Facilitating Desistance from Aggression and Crime E-Book

Calvin M. Langton

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Wiley Clinical Psychology Handbooks
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1299

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

In Facilitating Desistance from Aggression and Crime: Theory, Research, & Strength-Based Practices, Drs. Calvin Langton and James Worling have gathered together internationally renowned authorities in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, criminology, social work, and law, to critically examine desistance as a construct, process, and outcome as well as the place of strengths work in correctional and forensic mental health settings. Integrating theory, emprical evidence, and applied practices, this timely volume is an essential scholarly resource with a clear practical emphasis for policy makers, researchers, practitioners, and graduate students.

Leseprobe

This is a very timely addition to the work that is now beginning to focus on more “positive” approaches to treating those who have committed various crimes. The editors have gathered some of the foremost thinkers in the current field relating to desistance, assessing strengths in individuals who have committed antisocial acts, and promoting protective factors in treatment. Hence this volume provides an excellent overview of the current situation in the field, as well as insights and pointers to where the desistance field is heading. As such it is an invaluable addition to the literature, and is a must buy for those working in, or who have an interest in, crime prevention.

Anthony Beech, Emeritus Professor of Criminological Psychology, University of Birmingham, UK

Facilitating Desistance from Aggression and Crime: Theory, Research, and Strength-Based Practices is the authoritative guide on all matters related to desistance. An impressive array of international experts skillfully synthesize and critique a range of theoretical, assessment, and treatment issues germane to desistance and strength-based paradigms. Operating through an evidence-based lens, Facilitating Desistance spans a multitude of settings and diverse populations. Students, practitioners, and seasoned scholars alike will benefit immensely from this book.

Shelley Brown, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Canada

Desistance from crime is among the most pressing criminological issues for criminal justice practitioners and policy-makers, but strangely is under the radar of many scholars. Until now. In their superlative edited volume, Calvin Langton and James Worling have assembled an international team of experts who present timely information on conceptual, assessment, and treatment issues that bear on the reduction of aggression, conduct problems, delinquency, sexual offending, and violent crime. Interdisciplinary, engaging, and balanced in its approach, Facilitating Desistance from Aggression and Crime: Theory, Research, and Strength-Based Practices is an indispensable resource for practitioners and academicians.

Matt DeLisi, Distinguished Professor, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dean’s Professor, Coordinator of Criminal Justice Studies, Professor,Department of Sociology, Iowa State University, USA

Facilitating Desistance from Aggression and Crime: Theory, Research, and Strength-Based Practices is an excellent book that should be read by all researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers who are interested in learning about explanations of desistance and methods of encouraging desistance. It is wide-ranging and well-researched, focusing especially (and commendably) on strength-based and protective factors. It includes extensive reviews of explanation and prediction as well as assessment and treatment methods for different types of offenders, including sex offenders and mentally disordered offenders.

David P. Farrington, Emeritus Professor of Psychological Criminology, Cambridge University, UK

With backgrounds ranging from social work to forensic psychiatry, the contributors to this remarkable volume bring desistance theory to the world of practice in a way no previous book has been able to achieve. A fantastic contribution to research-informed practice that should be widely read.

Shadd Maruna, Professor of Criminology, Queen’s University Belfast, UK

“Desistance” and “strength-based approaches” have become catchcries in criminal justice but with little meaning or substance. Facilitating Desistance from Aggression and Crime promises to help catapult the field forward in an impactful way. The impressive array of authors systematically tackles the theory, research, and applications that add to our understanding of how people “stop crime” and how our practices and systems can support that. This volume should be mandatory reading for those who work with people who come into the criminal justice system, and those at risk for doing so.

James R. P. Ogloff AM, Dean, School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Executive Director of Psychological Services and Research, Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, Australia

Desistance- and psychological treatment-based models for supporting people’s aspirations toward “post-crime” lives have been moving on parallel tracks for some time, aware of each other but connecting in only limited ways. This book is the most comprehensive effort to date to draw those tracks together, despite their distinct histories and underlying assumptions about human behavior. Day and Halsey’s opening chapter is stuffed full of excellent ideas for developing practice that will lead to better outcomes for the people we seek to help. From there on the book’s focus is broad, covering a range of theoretical foundations, populations, and types of offending. It finishes with a series of substantial chapters on treatment that will surely give program designers and practitioners support for new directions in the coming years, and provide plenty of lively debate between researchers, students, and academics.

Devon Polaschek, Professor, Te Kura Whatu Oho Mauri School of Psychology, University of Waikato, New Zealand

Facilitating Desistance from Aggression and Crime: Theory, Research, and Strength-Based Practices provides a full range of coverage for professionals interested in helping justice-involved clients reduce harmful behaviors and develop paths to meaningful lives. The contributors are many of the world’s leading experts on topics ranging from desistance models, assessment of protective factors, and strength-based approaches to treatment. A must read for anyone interested in alternatives to the cycle of recidivism prevalent in today’s criminal justice system.

Raymond Chip Tafrate, Professor and Clinical Psychologist, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Central Connecticut State University, USA

This is a landmark book that sets out to integrate desistance theory and research with strength-based approaches in correctional and forensic practice. The authors are experts in their chapter topics and do a beautiful job of retaining the best aspects of risk-oriented practice with a greater focus on individuals with core values and aspirations. The scholarship is impeccable, the writing uniformly strong, and the proposals for the future of our field novel and exciting. This book provides a comprehensive roadmap for the future.

