Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (site viewed on Feb. 5, 2007). PDF text: viii, 77 p. UMI publication number: AAT 3218191. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche format.

After their release from prison, offenders are faced with many hardships that hinder their reintegration efforts. Often, offenders are stereotyped and face community exclusion due to their criminal record. Much of the literature on reintegration has focused on the way in which society stereotypes offenders, but not how offenders interpret and internalize these stereotypes. This study examines the way offenders internalize the stereotypes associated with having a criminal record, and how this affects their reintegration. Data was gathered by conducting 18 in-depth interviews with offenders at the John Howard Society in Toronto. The interviews showed that all participants felt that they had been negatively labeled by others based on the fact that they have a criminal record and/or spent time in prison. Additionally, five participants indicated experiencing stereotype threat, and believed this phenomenon to have had a negative impact on their ability to reintegrate back into society. / UOIT

The present study examines the validity, reliability, and psychometric properties of a newly developed violence risk assessment and treatment planning measure for youth the Violence Risk Scale-Youth Version (VRS-YV; Lewis, Wong, & Gordon, 2004). Composed of 4 static and 19 dynamic items, the VRS-YV is designed to assess violence risk, identify targets for treatment, and evaluate changes in risk as a function of treatment. Change is evaluated through a modified application of Prochaska et al.s (1992) Transtheoretical Model of Change. Stages of change ratings made pre- and post-treatment are summed across dynamic items to yield change scores. <p>The VRS-YV, Youth Level of Services/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI; Hoge & Andrews, 2003), and Psychopathy Checklist-Youth Version (PCL-YV; Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003) were each rated from file information on a sample of 133 young offenders (68 males and 65 females) who had received assessment and/or treatment services from a community mental health facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. All youths had been charged or convicted of a violent offense. This tended to be a rather high risk sample with a large proportion of Aboriginal youths.<p>The VRS-YV demonstrated good internal consistency (VRS-YV total á = .91) and interrater reliability (VRS-YV total ICC = .90), while most of the individual items had acceptable inter-item (mean r = .32) and item total correlations (range r = .30 to .70). Male and female youths displayed few differences on the three risk measures or their respective scale components; however, Aboriginal youths scored significantly higher on these measures than non-Aboriginal youths, with the trend being particularly strong among males.<p>The VRS-YV showed good convergence with the YLS/CMI and PCL-YV. The three measures significantly postdicted violent offending, that is, youth who were repeat violent offenders tended to score significantly higher on each of the measures, than first time violent youth (i.e., those who had no previous history of violence). Similar postdiction was observed for general criminal offending. <p>Recidivism data were available for roughly half of the total sample (n = 62) over a mean follow-up time of approximately 2 years. Preliminary evidence was obtained for the predictive accuracy of the VRS-YV with respect to violent and general recidivism. Predictive accuracy statistics were comparable to those obtained for the YLS/CMI and PCL-YV, with correlations generally being in the .40 to .50 range and Areas Under the Curve (AUCs) in the mid .70s to low .80s. There was also a significant relationship between VRS-YV risk level and both violent and general recidivism. Survival analyses further confirmed that the VRS-YV was able to differentiate those who were more likely to recidivate and more likely to do so more quickly.<p>Change ratings were available for a small subsample of youth (n = 39), which were used to compute post-treatment dynamic ratings. Youths appeared to demonstrate some degree of change, indicating possible therapeutic progress after receiving treatment services. While the trends for the change results tended to be in the expected direction across several of the analyses, the small nature of the sample precluded meaningful interpretation of these findings.<p>In sum, these data provide preliminary evidence for the ability of the VRS-YV to evaluate risk and predict violent and general recidivism with comparable accuracy to that of two well-known and psychometrically robust instruments in the field. The results further demonstrate that the VRS-YV, YLS/CMI, and PCL-YV can have predictive validity for future violent and general recidivism among a diverse sample of youth that includes both male and female, Aboriginal, and community-based youth, living in the province of Saskatchewan. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Det finns stereotyper om kvinnor med olika hårfärg och stereotyper påverkar människors empati och bedömning. Därför gjordes ett kvasiexperiment där det undersöktes om en kvinnlig brottsling väcker olika mycket empati beroende på (a) vilken hårfärg hon har och (b) empatisörens kön. I studien deltog 132 personer, varav 61 kvinnor och designen var en enkät där experimentgruppen fick läsa om en gärningskvinna som antingen var blond, brunhårig, svarthårig eller rödhårig och därefter skatta empati utifrån Batsons empatiskala. Resultaten visade att (a) blondiner väcker minst empati medan rödhåriga väcker mest (b) kvinnor  känner högre empati än män och (c) empati stiger med åldern. Dessa resultat förklarades bland annat med att blondiner mer än rödhåriga ses som objekt i samhället och är därför mindre empativäckande, att kvinnor i högre grad än män förväntas vara empatiska då det är detta beteende som förväntas av kvinnorollen samt att empati är något som utvecklas med tiden.

The aim of our study is to explore the thoughts and beliefs held by the professionals who work with the sentence youth service for young offenders, and how they feel about the same. How is the sentence youth service perceived from a professional perspective? How does the concurrence look like between the police, the social services and the prosecutor, when it comes to young offenders? What kind of difficulties/challenges do the professionals see in the possibility to effect the sentence youth service? The study is based on a qualitative method. The data consists of seven semi-structured interviews with two police officers, four social workers and one prosecutor. The results of our study indicate that youth service is a good sentence for young first-time offenders; the study also indicates that concurrence between the different professions is a success factor; furthermore the study revealed that it was very difficult finding adequate working places.

