No description available.

The prevailing approach to managing persons with criminal histories involves community supervision professionals like probation and parole officers partnering with other mental health providers to address clients’ needs. The relationships between individual professionals are seldom researched, though, and the current study aims to address this deficit in the empirical literature. This study utilized interviews about professionals’ perceptions of their work experiences, analyzed open-endedly to identify major themes. Mental health providers’ themes included appreciation and process of collaboration, individual characteristics and roles, characteristics of collaboration, elements of interprofessional relationships, and involvement of the courts. Community supervision professionals discussed issues pertaining to appreciation and process of collaboration, individual characteristics and roles, when conflict occurs, and the lack of basic knowledge about other professionals. Second, these partnerships were examined in light of interprofessional healthcare competencies. Themes identified here resembled healthcare values and ethics competencies and roles and responsibilities competencies; healthcare competencies regarding interprofessional communication and teamwork showed partial congruence with the current themes. Overall, interprofessional collaboration is valued. This research highlights the strengths of this type of interprofessional collaboration and offers suggestions for improving the efficacy of collaboration.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT; Linehan, 1993) is an empirically supported, skills based, cognitive-behavioral therapy used to treat a myriad of symptoms including chronic suicidality and self-harm, emotion dysregulation, reactive aggression and other mood dependent behaviors. Because of its emphasis on self-regulation and a wide range of problem behaviors, DBT can be readily applied to sex offender treatment programming. In this workshop, participants will learn about DBT’s method of conceptualizing and addressing client problems, important strategies for engaging offenders in treatment using this approach, and DBT skills. Important updates from the most recent DBT skills manual will also be addressed. be discussed.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT; Linehan, 1993) is an empirically supported skills-based, cognitive-behavioral therapy originally developed for use with clients with borderline personality disorder and associated self-harm behavior. Its unique combination of individual therapy, skills group, in vivo skills coaching, and support for the therapists in the form of a weekly consultation team meeting, provide a comprehensive framework for treating difficult behaviors in a client population who do not demonstrate positive outcomes when participating in traditional psychotherapy practice. Multiple randomized control trials have demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing chronic suicidality and self-harm, particularly among those with personality pathology and substance abuse problems. Since its initial use, DBT has been applied to a myriad of treatment needs, including emotion dysregulation, reactive aggression, and other mood-dependent behavior. Recent evidence indicates that self-regulatory problems are quite common among sexual offenders (Stinson, Becker, & Sales, 2008; Stinson, Robbins, & Crow, 2011; Stinson, Sales, & Becker, 2008; Ward & Hudson, 2007), including difficulties with emotion regulation, violent and sexual aggression, interpersonal skills deficits, suicidality, and problems with substance use. Sex offenders benefit from DBT’s emphasis on self-monitoring, interpersonal and emotional skills development, and the use of a hierarchical treatment structure that addresses multiple behavioral problems and life concerns. Further, some sex offenders – particularly those who present with personality pathology or pronounced self-regulatory deficits – may be unable to meaningfully engage in sex offender specific treatment until they address more acute symptomatology. DBT presents an interesting new take on addressing complex emotional and behavioral problems in adolescent and adult sex offenders. Therapists using DBT benefit from a comprehensive and empirically-supported framework, as well as techniques specifically designed to protect clinicians from the burn-out so often associated with treating challenging and high-risk clients. But admittedly, for those unfamiliar with DBT, this novel way of conceptualizing and addressing sex offender clients can be difficult. The primary objective of this workshop is to introduce sex offender therapists to the tenets of DBT and facilitate the implementation of DBT principles and techniques in sex offender treatment. A secondary goal is to familiarize practiced DBT therapists with recent updates to the DBT skills manual.

This study is a qualitative research study that is based on conventional content analysis. The purpose of the study is to investigate experiences and experiences of working with sexual offenders convicted in probation. The study is based on interviews with employees from the probation service, there were 6 respondents who participated in the study who shared their experiences from a stigma perspective. In the study, categories were formed based on the interviews and also core category. The most salient result is that the legislation, punishment and treatment are presented as opposites but rehabilitation can be part of the penalty. The categories are: Changes within the organization, Punishment, Legislation & Rehabilitation, The Perpetrator and the Return to Society, Society's Attitudes & Stigma and the last is the core category: Sexual Crime And Society & Overall Analysis. Furthermore, the study shows that stigma is common when there is a conviction of sexual crime. / Studien är en kvalitativ forskningsstudie. Syftet med studien är att undersöka erfarenheter och upplevelser av att arbeta med sexualbrottsdömda inom frivården. Studien bygger på intervjuer med anställda från frivården, 6 respondenter som deltog och delade med sig av sina erfarenheter.  Utifrån resultatet bildades kategorier och även en kärnkategori. Det mest framträdande i resultat är att lagstiftningen, straffet och rehabiliteringen framställs som motsatser men rehabilitering kan vara en del av straffpåföljden. Kategorierna är följande: Förändringar inom organisationen, Straffet, lagstiftning & rehabilitering, Förövaren och återgången till samhället, Samhällets attityder & Stigmatiseringen. Den sista är kärnkategorin som är följande: Sexualbrottslighet och samhället. Vidare visar studien på att stigmatisering är vanligt förekommande när det handlar om arbete med sexualbrottsdömda personer.