Tony Ward, Professor of Forensic Clinical Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Facilitating Desistance from Aggression and Crime

Theory, Research, and Strength-Based Practices

Edited By

Calvin M. Langton

University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada

James R. Worling

Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, Private Practice, Toronto, Canada

This edition first published 2022

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The right of Calvin M. Langton and James R. Worling to be identified as the authors of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with law.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Langton, Calvin M., editor. | Worling, James R., editor.Title: Facilitating desistance from aggression and crime : theory, research, and strength-based practices / edited by Calvin M. Langton, James R. Worling.Description: Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2022014567 (print) | LCCN 2022014568 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119166467 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119166498 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119166481 (epub) | ISBN 9781119166504 (ebook)Subjects: LCSH: Criminals--Rehabilitation. | Correctional psychology. | Forensic psychology.Classification: LCC HV9276 .F66 2022 (print) | LCC HV9276 (ebook) | DDC 365/.661--dc23/ eng/20220527 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022014567LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022014568

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Image: © Calvin M. Langton

Set in 10/12pt Galliard by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd, Pondicherry, India

For Grace, Sylvia, and Christina – CML

For my friends and colleagues at the former Thistletown Regional Centre, SAFE-T Program – JRW

Contents

Cover

Series page

Title page

Copyright

Dedication

Biographical Statements

Abbreviations

Section 1 Foundations

1 Desistance Theory and Forensic Practice

2 Contributions to Desistance Research from Developmental Psychopathology

3 Contribution to Desistance Research and Practice from Positive Psychology

4 Risk and Strength Variables in Recidivism-desistance Prediction Research with Applied Assessment Practices: Toward a Nomenclature for Their Effects

5 Strengths in the Risk-Need-Responsivity Model of Offender Assessment and Rehabilitation

Section 2 Assessment

6 Desistance from Conduct Problems during Childhood: Potential Explanatory Factors and Assessment

7 Assessment of Protective Factors in Youth Justice Settings

8 Factors Related to Desistance from Sexual Recidivism

9 Women’s Desistance from Crime: The Role of Individual, Relational, and Socio-structural Factors over Time

10 Factors Predicting Desistance from Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration in Adults

11 Factors Predicting Desistance from Criminal and Aggressive Behavior in Mentally Disordered Individuals

12 Factors Predicting Desistance from Criminal Behavior and Aggression in Adult Offenders: A Critical Review

Section 3 Treatment

13 Evidence-based Delinquency Prevention for Children Exhibiting Conduct Problems

14 Strength-based Approaches to Address Criminal Behaviors in Adolescents

15 Strength-based Treatments for Adults and Juveniles who have been Sexually Abusive: A Review

16 Strength-based Approaches to the Treatment of Incarcerated Women and Girls

17 Strength-based Batter Intervention Programs for Intimate Partner Violence

18 Strength-based Approaches with Offenders with Mental Illness

19 The Good Lives Model: Next Steps in Research and Practice

Index

End User License Agreement

List of Figures

Chapter 3

Figure 3.1 The four-front model...

Chapter 4

Figure 4.1 Types of possible...

Figure 4.2 Percent convicted...

Figure 4.3 Percent with any...

Figure 4.4 Additive effect...

Figure 4.5 Kaplan-Meier survival...

Figure 4.6 Percent with...

Figure 4.7 Main effects...

Figure 4.8 Percent with any...

Figure 4.9 Moderation effects...

Chapter 5

Figure 5.1 A comprehensive...

Chapter 9

Figure 9.1 Factors related...

Chapter 11

Figure 11.1 Protective factors...

List of Tables

Chapter 1

Table 1.1 Key approaches to...

Table 1.2 Behavioral change...

Table 1.3 Social Models of ...

Chapter 5

Table 5.1 The full Risk...

Table 5.2 Provincial training...

Table 5.3 Strength principles...

Table 5.4 Criminogenic needs...

Table 5.5 The mean strength...

Chapter 7

Table 7.1 A typology of...

Table 7.2 The predictive...

Chapter 9

Table 9.1 Protective factors...

Chapter 11

Table 11.1 Desistance factors...

Table 11.2 Overview of SAPROF...

Guide

Cover

Series page

Title page

Copyright

Dedication

Table of Contents

Biographical Statements

Abbreviations

Begin Reading

Index

End User License Agreement

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Biographical Statements

Editors

Calvin M. Langton, PhD, C Psych, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He is also a clinical and forensic psychologist registered in Ontario, Canada, and a chartered psychologist in the UK. His research interests include predictors of recidivism and desistance from involvement in crime and types of interpersonal aggression, and assessment and treatment issues with adolescents involved in the youth justice and children’s mental health systems as well as with adults in the correctional and forensic mental health systems. He has served on the editorial boards of various academic/professional journals, including 13 years on the editorial board of Criminal Justice and Behavior and 17 years on the editorial board of Sexual Abuse, of which he was most recently an Associate Editor. He provides psychological services to children, adolescents, and adults.

James R. Worling, PhD, C Psych, is a clinical and forensic psychologist in full-time private practice in Toronto, Canada, who has worked extensively since 1988 with adolescents who have offended sexually. He also works with children and youth who have experienced sexual victimization and with children under 12 who have engaged in harming sexual behaviors. During this time, Dr. Worling has presented many workshops nationally and internationally, and he has written a number of articles and book chapters regarding the etiology, assessment, and treatment of sexually abusive behavior. Dr. Worling is a Fellow of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, and he serves on the editorial boards for Sexual Abuse and Sexual Offending: Theory, Research, and Prevention.

Additional Contributors

Jewels Adair is a graduate student in the applied psychology program at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Her research interests focus on risk reduction programs to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual assault, and increasing awareness of the impact and course of IPV.

Anna-Karin Andershed, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology, and a senior researcher at the Center for Criminological and Psychosocial Research (CAPS) at Örebro University, Sweden. Her primary research interests concern the development of antisocial behavior across the lifespan, risk and protective factors, and structured assessment. She is co-Principal Investigator of two ongoing large-scale prospective longitudinal research programs: the SOFIA study and the IDA program.

