After a Guilty Verdict Flashcards
Gillis + Nafekh - Imprisonment
Planned behaviour once freed from jail.
> AIM To investigate the effect on recidivism rates on a community based employment scheme.
> SAMPLE - 23,525 offenders released between Jan ‘98 - ‘05 (95% male) - CANADA
> PROCEDURE Content analysis - matched pairs
- From Canada’s offending management system.
- MP: Offenders divided into
- Those employed due to prior release
- Those unemployed
- Matched through gender, risk level, release year, sentence length, family / marital relations, substance abuse, attitudes.
> RESULTS - Average for whole sample to get employment was 6 months (men) and 10 months (women).
- Those employed prior to release are more likely to stay out of prison with a new offence.
- Median return time - longer for employed - 37 vs 11 months.
- At end of study 70% of employed remained on conditional release vs 57% of unemployed.
> CONCLUSION Employment programmes do work and reduce likelihood of reoffending.
- In general, prison has a poor record for reducing re-offending.
- 65% recommitted within 2 years.
> EVALUATION Strong, large sample = 23,500.
- High control over individuals
- Less scientific credibility due to content analysis.
Dooley - Imprisonment
Unnatural deaths in prison.
> AIM To investigate all unnatural deaths that occurred in prisons in England and Wales between 1972 - 1987.
> PROCEDURE Content - analysis
- Prison department records
- Checklist including social, psychiatric and forensic history used to analyse the data.
- Groups recorded as suicide were compared to those not recorded as suicide.
> RESULTS - 442 unnatural deaths
300 suicide, 142 with variety of verdicts - 52 from conscious self injury (CSI).
- Most of CSI had self harmed previously to the attempt which lead to their deaths.
- More of suicide group were on remand.
- Most of CSI group were female.
- Deaths occurred mainly at night.
- 70% hanging, 15% fire, 74% not married, 8% female.
> CONCLUSION - Overcrowding and prisoner stress is an attribute to unnatural deaths / suicide. It increases the number of interactions within a confined space - Increase in uncertainty about what prisoners may do to them.
- Many prisoners suffer from mental health issues and addiction problems before they are admitted.
> EVALUATION - Low validity due to use of content analysis.
- A large sample - could be representative of prison population
- Lacks scientific credibility due to content analysis.
ZImbardo - Imprisonment
Prison situations and roles.
> AIM - To investigate the situations explanations of the behaviour of guards and prisoners in a simulated prison environment.
> PROCEDURE - Prisoners randomly allocated - guard or prisoner.
- Prisoners kept in simulation. Guards worked 3-man 8 hour shifts.
- Guards told to maintain a reasonable degree of order and to deal with any situation appropriately.
- Prisoners emasculated - stripped of identity - dehumanised.
- Appropriate prison wear for guards and prisoners.
- Prisoners arrested at home (out of own consent)
- Fingerprints taken.
> RESULTS - Study terminated after 6 days.
- 5 participants left early - depression, rage, anxiety.
- Some guards behaved positively, but others went beyond rules in terms of harassment and cruelty.
- Some prisoners became sick and others coped by being obedient.
> CONCLUSION - Destructive and abnormal social relationships between the guards and prisoners were created - this was due to the situation rather than individual character traits of ppts.
- Experiment remarkably effective - but unethical.
> EVALUATION
- UNETHICAL - psychological stress / harm caused.
- Longitudinal study therefore qualitative and quantitative data can be gathered.
- Low in reliability - hard to replicate - longitudinal.
Mair + May - Alternatives to Imprisonment
Experience of probation
> AIM To investigate the experience of offenders on probation across England and Wales
> SAMPLE - 3299 offenders. - Chosen at random from 22 diff probation offices - All ages and offences.
> PROCEDURE Interviews:
- Average time 52 mins (1 hour)
- Conducted by independent measures.
- Q’s mainly closed - likert and multiple choice.
- Covered range of q’s about offenders lives and likelihood of reoffending.
- 40% dropped out of study / failed to turn up to appointments.
- 51% of offenders = first time on probation.
> RESULTS - 88% felt probation was useful
- 60% felt their probation officer would help them individually.
- 37% said probation would not stop them offending/
- 15% liked it as it said it only gave them a minor restriction on their liberty.
- Offenders felt having someone to talk to was the most useful function of their probation officer.
> CONCLUSION Probation is seen in a positive light by offenders - useful.
- Over 1/3 of offenders went on to reoffend.
- Other factors need to be considered (socio-economic status, unemployment, family, peers etc.)
> EVALUATION Low valid - likert scale - open to interpretation
- High in eco validity - carried out in probation offices.
- SDB - may want to receive wards and be let off early.
Sherman + Strang - Alternatives to Imprisonment
Restorative justice.
> AIM To look at restorative justice in practise and measure its effectiveness in terms of reoffending.
> PROCEDURE Content - analysis - 424 academic papers on RJ.
- 36 studies found in these that compared reoffending rates for those who were part of a RJ programme and those that were not.
> RESULTS
Reductions in reoffending were found for violence and property crime but RJ not effective in all cases (indiv. differences).
- More effective when there is a personal victim, violence involved.
- From victim POW it can improve their mental health, reducing post traumatic shock, and helping them to come to terms / peice of mind.
> CONCLUSION Strong evidence that restorative justice is effective.
- Victims can benefit from face-to-face RJ conferences.
- Victims obtain short-term benefits for their mental health by reducing PTSS when victims willingly meet offenders face to face.
