Crime is as old as mankind. It started with an incident of theft inside Paradise and a murder outside. In order to understand the phenomenon of crime several theories were formulated over time. One fact should be recognized: All forms of trauma can be reduced to a single common factor: Control – or better said: a lack of control. A lack of personal control causes tension; tension leads to desperation; desperation leads to irresponsibility. Then the door to crime is unlocked. Fortunately all irresponsibilities doesn’t lead to crime. In order to understand the offender it is imperative to understand his background. The relationship between childhood trauma and crime cannot be denied. It is a fact that childhood traumas can lead to abnormal brain development in early childhood. For this reason special attention is paid to the processes involved in brain development, both in normal children and in maltreated ones. If not identified and intervened in time, it can lead to a situation where the cycle of frustration and desperation, and eventually crime, cannot be interrupted - not even by prisonization. Management of change (rehabilitation) must reckon with the influence of said traumas on the brain development of children. Efforts to rehabilitate the offender becomes senseless if applied for an hour once a week. Such efforts cannot repair the damage done by negative influences repeated thousands of times over many years. In the same vein it is fruitless to aim therapeutic interventions on the reason of man hoping to repair the emotional damage of his childhood. For this reason the Neurosequential Method of Therapeutics holds promise in the quest for the rehabilitation of the offender and in the fight against crime. / Penology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Penology)

Crime is as old as mankind. It started with an incident of theft inside Paradise and a murder outside. In order to understand the phenomenon of crime several theories were formulated over time. One fact should be recognized: All forms of trauma can be reduced to a single common factor: Control – or better said: a lack of control. A lack of personal control causes tension; tension leads to desperation; desperation leads to irresponsibility. Then the door to crime is unlocked. Fortunately all irresponsibilities doesn’t lead to crime. In order to understand the offender it is imperative to understand his background. The relationship between childhood trauma and crime cannot be denied. It is a fact that childhood traumas can lead to abnormal brain development in early childhood. For this reason special attention is paid to the processes involved in brain development, both in normal children and in maltreated ones. If not identified and intervened in time, it can lead to a situation where the cycle of frustration and desperation, and eventually crime, cannot be interrupted - not even by prisonization. Management of change (rehabilitation) must reckon with the influence of said traumas on the brain development of children. Efforts to rehabilitate the offender becomes senseless if applied for an hour once a week. Such efforts cannot repair the damage done by negative influences repeated thousands of times over many years. In the same vein it is fruitless to aim therapeutic interventions on the reason of man hoping to repair the emotional damage of his childhood. For this reason the Neurosequential Method of Therapeutics holds promise in the quest for the rehabilitation of the offender and in the fight against crime. / Penology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Penology)

When conducting research on crime, scholars are generally inclined to focus on the aetiology, hence our comprehension of biological and/or environmental factors as antecedents of crime. In this study, however, acknowledgement was given to ex-offenders who, once released from prison showed positive signs of disengagement from crime and posed the following questions: what are the lived experiences of ex-offenders who desist from crime and what are the reasons influencing their decisions to stop offending? Four adult male ex-offenders of African descent between the ages of 30 and 42 participated in the study. The researcher, inspired by his insider position as an ex-offender aimed to explore and describe the lived experiences of other ex-offenders who had stopped offending, or who were in the process of disengaging from crime. An interpretive phenomenological approach including three theories of criminal desistance were used to ground the study. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. Results showed that the processes of criminal desistance are unique and contextual, particular rather than universal, and that change can be attributed to intra-individual factors facilitated by strong quality social bonds / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Text in English / South Africa has a high level of Crime and thus also has a high level of recidivism. The high rate of crime contributes to overcrowding in prison. The Department of Correctional Services has programmes for the offenders such as rehabilitation, parole, probation, re-entry and reintegration. These programmes are not effective to an extent that they are not changing the offenders’ behaviour. The qualitative aim of this study was to explore recidivism through the application of concepts and theories. The significant impact that rehabilitation, parole, re-entry, probation and reintegration exerted on recidivism cause more problems for the Department Correctional Services. Ineffectiveness of these programmes has a negative impact on the escalation of recidivism. The study revealed that programmes are not effective or adequate and that recidivism is the end-product. The recommendation from the study indicates that Correctional Services should encourage offenders to participate in these programmes. The department should also review policies on these programmes and align them with international standards. The study also recommended that more research needs to be conducted on recidivism in order to understand its impact into the community and Correctional Services. The recommendations on this study indicates that recidivists should have their own specific facilities and offenders that have committed different type of crimes be treated and offered a programme designed for a particular offender and not to use a “one size fits all” approach. / Corrections Management / M.A. (Corrections Management)