Henrik Andershed, PhD, is a Professor of Criminology and Psychology, and a senior researcher at the Center for Criminological and Psychosocial Research (CAPS) at Örebro University, Sweden. His primary research interests concern the development of antisocial behavior across the lifespan, psychopathic personality, risk and protective factors, and assessment. He is the author of more than 150 scientific publications and is co-Principal Investigator of two ongoing large-scale prospective longitudinal research programs: the SOFIA study and the IDA program.

Shelby Arnold, PhD, is a staff psychologist at Beck Institute Center for Recovery-Oriented Cognitive Therapy. Her research interests include alternatives to standard prosecution, problem-solving courts, and evaluation of evidence-based practices in forensic settings. Her clinical interests include treatment and dissemination of evidence-based practices in forensic mental health settings, with a specific focus on staff support and accessibility of best practices systems-wide.

Kristin W. Bolton, PhD, MSW, is an Associate Professor of Social Work and Graduate Program Coordinator at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her research areas include solution-focused brief therapy, resilience, and offender populations.

Keith B. Burt, PhD, is Associate Professor of Psychological Science at the University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont. His research interests focus on resilience in adolescence and the transition to adulthood as well as quantitative methods for developmental science.

Alan Carr, PhD, is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at University College Dublin, Ireland. He has a family therapy clinical practice at Clanwilliam Institute, Dublin. He has worked in Canada, the UK, and Ireland. He has produced over 20 volumes and 200 papers in clinical psychology, family therapy, and positive psychology.

Dr. Chi Meng Chu is the Director and Senior Principal Clinical and Forensic Psychologist at the Translational Social Research Division, National Council of Social Service, Singapore. He is concurrently the Director (Special Projects) at the Policy Research Office, Ministry of Social and Family Development, Singapore. In addition, Dr. Chu is an Adjunct Associate Professor with the Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore. Dr. Chu oversees large-scale research programs on criminological, mental health, quality of life, and resilience issues.

Stephanie S. Covington, PhD, LCSW, is an internationally recognized clinician, author, organizational consultant, and lecturer. She is a pioneer in the field of women’s issues, and has over thirty years of experience in the design, development, and implementation of treatment services for women and girls. She is recognized for her work in gender-responsive and trauma-informed services in both the public and private sectors.

Andrew Day, D Clin Psy, is Enterprise Professor in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne having previously worked as the Head of Research in the Indigenous Education and Research Centre at James Cook University and in the School of Psychology at Deakin University. He has research interests in areas of offender rehabilitation, violent offenders, and juvenile justice. He is widely published in the field of forensic psychology and criminal justice.

David DeMatteo, JD, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology and Professor of Law at Drexel University, and Director of Drexel’s JD/PhD Program in Law and Psychology. His research interests include psychopathic personality, forensic mental health assessment, and offender diversion, and his research has been funded by several federal agencies, state agencies, and private foundations. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Divisions 12 and 41) and a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Psychology. He is board certified in forensic psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology, and he is currently on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Forensic Psychology. He is also a former President of the American Psychology-Law Society (APA Division 41).

Michiel de Vries Robbé, PhD, is psychologist and senior researcher in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Amsterdam University Medical Center, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. His research focuses primarily on risk assessment, in particular risk screening and protective factors for (violence) risk for adults, juveniles, and children. He is co-author of the SAPROF, the SAPROF–Youth Version, the SAPROF–Child Version, the Female Additional Manual, the Risk Screener – Violence and the Risk Screener – Youth.

Sophie R. Dickson, PhD, PGDipClinPsyc is a clinical psychologist working within the New Zealand criminal justice system. Her research interests include the role of release planning in reintegration and the development of strength-based assessment tools.

Jaymes Fairfax-Columbo, JD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the University of New Mexico School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Division of Community Behavioral Health. He also serves as Training Director for UNM’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in Forensic Psychology. His clinical interests include forensic mental health assessment, competency restoration, and reentry of both criminal offenders and psychiatric patients. His research interests include competency restoration, forensic mental health assessment, mental/behavioral health policy, psychopathy, reentry, therapeutic jurisprudence, and violence risk assessment.

Gina Fedock, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Her research focuses on intervention development, implementation, and assessment of outcomes to improve women’s mental health, both in the community and while incarcerated.

Jon C. Hall, PhD, MSSW, LCSW, is a Professor of Social Work at University of North Carolina Wilmington. His teaching areas include advanced masters’ social work practice and masters’ field collaboration courses. His scholarship and research focus on various forms of postmodernism, with an emphasis on social constructionism.

Mark Halsey, PhD, is a Professor of Criminology at Flinders University, Australia, and Joint Chief Editor of the Journal of Criminology. He has published widely on pathways into offending and desistance from crime. His books include Generations Through Prison: Experiences of Intergenerational Incarceration (2020 Routledge), and Tackling Correctional Corruption: An Integrity Promoting Approach (2016 Springer). For his book, Young Offenders: Crime, Prison & Struggles for Desistance (2015 Palgrave), he received the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology’s inaugural Christine M. Alder Book Award for most outstanding contribution to criminology.

Dan Hartnett, PhD, D Clin Psych, is a clinical psychologist with the Irish public health service, and a researcher at University College Dublin. He previously worked as Addiction Psychiatry Research Director at St. Patrick’s University Hospital, Dublin, and has authored over twenty papers and presentations in the areas of clinical psychology, family therapy, substance misuse, and addiction.

David J. Hawes, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on optimizing behavioral treatments designed for parents of children with externalizing disorders, including those with callous-unemotional traits. As a practicing clinician, he also regularly gives workshops on the treatment of child behavior problems to therapists in Australia and internationally.