The present study examines the validity, reliability, and psychometric properties of a newly developed violence risk assessment and treatment planning measure for youth the Violence Risk Scale-Youth Version (VRS-YV; Lewis, Wong, & Gordon, 2004). Composed of 4 static and 19 dynamic items, the VRS-YV is designed to assess violence risk, identify targets for treatment, and evaluate changes in risk as a function of treatment. Change is evaluated through a modified application of Prochaska et al.s (1992) Transtheoretical Model of Change. Stages of change ratings made pre- and post-treatment are summed across dynamic items to yield change scores. <p>The VRS-YV, Youth Level of Services/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI; Hoge & Andrews, 2003), and Psychopathy Checklist-Youth Version (PCL-YV; Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003) were each rated from file information on a sample of 133 young offenders (68 males and 65 females) who had received assessment and/or treatment services from a community mental health facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. All youths had been charged or convicted of a violent offense. This tended to be a rather high risk sample with a large proportion of Aboriginal youths.<p>The VRS-YV demonstrated good internal consistency (VRS-YV total á = .91) and interrater reliability (VRS-YV total ICC = .90), while most of the individual items had acceptable inter-item (mean r = .32) and item total correlations (range r = .30 to .70). Male and female youths displayed few differences on the three risk measures or their respective scale components; however, Aboriginal youths scored significantly higher on these measures than non-Aboriginal youths, with the trend being particularly strong among males.<p>The VRS-YV showed good convergence with the YLS/CMI and PCL-YV. The three measures significantly postdicted violent offending, that is, youth who were repeat violent offenders tended to score significantly higher on each of the measures, than first time violent youth (i.e., those who had no previous history of violence). Similar postdiction was observed for general criminal offending. <p>Recidivism data were available for roughly half of the total sample (n = 62) over a mean follow-up time of approximately 2 years. Preliminary evidence was obtained for the predictive accuracy of the VRS-YV with respect to violent and general recidivism. Predictive accuracy statistics were comparable to those obtained for the YLS/CMI and PCL-YV, with correlations generally being in the .40 to .50 range and Areas Under the Curve (AUCs) in the mid .70s to low .80s. There was also a significant relationship between VRS-YV risk level and both violent and general recidivism. Survival analyses further confirmed that the VRS-YV was able to differentiate those who were more likely to recidivate and more likely to do so more quickly.<p>Change ratings were available for a small subsample of youth (n = 39), which were used to compute post-treatment dynamic ratings. Youths appeared to demonstrate some degree of change, indicating possible therapeutic progress after receiving treatment services. While the trends for the change results tended to be in the expected direction across several of the analyses, the small nature of the sample precluded meaningful interpretation of these findings.<p>In sum, these data provide preliminary evidence for the ability of the VRS-YV to evaluate risk and predict violent and general recidivism with comparable accuracy to that of two well-known and psychometrically robust instruments in the field. The results further demonstrate that the VRS-YV, YLS/CMI, and PCL-YV can have predictive validity for future violent and general recidivism among a diverse sample of youth that includes both male and female, Aboriginal, and community-based youth, living in the province of Saskatchewan. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Proefschrift--Utrecht. / "Stellingen" ([3] p.) laid in. "Literatuurlijst": p. 241-246.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America, 1964. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 400-412).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Dr. Edwin Inglee Megargee, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, School of Psychology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 6, 2003). Includes bibliographical references.

It has only been within the past two decades that a new etiological model of sex offending has emerged that embraces attachment theory in order to provide a more comprehensive understating of how early attachment disruptions may contribute to sexually aggressive behavior. Although there is much theoretical support for the insecure attachment-sex offending paradigm, very little work has been done in the area of empirical validation. Furthermore, the majority of the research that has been conducted in this area focuses on adult offenders and primarily relies on self-report measures of attachment. Therefore, this study examined patterns of attachment in a sample of juvenile sex offenders utilizing a projective instrument, The Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (AAP). This new measure assesses the unconscious aspects of one’s representational model of attachment, such as defenses and underlying expectations concerning relationships. In addition to examining the implicit facet of the attachment construct, this study also explored individuals’ conscious perceptions of attachment needs and experiences by means of a self-report measure. Twenty-five male adolescent sex offenders participated in this study. All subjects were administered the AAP and the Inventory of Parental and Peer Attachment. A brief interview was also conducted in order to gather more detailed descriptive information concerning the adolescents’ family relationships and history of sexual offenses. Results from this study indicated that 100% of the adolescents were classified as insecure on the AAP. The majority of subjects were judged to be dismissing (52%), followed closely by the unresolved attachment status (44%). These findings were discussed in terms of the disorganized attachment-sex offending model and in regards to the attachment concept of “failed mourning.” Qualitative data from the subjects’ interviews and AAP stories were used to provide further support for these theories. The divergent objective-projective test scores that emerged from this study were discussed in terms of their utility and the ways in which they complement each other. Overall, results from this study suggested that insecure attachment may play an important role in sexually aggressive behavior and that attachment-based intervention models may be useful when working with this population. / text