- Increased support for young offenders.
> EVALUATION
- Low valid - internet research was conducted and so information they obtained may not be valid / may be inconvenient.
- Low reliab - don’t know where the sources came from / how good they were / hard to repeat.
Eberhardt - Alternatives to Imprisonment
Looking ‘deathworthy’.
> AIM To investigate the hypothesis that black people with stereotypically black features were more likely to get the death sentence than white offenders.
> SAMPLE raters = 51 people from Stanford Uni - 32 white, 15 asian, and 4 other ethnicities.
> PROCEDURE Lab experiment.
- An analysis of the database of death-eligible cases in Philadelphia - in 1979 - 1999.
- 44 cases - a black man had killed a white victim.
- Photographs of the 44 men were shown in a slide show to a panel of raters and were asked to rat the features of these men on how black their features were (1 = not very - 11 = very stereotypically black)
- Photos shown for 4 seconds each.
- Raters did not know these were real cases.
- Features rated = hair, nose, lips, skin tone.
> RESULTS Most stereotypically black offenders were 57.7% more likely to receive the death penalty than the less stereotypically 24%
- Second study - no significant effect found, suggesting black people are seen as less important.
- An analysis of covariance was done but none of the other factors were as significant as looking ‘stereotypically black’.
> CONCLUSION Suggests stereotypically black looking men are seen as more ‘deathworthy’.
> EVALUATION - Lab exp. - cause and effect can be established.
- Sample - students - unrepresentative.
- Photographs only shown for 4 seconds - difficult to judge someone’s features in that time.
- Likert scale - open to interpretation.
Wheatley - Treatment Programmes
- BIOLOGY
Ear acupuncture.
> AIM To test the effectiveness of ear acupuncture used with standard treatment for treating drug addicted prisoners.
> SAMPLE - 350 prisoners in 6 high security prisoners and control groups.
> PROCEDURE 2 trained practitioners worked with groups of 10-15 prisoners in a relaxed setting.
- Fine needles inserted into 5 acupuncture points in ear.
- PRisoners relaxed for 40 min period.
- Returned to normal duties.
> RESULTS Qualitative:
- Reported better sleep, improved relaxation, better coping skills, reduced nicotine cravings, amended cognitions and health improvements.
- Made more effort to communicate with family and attend classes.
- Staff said wing was calmer and less demand for health care services.
Quantitative:
- 70% reduction in drug related incidents from 6 months pre - to 6 months post-treatment.
- 41% reduction in serious reports incidents.
- 42% reduction in positive drug testing results (mandatory)
- 33% reduction in positive drug testing results (voluntary).
> CONCLUSION
Wheatley feels there is enough evidence to expand the delivery of the programme throughout the prison system.
- Believes acupuncture works as a complementary therapy along w other programmes.
> EVALUATION High sample - could be argues to be representative of prison.
- Proves to be highly effective.
- High in reliability as it is possible that this technique could be repeated in every prison due to being a cheap and easily taught method.
Ireland - Treatment Programmes
- BEHAVIOURAL
Anger management.
> AIM To assess whether anger management works for a group of young offenders.
> SAMPLE - 50 prisoners - completed anger management course.
- Control - 37 - suitable for anger management course.
> PROCEDURE Treatment programmes = 12 (1 hour) sessions over 3 days.
- Aggression measured in 3 ways:
- 1) Record of prisoners aggressive behaviour rated by prison officers over a week period. - called ‘Behavioural Checklist’
- 2) Cognitive style interview with prisoner about his temper and aggression.
- 3) 53 item questionnaire completed by prisoner on their anger management.
- Taken 2 weeks before start of course and then again 8 weeks after course.
> RESULTS Significant reduction in the wing based aggression in experimental group but not on control group.
- Prisoners rated themselves lower on report.
- 92% of experimental group showed improvement on at least 1 measure.
- 48% on 2 measures.
- 8% worse after treatment.
> CONCLUSION Programme useful for aggression in short term
- No reconviction rates down the line.
- Need further investigation into 8% who got worse after treatment.
> EVALUATION
Scientific cred - could stimulate further research,
- High valid - 3 tightly controlled criteria in order to assess the prisoners.
Friendship - Treatment Programmes
- COGNTIVE
Cognitive behavioural treatment
> AIM to evaluate the success of cognitive behavioural treatment for prisoners.
> SAMPLE - 670 adult male offenders - received a custodial sentence of 2+ years - voluntarily participated.
> PROCEDURE Cognitive Skills Programme:
- Consists of 2 multi-modal programmes - focus on correcting maladaptive or faulty thinking patterns.
- Maladaptive / faulty thinking patterns have been linked with offending behaviour.
- Programmes = REASONING + REHABILITATION = 36 sessions: 72 hours.
= ENHANCED THINKING SKILLS = 20 sessions; 40 hours.
- Aims of programme:
- Self control, interpersonal problem solving skills, cognitive style, perspective taking, critical reasoning skills, cognitive style, understanding the rules which govern behaviour.
- Reconviction rates compared to 1800 male offenders who had not participated in any programme.
> RESULTS - Significant rate drop in reconviction.
- Recon. rates after 2 years were 14% lower than comparison groups.
- Author suggests based on no. of criminals that partook, nearly 21,000 crimes prevented.
> CONCLUSION
Useful because can be applied to real life - can be used around the world and hopefully drop re-conviction rates + prevent crimes.
> EVALUATION
Large sample - generalisable.
- Reliable - can be easily repeated.