Kirk Heilbrun, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Drexel University. His current research focuses on juvenile and adult offenders, legal decision-making, forensic evaluation associated with such decision-making, diversion, and reentry. He is the author of a number of books, articles, and chapters on forensic assessment, violence risk assessment, and risk communication, and the treatment of mentally disordered offenders. He has previously served as president of both the American Psychology-Law Society and the American Board of Forensic Psychology. He received the 2016 award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology and Law from the American Psychology-Law Society.

Jan Hendriks, PhD, is a forensic and clinical psychologist. He is professor of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and professor of Forensic Orthopedagogics at the University of Amsterdam. His research interests are juvenile and adult sex offenders, female offenders, and interventions for delinquent youth.

Catheleen Jordan, PhD, LCSW, is a Professor of Social Work at the University of Texas at Arlington. Dr. Jordan’s areas of teaching and research are family assessment and treatment. She has been active in the mental health practice community; her clinical and research interests range from youth violence to elder issues.

Lindsey Kendrick-Koch, BA, MPH, is a clinical project coordinator working on an opioid use disorder care education program at the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use.

Peter Lehmann, PhD, LCSW, is a retired Professor of Social Work from the University of Texas at Arlington. His teaching and research interests include solution-focused brief therapy and intimate partner violence.

Dr. Dongdong Li is a Principal Research Specialist at the Translational Social Research Division, National Council of Social Service, Singapore. She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow with the Social Service Research Centre, National University of Singapore. Her research involves the study of child protection issues and youth offender rehabilitation, such as the predictors and outcomes of involvement in child protection services, effects of childhood maltreatment, and the cycle of violence.

Liam E. Marshall, PhD, RP, ATSAF, is Director of Rockwood Psychological Services and a researcher and clinician at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care, Canada. Dr. Marshall has been providing treatment for and conducting research with offenders, mentally ill offenders, and addictions for more than twenty-five years. He has more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, including four books, is a board member and reviewer for many international journals, and has delivered training for professionals who work with sexual and violent offenders in 26 countries. Dr. Marshall is a Fellow of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers.

W. L. Marshall, PhD, is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada, and is Past-President of both the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers and the International Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders. He is a Life-time Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a retired Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. In 2006 Professor Marshall was appointed by the Governor General as an Officer of the Order of Canada. He has over 420 publications on diverse issues (e.g., drug abuse, depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, sexual offending, and personality) and he has authored, or been the editor of, 20 books. He has served on the editorial boards of 19 international scientific journals.

Jane Meleady, D Psych Sc, is a qualified clinical psychologist with the Irish public health service, and a researcher at University College Dublin. Her research interests include family quality of life among parents of children on the autism spectrum. Her clinical practice is with individuals and families, across the lifespan, in a variety of mental health and disability settings.

Dr. Tonia L. Nicholls is Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia and Distinguished Scientist, BC Mental Health & Substance Use Services Research Institute. Dr. Nicholls is interested in the assessment and treatment of violence and criminality and the development and implementation of evidence-based practice to improve the health and well- being of marginalized populations and public safety. She has published over 100 articles and chapters, as well as several manuals intended to inform assessments and treatment of individuals who are mentally ill, live with substance use disorders, homeless, and/or justice involved. Her scholarly work earned her the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions, the Canadian Psychological Association President’s New Researcher Award, and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Career Scholar award. She also held a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) New Investigator salary award and a MIND Foundation Young Investigator award, and was part of a team honored to receive the Canadian Psychological Association Criminal Justice Division Award Significant Contributions award. She is the editor of the International Journal of Forensic Mental Health.

Dustin Pardini, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. His research focuses on the precursors and outcomes associated with the development of antisocial (e.g., violence, theft) and substance-using behaviors from childhood to adulthood, as well as evaluating the impact that early psychosocial interventions can have on these problems.

Virginia D. Peisch, PhD, is a clinical research postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Developmental Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. Her research interests focus on the development of coping behaviors, particularly during emerging adulthood.

Karen Petersen, PhD, is a Research Associate in the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Petersen’s publications, international presentations, and grants focus a gender- and trauma-informed lens on research, policy, and practice involving intersecting vulnerable populations (individuals with mental illness, criminal justice system contact, and/or homelessness).

Victoria Pietruszka, MS, JD, is a seventh-year student in the JD/PhD program in law and clinical psychology at Drexel University. Her research interests include reentry, risk assessment, and the role of heuristics and biases in the criminal justice system.

Elanie Rodermond is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and a research fellow at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement. Her research interests are desistance, reentry, women offenders, extremism, and life-course criminology.

Elyse R. Rosenberg, PhD, is a clinical psychologist at the Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital. Her primary role is with the Young Adult Services Medical Track intensive outpatient program where she works with young adults who present with comorbid medical and psychiatric conditions. Her research interests focus on examining cognitive and behavioral factors that promote adaptive functioning in emerging adulthood.

Hayley Ross, BA, is a project coordinator at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.

Rebecca Schiedel, PhD, is a Clinical Psychologist at Western State Hospital in Staunton, Virginia. Her clinical interests include evidence-based treatment for forensic and civil patient populations, competency restoration, and forensic mental health assessment. Her research interests include community-based interventions for justice-involved individuals and factors that influence judges’ treatment of juveniles.

Gabriela D. B. Sheinin, MA, is a doctoral student in the child clinical psychology program at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. She is currently completing her pre-doctoral internship at the Waterloo Region Psychology Consortium. Her research interests focus on emotional intelligence, personality, and intimate partner violence.

Dr. Barinder Singh is the Interim Medical Director at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital and holds a clinical faculty position with the Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia. Dr. Singh is a psychiatry fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. She has published on medical education and arts in medicine.

