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In the past ten years or so there has been a growing concern that the treatment needs of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) sex offenders in prison are not being appropriately met. Underpinning this concern is the continued under representation of BME sex offenders on the Sex Offender Treatment Programme (SOTP). Although some research has been undertaken into how BME prisoners experience the SOTP and in to its ostensible effectiveness with BME sex offenders, little is known about why the take-up of the SOTP is poor with this group. In this paper we first consider some specific demographic issues that need to be understood in order to reflect more widely on the BME sex offender in prison. We then summarise what is currently known about effective practice with this group, thereafter we consider, in turn, current provision for BME sex offenders in England and Wales and suggestions for developing practice with this group of men. However, before we turn to these issues, it is important to consider briefly issues of terminology. Terminologies in relation to ethnicities and race are fraught with conceptual difficulties. Aspinall has highlighted the limitations of `pan-ethnic¿ groups, such as `BME¿; such groupings are `statistical collectivities¿ and `the groups thus defined will be nothing more than meaningless statistical collectivities that do not represent any of the constituent groups within the term.¿ . However, at the outset of this paper we use the collective term BME - this term is currently used by a number of Government Departments in the UK, including the Prison Service. Later we suggest that a more sophisticated understanding of ethnic cultures may be necessary to develop practice with BME sex offenders.

Current therapeutic treatment methods are ineffective in identifying at-risk sex offenders and reducing recidivism of known offenders, likely due to inadequate identification of specific traits of sex offenders. Previous research and prominent theories in the area of sex offender treatment, in terms of the biological foundation of substance abuse, behaviors of sex offenders, and the presence of aggression, helped to guide this research. Data about sex offenders were collected, as reported by mental health professionals who treat them and focused on three characteristics: maladaptive interpersonal behaviors, impulsivity, and antisocial behaviors, on which the research questions were formed to detect commonality. For this study, a phenomenological approach was chosen through a qualitative design and an 11-item open-ended questionnaire was developed with which 11 mental health professionals who treated sex offenders were interviewed. The audio was transcribed, the text was coded into the themes of the research questions, and the data was analyzed for commonality. The results indicate that all three traits in the research questions are common among sex offenders. The results of this research added to the framework of understanding of common behaviors among sex offenders and to positive social change by providing a clearer understanding of the three targeted behaviors. The information gathered from this qualitative research will guide larger-scale quantitative studies on the sex offender population, ultimately assisting sex offender treatment providers and forensic interviewers with more rapid identification of traits specific to sex offenders.

<p>The Duluth Model of intervention for those charged with domestic violence offences has for the past thirty years been instrumental in conceptualizing violence, abuse, power and control, how to hold offenders accountable and keep victims safe, and is reflective of a collaborative, feminist approach to violence intervention. The model’s design assumes that violence is perpetrated by men against their female partners as a mechanism to maintain/gain power and control. However, increasing numbers of women are now being charged with violence against their male partners and being referred for service. Problematically, there has been little development of policies or formal practices that recognize the different meanings of women’s violence or the particularity of their programming needs so that service providers in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) treatment programs find themselves working with female offenders under a male model of violence.</p> <p>The purpose of this project was to engage in a critical feminist analysis of the resulting tensions, specifically to ask how conceptualizations of gender and violence undergird policy development and how, in Duluth-dominated programming approaches, service providers understand and respond to women’s needs. To explore these questions, I took a two-fold methodological approach: an analysis of the extensive literature on Partner Assault Response (PAR) programs and female offenders, using the concept of policy framing; and an online survey of service providers that explored dimensions of their work and that included questions incorporating the policy frame distinctions that emerged from the literature analysis.</p> <p>The policy frame analysis underscored the power of problem construction and shed conceptual light on the challenges of working under the Duluth model with women. Survey participants described those challenges in the, as yet, dimly lit front-lines of practice, as well as their engagements at times in creative, subversive program delivery to meet women’s needs. Future research drawing forward the seldom heard voices of women charged with violence will be critical, as will continued endeavours to fashion gender-specific, need-driven policy.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

This paper addresses the question of whether individual delinquent behaviour, or criminogenic risks that lead to it, can be reduced for convicted violence offenders with personality disorder, using the newly developed offence-oriented therapeutic program TERČ ("TARGET"). If so, how will these changes manifest in the recidivism rate, and how they will reflect the personality characteristics of inmates. TARGET was first systematically applied within a special treatment unit for prisoners with mental and behavioral disorders in Liberec Remand Prison in 2008. It is based on selected elements of the Ambulant intensive program (AIP) from Switzerland. A total of 100 convicts were entered TARGET from 2008 to 2015. 65 individuals completed the program successfully, and 57 were released again. The already released graduates of TARGET re-offended within 12 months in 10.4%. Of all admitted TARGET participants, a total of 30.2% either relapsed or failed during the program since 2009. Graduates showed positive, statistically significant changes in the monitored areas of life satisfaction, emotional stability, insight, self-control and aggression, while on scales representing personality disorder no positive, statistically significant effect was observed. For later re-offending prisoners, the changes were...

