to rehabilitation through therapeutic intervention

1. Dispositional Risk Factors

These are risk factors that reflect the individual's traits, tendencies, or styles e.g. their attitudes, personality variables 1) Demographic 2) Personality characteristics

2. Historical Risk factors

These refer to events that have been experience in the past and are stable and cannot change over time and good predictors for re-offending • Past antisocial behaviour • Age of onset of antisocial behaviour • Childhood history of maltreatment - physical abuse and neglect predicts their initiation into delinquency, but chronic physical abuse and neglect predicts chronic offending, sexual abuse does not predict re-offending behaviour • Past supervision failure (those that fail to comply with past release conditions tend to re-offend), escape, or institution maladjustment

Late 18th-early 19th centuries

This lasted until Classical Criminology emerged which thought of criminals as rational, choosing their actions. Enlightenment philosophers put an emphasis on deterrence through rational punishment. Severity of punishment became less important than quick & certain penalties. - More important to increase the likelihood of them getting caught than severity of punishment

3. Structured Professional Judgment

This process arises from the limitations of unstructured clinical judgement and limitations of actuarial prediction (doesn't allow for individualised risk appraisal or consideration of the impact of situational factors that may modify risk level) Hence this process involves looking at risk factors but also meeting and talking with the offenders.

4. Rehabilitation

Train skills in self-control, conflict-management, provide work skills so they can get a job when they leave prison. • The attempt to reform a criminal offender. Rehabilitation seeks to bring about fundamental changes in offenders and their behaviour.

Types of Prediction Outcomes

We want to maximise True Positives and True Negatives but minimise False Negatives and False Positives. - Two types of errors are dependent on each other i.e. if you decrease the number of false negatives you increase the number of false positives and vice versa as they depend on whether you are making liberal decisions or conservative - Each outcome has different consequences for offender or society - with false positives the implications are for the offender denying them freedom when they aren't reoffending but with false negatives the implications are for society and the victims. - In certain cases, it is tolerable to have a high number of false positives if the consequences of error are not too severe e.g. if the consequence is police supervision then it is tolerable compared to if the consequence is the death sentence

Recent thinking

has emphasised the need to limit offenders' potential for future harm by separating them from society

prediction

now we have a range and people can vary to the degree which they are dangerous. - This shows that people can change over time in their degree of dangerousness and that there is an interaction between the person and the situation in which they find themselves. - For some people there can be a prediction of high risk, but low dangerousness e.g. a person at high risk of getting multiple parking tickets but this has low dangerousness. However, we are most concerned with high danger and risk.

4. Rehabilitation - Goal

reduce future crime

Specific Deterrence

seeks to prevent a particular offender from recidivism (repeat offences) based on operant learning which associates the crime with the punishment preventing person from committing the crime again.

General Deterrence

seeks to prevent others from committing crimes similar to the one for which a particular offender is being sentenced by making an example of the person sentenced based on social learning - where if you hear about a strict punishment for a crime it will prevent you from doing it. - Celebrities that commit crimes are often used as examples for general deterrence as these become high profile cases which helps teach others to not commit the same crimes.

Sentencing

the imposition of a penalty upon a person convicted of a crime. - Our beliefs about the causes of crime influence our sentencing rationale - the sentencing philosophy/justification upon which various sentencing strategies are based tend to be reflections of society's deeply held values

1. Unstructured Clinical Judgment - Result

• Clark (1999) reviewed studies and concluded that clinical risk assessment is weak at best, at worst totally ineffective. • Even experienced clinicians fail to predict future violence in cases with clear indicators, such as previous recidivism. Hence this is not an advised type of risk assessment.

2. Actuarial Prediction

• Decisions based on risk factors that are selected and combined based on empirical or statistical evidence - e.g. conduct a study in which a number of potential risk factors are measured in a sample of offenders that have been followed over a period and only count the things that are indicative of offending as potential risk factors. • Calculates risk by comparing characteristics of the individual to those of individuals for whom we know behaviour • Evidence favours actuarial assessments over unstructured clinical judgment

1. Unstructured Clinical Judgment - Characteristics

• Decisions characterised by professional discretion and lack of guidelines • Subjective • No predefined specific risk factors • No predefined rules about how risk decisions should be made • Many studies show clinical assessments of risk to be poor

Beyond Sentencing

• In NSW there are continued detention orders: allow some offenders to be detained after the end of their sentence if they are regarded as a serious risk. Continued detention orders assume that we are able to measure risks and predict if someone is likely to offend or not.

2. Incapacitation - Then

• In ancient times mutilation and amputation of the extremities to prevent offenders from repeating crimes

1. Retribution - Then

• In early societies death and exile were commonly imposed for relatively minor offences • "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth", often cited as justification for retribution was actually intended to reduce the severity of punishment for minor crimes - ironically now this quote is being used for supporting severe capital punishments and in some countries is still upheld

Rehabilitation: Now

• More recent studies are more methodologically sound and also slightly more optimistic • Focus now is on "What works?" as opposed to 'nothing works' • Evidence has begun to suggest that effective treatment does exist, however effect sizes are small

3. Structured Professional Judgment - Characteristics

• Provision of guidelines to help structure clinical decision-making can improve performance (Blackburn,2000) • Decisions guided by predetermined list of risk factors derived from research literature • Judgement of risk level is based on professional judgement

1. Retribution

• The act of taking revenge upon the criminal perpetrator • Predicated upon a felt need for vengeance

History of Crime and Sentencing

• The mentality of centuries ago held that crime was due to sin, and the suffering was the culprit's due. • Judges were therefore expected to be harsh with capital punishment and torture.

2. Incapacitation

• The use of imprisonment or other means to reduce the likelihood that an offender will be capable of committing future offences. • This rationale seeks to protect innocent members of society from offenders who might do them harm if they were not prevented in some way.