Anne-Marie Slotboom, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her main publications have been focused on prison conditions in women’s prisons, women’s prison experiences, and girls in the juvenile justice system. Her current research interests are concentrated on pathways to female crime and imprisonment, female desistance, and juvenile delinquents treated in outpatient clinics.

Patti Timmons Fritz, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Fritz’s research interests include the etiology, developmental course, correlates, and measurement of various forms of family violence, including intimate partner violence (IPV) and coercive control. She is also interested in the relation between IPV and animal abuse.

Kayla E. Truswell, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Nova Scotia, Canada. A portion of her generalist clinical training was forensic in nature. As such, she has clinical training and experience working in assessment and intervention contexts with a diverse range of offenders.

Christopher Webster, PhD, is a Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He has spent his career moving between Ontario and British Columbia with posts at the Addiction Research Foundation and the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry (and, as part of that, the Metropolitan Toronto Forensic Service), as well as their later amalgamation as the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, all in Toronto. He has been a Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Criminology at the University of Toronto, and a Professor at the University of Victoria, BC. Professor Webster has also served on the Ontario Review Board as well as the British Columbia Review Board. He has published some ten books and about 200 scholarly papers or book chapters. In addition, he has been the lead or co-author of a dozen, evidence-based, practice manuals, including the HCR-20 and the Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability (START, which places weight on client strengths as well as risks), both for use with adults. Other of these manuals are designed for use with children, adolescents, those who have committed sexual offenses, and those who have perpetrated intimate partner violence.

Mercedes Wilkins, LCSWA, CMSW, is an outpatient therapist at Pride in North Carolina Mental Health Services and serves as the Chair of the NASW Cape Fear LPU.

Gwenda M. Willis, PhD, PGDipClinPsyc, is a clinical psychologist and researcher from New Zealand; she has worked in clinical and research capacities in New Zealand, Australia, and North America. In 2011, she was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholar award to evaluate applications of the Good Lives Model in sexual offending treatment programs in North America. Since this time she has written extensively on the application of the Good Lives Model and provided training and program consultation in prisons and community-based settings internationally.

Yilma Woldgabreal, PhD, is a senior clinician at the Rehabilitation Programs Branch, Department for Correctional Services in South Australia. He has nearly 20 years of experience in corrections and held various positions as a practitioner, team supervisor, manager, researcher, and project worker. He has published in peer-reviewed journals and is a research affiliate at Deakin University, with interest in the areas of strength-based offender/prisoner rehabilitation and the application of positive psychology.

J. Stephen Wormith, PhD, was a Professor in the Psychology Department and Director of the Centre of Forensic Behavioural Science and Justice Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. Throughout his distinguished career he worked as a psychologist, researcher, and administrator in both federal and provincial correctional jurisdictions in Canada. He made significant contributions to the literature in his areas of interest, which included offender risk and psychological assessment, offender treatment, sexual offenders, and crime prevention.

Dr. Xuexin Xu, PhD, is a Senior Research Specialist at the Translational Social Research Division, National Council of Social Service, Singapore. Her current research interests include child, youth and family studies, child and vulnerable adult protection, youth rehabilitation, and the effects of media consumption.

Abbreviations

ACE

adverse childhood experience

ADHD

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

AEI

Access Early Intervention

ART

aggression replacement training

ASEBA

Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment

ASPD

antisocial personality disorder

AUC

area under the curve

BAME

Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic

BASC

Behavior Assessment System for Children

BERS

Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scales

BEST

Bringing Evidence-Based Services and Treatment for Young Children and their Families

BIP

batter intervention program

B-SAFER

Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk

CARES

Coaching and Rewarding Emotional Skills

CBCL

Child Behavior Checklist

CBT

cognitive behavioral therapy

CD

conduct disorder

CDCP

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CDI

Child-Directed Interaction

CFA

confirmatory factor analysis

CI

confidence interval

CLCO

Changing Lives and Changing Outcomes

CPP

Coping Power Program

CSC

Correctional Service of Canada

CSDD

Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development

CSS

Criminal Sentiments Scale

CTC

Communities that Care

CTS

Conflict Tactics Scales

CU

callous-unemotional

DA

Danger Assessment

D.A.R.E.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education

DASH-13

Desistance for Adolescents who Sexually Harm

DNI

Dynamic Need Index

DRAOR

Dynamic Risk Assessment for Offender Re-entry

DREEM

Developing Recovery Enhancement Environments Measure

DRI

Dynamic Risk Index

DUNDRUM

Quartet Dangerousness Understanding, Recovery and Urgency Manual

DVSI-[R]

Domestic Violence Screening Instrument [Revised]

EARL

Early Assessment Risk List

EPICS

Effective Practices in Community Supervision

ESTER

Evidence-Based Structured Assessment Instrument of Risk and Protective Factors

ETS

Enhanced Thinking Skills

FACHS

Family and Community Health Study

FAM

Female Additional Manual

FFT

Functional Family Therapy

FPJ

Final Protection Judgment

GAP

Gender and Aggression Project

GED

General Educational Development

GSI

Global Severity Index

GLM

Good Lives Model

GPCSL

General Personality and Cognitive Learning Model

GSE

General Self-Efficacy Scale

HARM

Hamilton Anatomy of Risk Management

HCR-20

Historical Clinical Risk Management-20

HCR-20

V3

Historical Clinical Risk Management-20 version 3

HEART

Holistic Enrichment for At-Risk Teens

HHDP

Rutgers Health and Human Development Project

ICC

intraclass correlation coefficient

IFRJ

Integrative Final Risk Judgment

IORNS

Inventory of Offender Risk, Needs, and Strengths

IPV

intimate partner violence

IY

Incredible Years

LOT-R

Life Orientation Test–Revised

LSI

Level of Service Inventory

LSI-OR

Level of Service Inventory–Ontario Revision

LSI-R

Level of Service Inventory–Revised

LS/CMI

Level of Service/Case Management Inventory

LS/RNR

Level of Service/Risk Need Responsivity

MDT

Mode Deactivation Therapy

MEGA

Multiplex Empirically Guided Inventory of Ecological Aggregates for Assessing Sexually Abusive Adolescents and Children

