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.

The basis to Freud's view that men and women are essentially separate entities with their own unique psychological construction and human potential which arises from their anatomical differences, will be challenged from the paradigm of object relations theory and related research from attachment theory. It will be argued that while a substantive understanding of gender development and the related issue of spousal abuse are influenced by such important factors as patriarchal domination, social oppression, socialized roles, and economic inequality between the sexes, these forces are considered to have a secondary psychological effect when compared with the formative influence of early object relations. The object relational paradigm to be outlined is that it is the distinctive emotional impact of the contents and attitudes that occur between the members of each family that establish the blueprints for subsequent feelings about oneself and others, from which particular relational patterns with others are pursued and acted upon within the larger social structure. Freud may be credited for his recognition and pioneering systematic investigation into the central importance of the unconscious in the development and functioning of human beings. Beyond this being a theoretical entity that is devoid of any scientific rigour which cannot be tested, proven, and therefore accepted as a legitimate therapeutic modality, information will be offered that suggests otherwise. Spousal relationships in which abuse constitutes a chronic pattern of interaction between the persons involved is understood to occur within contemporary North American society as a collusive arrangement between two emotionally impaired individuals. The argument will be made that they enter into an unconscious dialogue wherein each perpetrates and perpetuates the hopes and disappointments of their own and their partner's past intrapsychic relational experiences. Incarceration alone does not serve the emotional needs of young offenders, but instead, generally provides conditions which advance what is accepted, within this paper, to be a frequently disturbed psychic structure. The emphasis within the Canadian correctional system seems to emphasize incarceration over rehabilitation with the expectation that punishing those who break the law will result in an abstention from such acts in the future. The argument will be presented that in addition to ensuring public safety through imprisonment for some, there is mounting evidence which demonstrates the success of treatment programmes both within and outside of correctional institutions for those who break the law, and whose primary emphasis is on treatment and rehabilitation rather than detention and retribution. Contrary to therapeutic intervention being carried out as an adjunct to existing penal institutions, or that it be directed principally at the conscious acquisition of skills and information, it is proposed that such efforts are best administered within 2 comprehensive therapeutic environments. Further, it will be argued that rather than the previous and current emphasis which is directed primarily at a cognitive and behavioural level of the offender, it is the emotional foundation of the individual which has a direct influence on their long-term behaviour. Therefore, this aspect should constitute a fundamental component of the treatment program for the forensic patient for which psychoanalytic psychotherapy may play an important role.

No description available.

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.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis presents a follow-up study of young offenders released from secure custody at the Manitoba Youth Centre. It attempted to investigate three questions: What are young offenders' experiences within the community following their release from secure custody?, How do young offenders view their program experiences at the Manitoba Youth Centre? and What are the youn offenders' perceptions regarding the benefits of their program experences toward community adjustement? Twenty-eight youths who had been in secure custody for at least three months and discharged to an address in Winnipeg were interviewed. The study based on a qualitative research model describes the experiences, thoughts and perceptions of these young offenders. The results found that the young offenders' experiences within the community were less than ideal. Most of them lived in several different places, were in school or work for short periods of time and were reinvolved with the law. They viewed their program experiences at the Centre as favourable. Yet, the young offenders felt they did not benefit in the community from these program experiences. The conclusion is that the Manitoba Youth Centre needs to consider factors that have been demonstrated to help young offenders adjust in the community. The recommendations start with the development of theories and the incorporation of intervention strategies. Relapse Prevention is proposed as it takes into consideration many of the youths' comments and suggestions.

This thesis describes an investigation into the type of car crime often referred to as 'joyriding'. Stealing a car for the fun of driving can be carried out quite excessively, and this has led to a number of anecdotal comments that joyriding may be 'addictive'. This has particularly been the case in Northern Ireland, where many joyriders have continued in the behaviour despite the threat or experience of serious paramilitary punishment. However, whilst several studies of car crime have alluded to the suggestion that some joyriders appear to be addicted to the behaviour, research conducted to specifically investigate this phenomenon has been scant. The present study therefore explores this notion further by exploring joyriding within the context of an addiction model. Following 10 pilot interviews with a total of 33 young offenders, the main study consisted of 76 semi-structured interviews conducted with 54 convicted joyriders (aged between 15-21 years), 12 professionals with care and control of joyriders, plus 11 non joyriding young offenders; the sample being drawn from both the Midlands and Northern Ireland. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and a qualitative thematic analysis was undertaken using QSR NUD *IST software. The career of the joyrider is presented in terms of how it maps on to the career pattern of (other) potentially addictive behaviours from initiation through to cessation of the behaviour. Discussion considers how the activity can be understood within the context of a deviant subculture, as well as an investigation of possible dependency to joyriding by some individuals as defined using DSM IV-type criteria. This analysis is followed by a consideration of how notions of `addiction', and 'addiction to joyriding', are perceived by the respondents, and how these notions compare with the 'diagnostic' criteria. Finally, the process of stopping joyriding is discussed within Prochaska and DiClemente's (1984) stages of change model, and related intervention strategies are suggested for the rehabilitation of joyriders at each of the hypothesised stages of change.

No description available.

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.