Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Texas, May, 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

A certain percentage of young offenders are re-incarcerated after their first offence and they land back in jail to serve a further sentence. This implies that they could not find their feet back in society once they have been released and it signifies failure on the part of the correctional authorities to rehabilitate the young offenders successfully. Recidivism is a complicated phenomenon which is not easy to deal with as the correctional institutions often have no control over the circumstances outside the prison walls affecting the young offender. The overall goal of this research was to establish the circumstances leading to the re-arrest of the young offender in the Kroonstad Youth Centre in order to adjust the rehabilitation programmes if necessary. The data was collected by means of a focus group consisting of young offenders who have been re-arrested after the first offence. The young offenders could not accurately identify the circumstances leading to their re-arrests, but they could give an indication of the family and community circumstances under which they must live. This ranged from unstable family life to community conditions not conducive to their adjustment. It was also found that the lack of support in the form of outside NGO's to assist them with their adjustment once they left prison was a serious shortcoming. It was recommended that intervention with the youth offenders should be focused on teaching skills that will help them to adjust in the community after their release. It was also recommended that families be trained on how to deal with the behaviour of the youths who has violated the law. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

This study provides an initial analysis of how effective commonly used risk assessment and psychological tests are in postdicting the severity of the index offense and the individual’s most severe offense in a forensic inpatient sample. The study involved a chart review of risk assessment measures, cognitive and personality tests, and criminological data for 65 patients at St. Joseph’s Hamilton Mountain Centre for Mental Health Care. The results found a significant correlation between the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (Wechsler, 1997) and index offense severity. Moreover, an aggression typology (Nussbaum, Saint-Cyr, & Bell, 1997) showed promising signs in differentiating severity by offender type. The study also suggests that further research is necessary in this area, given the limited relationship found between risk instruments and severity of violence, though the risk assessment measures did show good concurrent validity.

This study provides an initial analysis of how effective commonly used risk assessment and psychological tests are in postdicting the severity of the index offense and the individual’s most severe offense in a forensic inpatient sample. The study involved a chart review of risk assessment measures, cognitive and personality tests, and criminological data for 65 patients at St. Joseph’s Hamilton Mountain Centre for Mental Health Care. The results found a significant correlation between the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (Wechsler, 1997) and index offense severity. Moreover, an aggression typology (Nussbaum, Saint-Cyr, & Bell, 1997) showed promising signs in differentiating severity by offender type. The study also suggests that further research is necessary in this area, given the limited relationship found between risk instruments and severity of violence, though the risk assessment measures did show good concurrent validity.

In 2001, the province of Ontario implemented a new policy aimed at incorporating best practices from the literature into probation and parole services. This new policy, named the Probation and Parole Service Delivery Model (PPSDM), has several objectives, including: a) employ assessment-based decisions; b) assume a case management approach in probation and parole supervision; c) consider risk to reoffend and criminogenic needs in intervention and supervision; d) reserve the highest level of supervision for those most at risk to reoffend; and, e) use the least intrusive levels of intervention necessary while ensuring public safety. The policy also included the development of five supervision streams based on risk level, criminogenic needs, and other factors, for which supervision and intervention standards differ (Côté, 2003). A random sample of 200 from each of the five streams was chosen from 2004 and 2005 and matched to a sample supervised prior to PPSDM implementation (from 1998) resulting in an overall sample of 2890 offenders. The groups were compared on various measures of recidivism to determine whether the PPSDM has been effective in reducing recidivism. No significant differences in recidivism rates were found between the comparison and PPSDM groups. However, the recidivism was marginally less severe for the PPSDM groups, along with higher rates of fail to comply type offences. These results suggest possible increased enforcement of technical violations, which may have contributed to the lack of significant differences in recidivism rates. Results are discussed in relation to effective correctional practices and policy implementation.

This thesis addresses the growing number of inmates with a mental illness in correctional facilities in Canada which continues to attract public attention and concern. Several explanations have been put forward to explain the rise in the number of inmates with a mental illness. These include: the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill that began in the 1970’s, lack of treatment availability for those released into the community, and criminalization of persons with a mental illness by the justice system. The increasing numbers of persons with a mental illness in the correctional system has led to serious concerns about the capacity of this system to manage, treat, and rehabilitate individuals with a mental illness. Lack of proper treatment, management, rehabilitation and monitored discharge means that inmates with serious mental illness are more likely to come into contact with the criminal justice system more frequently. This thesis examines the incidence seriously mentally ill offenders and their propensity to recontact. Three hundred and ninety eight face-to-face assessments were conducted using the Resident Assessment Instrument-Mental Health 2.0 (RAI-MH) and from total scores from the Level of Service Inventory Ontario Revision (LSI-OR). These assessments were conducted in 14 Ontario Provincial Correctional facilities during the years 2005-2008. Bivariate and multivariate regression analysis was conducted to assess recontact rates for serious mentally disordered and non-mentally disordered offenders. With regards to recontact, no differences were revealed between the seriously mentally ill offender and non-mentally ill offender. This null finding on recontact is very surprising given the current literature on the seriously mentally ill. An additional finding revealed that for offenders with or without a serious mental illness, having a higher score on the scale of criminogenic tendencies (LSI-OR) increased rates for recontact. Another surprising finding is that seriously mentally ill offenders were more likely to commit minor crimes upon release, rather than violent crimes as current literature suggests. A more accurate research tool, as well as a larger sample size, will be required to assess the validity of these results. The implications of the negative outcome with respect to recontact and issues of identifiable risk factors for recidivism for both seriously mentally ill and non-mentally ill inmate populations are discussed in relation to outcomes in terms of both improvements to Corrections policy and theories of criminology. It is important to continue research in this area, to determine the true gravity of the incidence and recontact rates of mentally ill offenders.

In 2001, the province of Ontario implemented a new policy aimed at incorporating best practices from the literature into probation and parole services. This new policy, named the Probation and Parole Service Delivery Model (PPSDM), has several objectives, including: a) employ assessment-based decisions; b) assume a case management approach in probation and parole supervision; c) consider risk to reoffend and criminogenic needs in intervention and supervision; d) reserve the highest level of supervision for those most at risk to reoffend; and, e) use the least intrusive levels of intervention necessary while ensuring public safety. The policy also included the development of five supervision streams based on risk level, criminogenic needs, and other factors, for which supervision and intervention standards differ (Côté, 2003). A random sample of 200 from each of the five streams was chosen from 2004 and 2005 and matched to a sample supervised prior to PPSDM implementation (from 1998) resulting in an overall sample of 2890 offenders. The groups were compared on various measures of recidivism to determine whether the PPSDM has been effective in reducing recidivism. No significant differences in recidivism rates were found between the comparison and PPSDM groups. However, the recidivism was marginally less severe for the PPSDM groups, along with higher rates of fail to comply type offences. These results suggest possible increased enforcement of technical violations, which may have contributed to the lack of significant differences in recidivism rates. Results are discussed in relation to effective correctional practices and policy implementation.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 2001. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2964. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-85).