MI

Motivational Interview

MnSOST

Minnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool

MST

Multi Systemic Therapy

MTC

Modified Therapeutic Community

NT

narrative therapy

ODARA

Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment

ODD

oppositional defiant disorder

OR

odds ratio

ORI

Overall Risk Index

PACT

Positive Achievement Change Tool

PCC-SR

Patient Staff Conflict Checklist–Shift Report

PCIT

Parent–Child Interaction Therapy

PCL:YV

Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version

PCRA

Post Conviction Risk Assessment

PDI

Parent-Directed Interaction

PFS

Protective Factors Scale

PHDCN

Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods

PIC-R

Personal, Interpersonal, and Community Reinforcement

PICC

Problem Identification, Choices, and Consequences

PPS

Positive Psychological States

PRI

Protective Risk Index

PROFESOR

Protective + Risk Observations For Eliminating Sexual Offense Recidivism

PSI

Protective Strengths Index

PTSD

post-traumatic stress disorder

R&R

Reasoning and Rehabilitation

RNR

Risk-Need-Responsivity

RP

Relapse Prevention (model)

RSA

Recovery Self-Assessment

SAPROF

Structured Assessment of PROtective Factors for violence risk

SAPROF-CV

Structured Assessment of PROtective Factors for violence risk–Child Version

SAPROF-SO

Structured Assessment of PROtective Factors for violence risk–Sexual Offence version

SAPROF-YV

Structured Assessment of PROtective Factors for violence risk–Youth Version

SARA

Spousal Assault Risk Assessment

SAVRY

Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth

SBA

strength-based approaches

SDM

social development model

SDQ

Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

SDT

self determination theory

SEEDS

Skills for Effective Engagement, Development and Supervision

SEM

structural equation modeling

SFBT

solution-focused brief therapy

SFS

Salient Factor Score

SHS

State Hope Scale

SIR

Statistical Information on Recidivism

SOP

Sex Offender Program

SORM

Structured Outcome Assessment and Community Risk Monitoring

SoS

Signs of Safety

SOTIPS

Sex Offender Treatment Intervention and Progress Scale

SOTP

Sex Offender Treatment Program

SPIn

Service Planning Instrument

SPJ

structured professional judgment

SRI

Static Risk Index

START

Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability

START:AV

Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability: Adolescent Version

STICS

Strategic Training Initiative in Community Supervision

SVR-20

Sexual Violence Risk-20

TA

therapeutic alliance

TC

Therapeutic Community

TFCO

Treatment Foster Care Oregon

TIER

Trauma-Informed Effective Reinforcement System

TM

Tidal Model

VRAG

Violence Risk Appraisal Guide

VRAG-R

Violence Risk Appraisal Guide–Revised

VRS

Violence Risk Scale

VRS-SO

Violence Risk Scale–Sexual Offender

VRS-YV

Violence Risk Scale –Youth Version

WSJCA

Washington State Juvenile Court Assessment

YLS/CMI

Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory

Section 1 Foundations

1 Desistance Theory and Forensic Practice

Andrew Day1 and Mark Halsey2

1 University of Melbourne, Australia

2 Flinders University, Australia

Introduction

In this chapter we summarize some of the desistance literature that can help us to understand more about how, and why, people desist from crime. It is important to note from the outset that simply trying to explain how people actually “give up crime” rather than identifying those characteristics and propensities that place them at risk is likely to resonate strongly for those who are interested in more strength-focused approaches to forensic assessment and treatment. In addition, the key idea behind many contemporary desistance theories – that people can be assisted to achieve short-term psychological changes that, in turn, trigger longer-term behavioral changes which then become embedded in new personal identities – is fully consistent with the therapeutic aspirations of many allied health professionals who work in forensic settings. Accordingly, in this chapter we propose that desistance theories should not only be of great interest to those who are seeking to understand how, when, and why some people offend, but also of direct relevance to working in ways that can actually assist change to take place. There are, of course, also points of departure between the ways in which the desistance process has been understood and the assumptions that underpin a more treatment-oriented approach which we also consider. We start though by observing that one of the most important ideas contained in the desistance literature is the need to focus on “the process by which people come to cease and sustain cessation of offending behaviour” (Weaver, 2019, p. 642, emphasis added). We then outline what we see as some key elements of any desistance-informed approach.

Polaschek (2019) has observed that the desistance literature can be characterized as being made up of two strands: an empirical one that aims to identify and describe criminal career paths; and a more conceptual one that seeks to better understand the personal experience of desisting. Three broad perspectives dominate: the ontogenic perspective places age and maturation at the forefront of inquiry and posits that most people will age naturally out of criminal behavior; the social bonds perspective contends that it is the rewards from, and connections to, legitimate groups that ensure an appropriate level of social integration (and thereby protect against the motivation and opportunity to engage in crime); and the narratological perspective examines the coherence of one’s self-project including the “strategies for creating meaning” (Maruna, 2001, p. 27) within one’s life as key to desistance from crime. Some of the main ideas contained in each of these approaches are summarized in Table 1.1, although we would note that any attempt to delineate the work of desistance theories in this way is likely to be somewhat artificial given that there is so much common ground. Nonetheless, we have included Table 1.1 in this chapter to offer some reference points for those who are seeking to understand the meaning of the term “desistance” and how it has been used in different ways, at different times, by different people.

Table 1.1 Key approaches to understanding desistance (Based on Polaschek, 2019).

Perspective

Focus of work

Key researchers

Contributions

Ontogenic

Criminal career paths

Farrington

Moffitt

Piquero

Age is a robust predictor of criminal behavior (“aging out of crime”).

