dealing with offending behaviour

• Custodial sentencing


  A sentence given by a judge which results in an individual being sent to prison
• Custodial sentencing


  • The type and severity of the sentence will depend on factors like the nature of the crime, degree of remorse felt by the offender and laws for that specific country
• Aims of custodial sentencing

  • Deterrence
  • Incapacitation
  • Rehabilitation
  • Retribution
• Deterrence


  Crime is bad for society so it is good for everyone to prevent the drive of commiting a crime again
• Incapacitation


  Criminals may be dangerous so by keeping them of the street everyone is safe
• Rehabilitation


  Criminals need help after prison life so programmes like social skill learning are designed to turn them away from crime
• Retribution


  A form of revenge from the victims side to see the criminals punished
• Psychological effect on custodial sentencing

  • Prison is not a therapeutic place for prisoners, environment is very impersonal and may put individuals to suffer from mental health illnesses
  • Self harm and suicide rates are higher in prison
  • Depression and anxiety are high particularly for prisoners who was a victim of domestic violence in childhood
• Institutionalisation


  • The routine that prison provides may be depended on the prisoners so they may have difficulty coping with the unstructured nature of life outside prison
• Prisonisation


  • Prison has its own unspoken rules which are usually opposites outside of prisons so it may change the attitude of prisoners
• 25% of adults go onto reoffend
• 30% of young offenders reoffend
• Token economy


  Positive behaviours are rewarded and negative behaviours are discouraged
• Token economy


  • Form of offender behaviour management
  • Aim is to encourage offenders to behave in a way which are socially acceptable
  • Aim is to help offenders manage their time in prison and life after prison
• Tokens


  • Valueless but can be exchanged for privileges
  • Secondary reinforcers
• Token economies benefit people who have learning disabilities or who are cognitively below average in the short term
• 55% of adults who serve a sentence for less than 12 months reoffend
• Combination of praise and tokens were more effective than threat of punishment in a maximum security prison experiment
• Strengths of token economies

  • Research suggests 69% of prisoners would engage in prosocial behaviour and education
  • Easy to organise and not expensive
• Research on effectiveness of custodial sentencing

  • If prison is viewed as a large scale intervention it lacks empirical evidence for effectiveness
  • Community programmes, educational training, and victim reparation with proper aftercare can all prevent reoffending
  • Suicide in prisons is highest among prisoners who are waiting for their trial to begin
• Weaknesses of token economies

  • Long-term effectiveness is questioned - are the behaviours maintained after prison?
  • Not effective with older prisoners - the longer they've been in the prison the less likely they reach for rehabilitative systems
• Token economies


  Linked to operant conditioning - desirable behaviour is positively reinforced with a reward
• Strengths of custodial sentencing

  • May work as a short solution for some people
• Token economies


  Linked to vicarious reinforcement
• Weaknesses of custodial sentencing

  • Barely works and does nothing in the sense of rehabilating the offenders
  • Some prisoners prefer to be in prison as they are provided with regular meals which was lacking in their own home, so it does not work as a deterrent
  • Extremely expensive
• Custodial sentencing


  Roots in operant conditioning with negative reinforcement - prisoners are taken away their freedom in order to stop offending in the future to avoid being imprisoned again
• Anger management


  Treatment programme used to enable offenders to control hostile responses to change the way offenders react to certain triggers that leads to anger
• Anger management


  1. The psychological effects of anger surface first and then the phsyciological effects follow (heart racing, blood pressure increasing)

  2. Lead to feelings of hostility and the desire to control the situation via a anger response
• Restorative justice (RJ)


  The process where the offender and victim find a sense of closure beyond the prison environment
• Restorative justice


  • Allows the victim to speak up about the impact of the crime on them, which should make the offenders realise what harm they've done
  • Victims take the active role in dealing with what happened, not victimised but encouraged to feel that they are controlling the narrative (empowered)
  • Offenders can feel that they have a sense of self and not just a number in a criminal justice system, forces them to focus on how they have ended in prison
  • Offenders should begin to understand the consequences of their own actions
• CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)


  Effective in retraining thought patterns and behavior to identify the emotional patterns that are destructive
• Key elements of restorative justice (five Rs)

  • Relationship: offender damaged their relationship with society so it is necessary for them to feel accountable and to heal it
  • Respect: all participants should show active listening and trying to understand the perspective of others
  • Responsibility: offender must take responsibility
  • Repair: offenders must do what they can to repair the damage and the victim must let go of feelings of revenge
  • Reintegration: offender is accepted by the community with positive outcomes
• Stages of anger management

  1. Cognitive preparation: identify the irrational thoughts and triggers and challenge it

  2. Skills acquisition: learnt skills to help with anger inducing situations

  3. Application practice: role play with the therapist to test the degree the offender is able to apply
• Restorative justice process


  1. Can be done face to face or via emails

  2. Offender must attempt to make amends
• Research into anger management usually use self reporting methods combined with reports from prison staffs on behaviour of the offenders
• Offenders may be asked to keep a diary which can work as an additional motivation
• Research results


  • 92% improvement in behaviour (Ireland)
  • Young offenders became more self aware and was able to control their anger (Keen et al)
• Sherman et al study found that restorative justice seemed to reduce recidivism in offenders who have been convicted of violent crimes
• Strengths of anger management

  • Research shows consistent support
  • Anger management seems to be more effective than others that tries to address cognition and behaviour
• Latimer et al meta-analysis compared restorative justice to traditional offender rehabilitation programmes, but participants were self-selecting so may have been biased