Sex Offender Treatment Programming (SOTP) is a specific treatment intervention aimed at reducing recidivism through cognitive behavioral modification of known risk factors for sexual offending. SOTP provided in criminal justice or correctional settings and contexts presents unique ethical challenges and experiences for traditionally trained mental health counselors due to competing and differing roles, priorities, and stakeholders. SOTP in criminal justice or correctional settings is in some instances provided by professionally licensed or certified and traditionally trained mental health practitioners; and such settings can challenge traditional ethical standards and practices. A study was conducted utilizing qualitative phenomenology in order to investigate the ethical experiences of mental health practitioners providing SOTP in criminal justice settings. Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with six professionally licensed or certified practitioners who were currently providing (or had recently provided) SOTP in criminal justice settings. Analysis of the data revealed thirty codes and six prevailing themes: unexpected entrance into the field of SOTP; ethical limits; role incongruence; competing obligations; imbalance between rehabilitation and community safety; and line of demarcation (“the line”). The essence of participant experiences was determined to be: who is the client? Meaning, participants identified ethical experiences that at their core indicated difficulty identifying to whom ethical obligations were owed. A model depicting the process of ethical experiences described by participants providing SOTP in criminal justice settings is offered. Future research questions and potential, related research projects are described. Implications for practice, counselor preparation, and research are summarized. The results of the present study may provide greater insight into a subject with limited research, while providing information for practitioners that may aid their ability to navigate complex ethical situations.

Emotional regulation may be an underaddressed therapeutic target in sex offender treatment. This article presents a case report of “Adam,” a Caucasian male referred to a prison-based sex offender treatment program. Adam’s social anxiety was recognized as an antecendent to his sexual offending, and treatment of such, as a critical adjunct to sex offender treatment, is discussed herein. Adam’s individualized treatment included aspects of rational emotive behavior therapy and time-limited dynamic psychotherapy. Adam showed an increased understanding of his anxiety and improvement in his social interactions, both in the context of treatment groups and with female staff, and was willing to continue follow-up care in the community. This case provides support for the individualized treatment of incarcerated offenders as opposed to exclusively utilizing manualized psychoeducational interventions.

Emerging research highlights the role of self-regulation in the treatment of sexual offenders. Safe Offender Strategies (SOS) is a manualized sex offender treatment program that emphasizes the role of self-regulation and self-regulatory skills development in sex offender treatment, particularly for offenders with serious mental illness and intellectual/developmental disabilities. The current study involves 156 adult male sexual offenders in an inpatient psychiatric setting who received SOS treatment for a period ranging from 6 months to 1 year. Participants’ baseline and treatment data were obtained from archival medical records describing 1 year pre-treatment and up to 2 years of treatment participation. Dependent variables included monthly count rates of verbal and physical aggression and contact and noncontact sexual offending, as well as sexual deviancy attitudes, self-regulatory ability, and cooperation with treatment and supervision, as measured by the Sex Offender Treatment Intervention and Progress Scale (SOTIPS). Data were examined via paired-samples t tests, regression, and multilevel modeling, examining the impact of overall percentage of SOS groups attended over time, comparing participants’ baseline measures to data from 2 years of treatment. The impact of predicted risk was also evaluated. Significant treatment dose effects were identified for improvements in aggression, sexual offending, and indicators of treatment compliance and change. These findings suggest that the skills-based, self-regulation approach utilized in SOS may be effective in improving clients’ aggressive and sexual behaviors, attitudes toward their offenses and treatment, and self-regulatory ability over time. Implications for further research and treatment generalizability are discussed.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of safe offender strategies (SOS) in comparison with relapse prevention (RP) in a sample of 91 inpatient males in a secure psychiatric setting. All men evidenced a history of violent sexual offending and were diagnosed with serious psychiatric disorders and/or intellectual disabilities. Participants who received SOS (n = 58) and RP (n = 33) were followed from 6 to 36 months post release. SOS clients were significantly less likely to be arrested (0%) or rehospitalized (5.2%) than RP clients (9% arrested; 54.5% rehospitalized). In addition, SOS clients were more likely to transition continuously to less restrictive alternatives, with no returns to high security, in comparison with RP clients. The authors discuss implications for use of SOS, a treatment that facilitates skills development and affects global self-regulatory functioning, particularly in sex offenders with serious mental illness or intellectual impairment, in promoting community reintegration and limiting returns to psychiatric settings.

Many criminologists and psychologists have theorized the possible causes behind an individual who engages in sex offenses; some of which will be reviewed. Through this paradigm analysis, I hope to identify how each discipline addresses the causes of sex offending and what treatments they offer in response to their theories. Additionally, this thesis will examine the Good Lives, Relapse Prevention, and the Risks, Need, Responsivity (RNR) models of treatment. The main objective of this thesis is to address the different facets of sex offending, so that the importance of finding an effective treatment model can be understood. By raising awareness to the multiple typologies of sex offenders and differentiating contact and non-contact offenses, this thesis aims to allow for a better understanding of the causes of sexual offending so that we may develop effective treatment options that address such issues.