Life course persistent versus adolescent limited offending.

Intermittency (gaps between offenses – “slowing down” and “accelerating”).

Social bonds

Informal social control

Sampson and Laub

“Turning points” (life events) that can lead to desistance.

Social connectedness as a key influence.

Cognitive transformation

Giordano

Psychological drivers of desistance (openness to change, recognizing possibilities for change, imagining a new identity, no longer valuing an old identity).

“Hooks for change.”

Narratological

Narrative identity

Maruna

Bushway and Paternoster

McNeill

Weaver

Redemption from crime.

Giving back to the community (generativity).

Re-envisioning the past self.

The “feared self.”

Primary, secondary, and tertiary desistance.

In reality, all three of the perspectives referred to in Table 1.1 will hold relative weight in the lives of all (ex)offenders (McNeill, 2006). As noted previously, they each conceptualize desistance as a process that is not measurable or detectable as a discrete event (as commencing at one particular moment) and is not achieved solely through the strength of an individual’s will or, indeed, through the array of social supports that might be available. Instead, desistance is best understood as a complex process that builds through time and where the drivers of sustained cessation are typically only identifiable in a posteriori fashion (i.e., after the event). This immediately draws attention to the limitations of those approaches that rely only on re-arrest or reconviction data to arrive at judgments about change. In fact such data can only provide an indirect indicator of desistance and, as Polaschek has argued, the processes and timing of self‐reported desistance and official desistance are likely to be quite different. Furthermore, reoffending data have been used in different ways by researchers, some of whom rely on absolute measures (i.e., no reconvictions or charges), while others seek to measure a decrease in the rate, diversity, and seriousness of offending – all of which can warrant the label of desistance (e.g., Laub & Sampson, 2001).

In this chapter we focus on narratological conceptualizations of desistance as we believe that it is this body of work that has the most direct application to actual practice. The large criminological cohort studies of desistance – while clearly important to the development of public policy (see, for example, Bersani & Doherty, 2018) – tend to lack the detailed insights that are essential for working effectively at the individual level.

Key Elements of a Desistance-focused Approach

One of the most important conclusions to emerge from the desistance literature is that there is no set pathway to success; desistance cannot simply be reduced to receiving a particular type of program, regardless of the mode of delivery or the length of exposure (e.g., Farrall & Calverley, 2006; Halsey & Deegan, 2016; McNeill & Weaver, 2010; Serin & Lloyd, 2009; Weaver, 2019). Nonetheless there are several elements that do seem to be common to successful desistance journeys (see McNeill, 2006, 2016; Shapland et al., 2016) and these can be usefully divided into what have been termed “primary,” “secondary,” and “tertiary” dimensions. In an ideal scenario, these will all work in concert to “produce” a non- or an ex-offender, or, more preferably, a person who we might describe as a conventional citizen.

Primary desistance is probably the least complicated of the three dimensions as it denotes the physical cessation of crime. On that count – and excepting the perpetration of new offenses whilst incarcerated (such as assaulting another prisoner) – prisons necessarily impose a break in the offending trajectories of even the most prolific offenders. But an imposed break in offending – whether as a result of imprisonment, serious illness, too much “heat” from police, or even the (temporarily) persuasive words of a respected peer or family member to change one’s ways – is not sufficient for desistance (in the fuller meaning of the term) to occur. No-one would say, for example, that someone in their mid-thirties serving their fourth sentence for armed robbery has truly desisted from crime (since, in fact, only the opportunity – not necessarily the motivation – for such offending has been removed). Instead, desistance requires something more than the short or more prolonged absence of an event. This is perhaps why incapacitation alone is so often ineffectual in deterring prisoners from resuming a criminal lifestyle on release. Something beyond the cessation of crime needs to occur for desistance to endure.

Secondary desistance, therefore, is a concept that speaks to the changes in self-orientation that some offenders experience either within or beyond prison which can then help turn a (forced) lull or crime-free gap in offending into something enduring and actively accomplished. Maruna et al. (2004) describe secondary desistance as “the movement from the behaviour of non-offending to the assumption of the role or identity of a changed person” (p. 19). This process of delabeling (e.g., “I no longer think of myself as an offender”) and relabeling (e.g., “I think of myself as a good father or trusted worker”) is viewed as an essential part of building a credible sense of self-worth. As McNeill and Schinkel (2016) remind us, “‘spoiled identities’ need to be shed if change is to be secured” (p. 608).

Giordano et al. (2002) have provided an extensive overview of what they identify as the main psychological elements of secondary desistance. These include an “openness to change,” the existence of “hooks for change” (e.g., the prospect of gaining employment) and the meanings ascribed to those hooks (e.g., employment is viewed positively as helping to build new relationships rather than negatively as severing ties with old peers), the fashioning of a “replacement self” based around legitimate pursuits, and the cognitive re-conceptualization of criminal behavior as no longer positive, viable, or personally relevant. Secondary desistance – as with desistance more generally – is conceptualized as a fraught and fragile process prone to all kinds of setbacks (minor breaches, new but less serious offenses) and, more ominously, “fuck it” moments where all progress seems to disappear in an instant (as, for example, when someone “snaps” and engages in a crime spree) (Halsey et al., 2017). This fragility, though, brings to the fore the importance of the concept of tertiary desistance.