Objectif : L’objectif de cette recherche était d’identifier les processus et facteurs impliqués dans le phénomène de l’abandon du traitement chez les délinquants sexuels et d’explorer les différences et similitudes entre les expériences d’abandon et les expériences de complétion d’un traitement. Méthode : Sept entrevues semi-dirigées ont été menées avec des hommes purgeant une peine fédérale en lien avec des délits de nature sexuelle. Ceux-ci étaient incarcérés dans un pénitencier ou en surveillance dans la collectivité sous la juridiction du SCC dans la région du Québec. Les entrevues ont été retranscrites et analysées selon une approche de théorisation ancrée. Résultats : Les résultats ont permis d’élaborer un premier modèle de l’abandon du traitement chez les délinquants sexuels. Ce modèle comprend deux voies, qui comportent chacune deux phases, soit la phase « Avant le programme » et la phase « Pendant le programme ». La Voie #1- Abandon rapide est caractérisée par la présence d’un conflit préexistant avant le début du programme. Pendant le programme, des insatisfactions à l’égard des intervenants surgissent et sont tolérées un certain temps avant l’abandon, qui survient typiquement après quelques séances seulement. Dans la Voie #2-Abandon tardif, des facteurs de vulnérabilité préexistants se retrouvent dans la phase « Avant le programme ». Pendant le programme, des conflits entre les participants et leurs intervenants ou leurs coparticipants surviennent et déclenchent des pensées d’abandon. Survient ensuite un événement précipitant qui favorise un discours interne décisif, puis l’abandon, qui prend place après plusieurs semaines de traitement. Les résultats permettent de constater que le concept de conflit se situe au coeur du phénomène de l’abandon du traitement chez les délinquants sexuels. De plus, les expériences d’abandon se démarquent par l’absence d’une alliance thérapeutique entre les participants et leurs intervenants. Plusieurs facteurs contributifs à la réussite sont également notés, notamment des perceptions favorables envers les intervenants et les autres participants, puis des dispositions personnelles favorables. / Objective: The objective of this research was to identify the process and factors that play a role in treatment drop-out for sexual offenders and to target the similarities and differences between the drop-out experiences and that of program completion. Method: Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with men serving a federal sentence for sex-related crimes. These individuals were either incarcerated in a federal penitentiary or being supervised in the community under CSC jurisdiction in the region of Quebec. The interviews were transcribed and analysed according to a grounded theory approach. Results: The results enabled the elaboration of an initial model for treatment drop-out in sexual offenders. This model is comprised of two pathways containing two phases each: the "Before the program" phase and the "During the program" phase. Pathway #1-Rapid drop-out is characterised by the presence of a pre-existing conflict. During the program, unhappiness with the program facilitator arises and is tolerated for a brief amount of time before the individual drops out. In Pathway #2-Delayed drop-out, pre-existing vulnerability factors can be found in the "Before the program" phase. Over the course of the program, conflicts between the participants and either the program facilitator or co-participants arise and trigger the thought of dropping out. This is followed by a precipitating event that favors a decisive internal discourse followed by dropping out, typically much later in the program. The results from this research demonstrate that conflict appears to be at the heart of treatment drop-out for sexual offenders, combined with the absence of a quality therapeutic alliance between the participants and their program facilitators. Many factors contributing to treatment completion were also identified, such as a positive perception of the program facilitator and other participants, as well as favorable personal dispositions.

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<div> <p>New information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as cell phones, email, and social media, have been transforming how social movements recruit, organize, participate in collective action, and experience repression. Yet, limited scholarship has addressed the uses of these technologies by social movements organizing within American prisons. Using a dialectical interpretive approach, I examine how a coalition of prisoners’ rights organizations uses ICTs to plan and participate in collective resistance across prison walls. The coalition, referred to here as the New Prisoners’ Rights Coalition (NPRC), organizes against low and no-wage prison labor, unhealthy and unsafe prison conditions, and inhumane prisoner treatment. The NPRC has a multi-platform public digital presence and mobilizes prisoner activists and free activists. Through narrative description, I summarize the ways NPRC activists use ICTs from December 2013 through September 2016, noting changes in ICT use over time and in response to movement repression. I find that new ICTs offer innovative ways for NPRC activists to record and document their environments, communicate privately, and communicate publicly. ICTs, however, do not remove all barriers to activism or ensure that activists’ concerns are resolved or even taken seriously. NPRC activists struggle to overcome stigma and mischaracterization online. They face physical repression, interpersonal hostilities, institutional sanctions, economic repression, legal sanctions, interpretive repression, surveillance, and monitoring. In different circumstances, the NPRC responds to repression by increasing ICT use, decreasing ICT use, going dark, migrating from one online platform to another, and shifting digital responsibilities from prisoner activists to free activists. I explain how, most of the time, the digital unreachability of the prison environment makes it difficult for NPRC activists to substantiate their claims of mistreatment, abuse, and injustice. Moreover, I consider how current prison technology policies may be inadvertently pushing NPRC activists into difficult-to-monitor online spaces and exacerbating safety concerns of corrections workers.</p></div>

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