It is only really in recent years that scholars such as Weaver (2019) and McNeill and Schinkel (2016) have turned their attention to the importance of factors beyond (but connected to) the individual that bear heavily on the success or otherwise of the desistance process. Put simply, for desistance to be resilient to external threats and for it to endure across many years, the efforts and progress of those embarking on desistance must be reflected by esteemed others and certified/validated in official and informal fashion (for an excellent discussion of reintegration rituals and the processes used to “reverse” the stigma of being an offender, see Maruna, 2011). This is what is often referred to as tertiary desistance. As McNeill and Schinkel (2016) observe:

We suspect it may also make sense to develop the concept of tertiary desistance – referring not just to shifts in behaviour or identity but to shifts in one’s sense of belonging to a (moral) community. Our argument, based on developing research evidence, is that since identity is socially constructed and negotiated, securing long-term change depends not just on how one sees oneself but also on how one is seen by others, and on how one sees one’s place in society. Putting it more simply, desistance is a social and political process as much as a personal one. (p. 608, references removed).

A key idea in all of this work is that the primary, secondary, and tertiary dimensions of desistance are not sequential, although they can sometimes occur in more or less successive fashion. This non-sequential aspect partly explains why desistance stands as a multilayered process and resists reduction to predictive modeling about the probability of cessation. To avoid confusion, Nugent and Schinkel (2016) have deployed slightly different terminology for the primary, secondary, and tertiary components of desistance. Specifically, they “propose using the terms ‘act-desistance’ for non-offending, ‘identity desistance’ for the internalization of a non-offending identity, and ‘relational desistance’ for recognition of change by others” (p. 570). Bottoms (2013) also talks of the distinction between “diachronic” and “synchronic” desistance – about techniques for avoiding criminogenic situations ahead of time and for removing oneself from a criminogenic situation should it arise.

A further and final point to make about desistance is that long-term desisters tend to convey a redemptive outlook. In his landmark study, Maruna (2001) found that the ability to recount one’s life story in a coherent narrative structure based around hope and redemption was a prominent element in desisters’ lives. By contrast, those who persisted in offending spoke about their lives in fatalistic terms and narrated their lives and futures along the lines of a resignation script. The former group, in short, found a way to make sense of a previously wasted and destructive life while the latter struggled, failed, or simply did not see the point in doing so. Hope – defined as “an individual’s overall perception that personal goals can be achieved” (Burnett & Maruna, 2004, p. 395) – has been found to be a reasonably good predictor of success after release (Woldgabreal et al., 2017). Similarly, generativity – the practice of caring about one’s own legacy and its impact on the next generation – has also been linked to a redemptive outlook. Specifically, the process of “giving back” can enable prisoners or those on community-based orders to do good (for others) and, more importantly, to be seen to be doing good. In such instances, the rising stocks of personal and social legitimacy provide, in reflexive fashion, further reason to stay on the desistance path. In this way, what has been called “retroflexive reformation” – the process of strengthening one’s own commitment to desistance through helping others to desist (or helping others generally) – can be a powerful means for igniting and sustaining desistance (Maruna et al., 2004). Again, how criminal justice agencies and those who work for them might more purposively support generativity and the emergence of redemptive scripts is an important issue for further consideration (Halsey & Deegan, 2016).

Making the Desistance Approach Explicit in Models of Behavioral Change

For many allied health professionals involved with the delivery of clinical and rehabilitative services and programs, these accounts of the processes that underpin desistance will resonate with their clinical understanding of how behavioral change occurs. The underlying model of change that has been used to guide much of this work is the Transtheoretical Model (see Casey et al., 2005, for a review), an integrative, bio-psychosocial model that aims to explain the processes through which intentional behavior change occurs. In relation to the question of how change occurs (rather than when change occurs), the most important ideas are not, as widely believed, related to the concept of progression through stages (i.e., that change is seldom a sudden event but typically involves a prescribed chain of events where the individual experiences a growing awareness of the problem, formulates a decision to do something differently, develops change strategies while in a transitional phase, and, finally, implements those strategies), but is a function of effects of three different factors:

Processes of change – which refer to what an individual does to bring about change in emotion, behavior, cognitions, or relationships;

Decisional balance – the relative assessment of the benefits (pros) and costs (cons) of changing a specific behavior; and

Self-efficacy – usually assessed as confidence and temptations to describe an individual’s perceived ability on a given task.

These three concepts have proven to be clinically useful in so far as they suggest that certain types of activity are likely to be central to the success of efforts to change behavior – in other words, what those involved in treatment need to actually do in order to stimulate and support change. It is important to note that many of these ideas are quite compatible with those described in desistance theory, even though the language used is often quite different. For example, Paternoster and Bushway (2009) describe how the desistance process begins when views of the “negative, unsatisfying, and disappointing aspects of their criminal lifestyle crystallize to the point where they realize that the future is bleak without change” (as cited in Polaschek, 2019, p. 323). The four steps of secondary desistance identified in the cognitive transformation work on desistance by Giordano et al. (2002) also resonate strongly with the Transtheoretical Model in terms of the idea of different stages of problem recognition, awareness, and commitment to change.

There are, of course, other clinical theories of behavioral change beyond the Transtheoretical Model. For example, the Assimilation Model (Stiles, 2002) is an alternative model of problem resolution, developed primarily on the basis of observations made across a series of intensive psychotherapy case studies. In this model, therapeutic progress is conceptualized in terms of movement toward the assimilation of problematic experiences (Honos-Webb & Stiles, 2002) and is also based on the idea that people pass through an identifiable series of stages in the course of resolving a problem. The model describes the likely needs of an individual client at seven hypothesized stages of assimilation; in the early stages, the problematic experience is outside of the person’s consciousness, but as it is processed increased levels of distress occur, despite limited understanding of the problem. The therapeutic task at these early stages of assimilation then is to increase problem awareness. As the problem enters awareness the requirement is then to facilitate emotional expression and, finally, to develop a clearer understanding of the onset, development, and maintenance of the problem, before working actively toward a solution. Thus, it is suggested that an appropriate therapeutic response is one that meets client requirements at a given stage of assimilation, such that the client progresses to the next stage.