High Risk Violent Offenders: Assessment and Treatment

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High Risk Violent Offenders Assessment and
Treatment

• James Bonta
• Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada
• Ottawa, November 2006

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(No Transcript)
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PIC-R and Treatment

• REWARDS COSTS
• Interpersonal
• Increase prosocial ties Decrease criminal
  ties
• (more rewards) (more costs)
• Decrease criminal ties Increase prosocial ties
  
• (less rewards) (less costs)
• Personal
• Increase prosocial attitudes Decrease
  antisocial attitudes
• Teach self-control skills
• Nonmediated
• Teach prosocial Teach alternatives to angry
• alternatives to thrills feelings
• Treat substance abuse

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Correctional Quackery

• treatment interventions that are based neither
  on existing knowledge of the causes of crime or
  programs that have shown to change offender
  behavior
• Dismissive of evidence

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Correctional Quackery Examples

• Music/Drama/Art/Horticultural Therapies
• Acupuncture
• Pet Therapy
• Refining the Breath
• Men required to dress as women

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Outline of the Presentation

• Implications of theory to
• 1. Risk Assessment
• 2. Treatment
• with an eye on the evidence

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The Psychology of Criminal Conduct Assessment

• All offenders may be differentiated in risk
• Risk factors are personal interpersonal
• Risk factors are tied to immediate situations in
  an variety of behavioral settings
• Identifies dynamic risk for treatment

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Needs and Dynamic Risk
Criminogenic Noncriminogenic Procriminal
attitudes Self-esteem Criminal associates Vague
feelings Family affect/discipline Physical
training Antisocial personality Group cohesion
(self-control, anger) Work
training with job Increase ambition
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Meta-Analysis
r -.07
t ? r -.10
?2 ? r -.05
r .01
IQ 80 120 90 105 85 85 90 85
100 110 95 105
CRIME Y N Y N Y Y Y N
Y N Y Y
Study A
Study B
Study C
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Predictors of Recidivism by Sample

• Sample
• Risk Factor General MDO Sex
• Antisocial Personality .18 .18 .10
• Criminal History .16 .16 .15
• Antisocial Cognition .18 nr .10
• Antisocial Associates .21 nr nr
• Family/Marital .10 .19 .05
• School/Work .13 .22 .10
• Leisure/Recreation .21 nr
  nr
• Substance Abuse .10 .08 .06
• Intelligence .07 -.02 .01
• Lower-Class/Minority .05 .00 .00
• Personal Distress .05 -.04 .01

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Generality PCC Risk Assessment

• Sample Low Medium
  High
• Adult males .15 .45
  .63
• females .04 .41
  .75
• Youth males .25 .64
  .92
• females .07 .29
  .80
• MDO .10 .39
  .65
• Domestic violence .22 .50 .64
• Sex offenders .17 .33 .74

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PIC-R and Offender Treatment 1

• Interpersonal Sources of Rewards/Costs
• Reduce antisocial companions especially those
  who support violence (e.g., gangs)
• Promote familial affection and supervision
• Shift density of rewards (?) and costs (?) in
  the behavioral settings of
• Work (employers and co-workers)
• School (teachers and fellow students)
• Leisure (prosocial models)

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PIC-R and Offender Treatment 2

• Personal Sources of Rewards/Costs
• Change antisocial attitudes, values and beliefs
  supportive of violence
• Increase self-regulation skills (especially the
  self-regulation of anger)
• Improve problem-solving skills
• Confront rationalizations supportive of
  aggressive behaviour
• Recognize risky situations and formulate a plan
  to deal with them

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PIC-R and Offender Treatment 3

• Nonmediated Sources of Rewards/Costs
• Reduce antisocial feelings (hostility, anger)
• Promote prosocial behaviors for achieving sexual
  satisfaction
• Replace the skills of lying, stealing and
  aggression with prosocial alternatives
• Reduce chemical dependencies
• Reduce stressors that may be linked to risk
  (financial problems, poor accommodations)

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Theory and Treatment

• Risk Principle
• as number of risk/needs factors increase,
• the effort to modify them must increase
• match the level of service with the level of
  risk

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Risk and Treatment ( Recidivism)
Bonta et al., 2000
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Theory and Treatment

• Risk Principle
• match the level of service with the level of
  risk
• Need Principle
• not all needs causally related to criminal
  conduct
• some needs are criminogenic
• Responsivity Principle
• behavior depends on rewards and costs
  cognitive-behavioral interventions work best
• personal factors affect responsiveness to
  rewards/costs

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BCs Violence Prevention Program

• Control
• VPP

Recidivism Rate
Risk Level
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Adherence to Principles by Setting
Decrease

• Community
• Residence

Recidivism
Increase
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Comparative effects sizes for selected
interventions

• Intervention Target Effect size
• Aspirin Heart attack 0.03
• Chemotherapy Breast cancer
  0.11
• Bypass surgery Heart disease
  0.15
• Offender Treatment Recidivism
  0.12 (ns)
• 0.29
  (approp)

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Sexual Offender Treatment and Adherence to Risk,
Need and Responsivity
4 studies 6 studies
12 studies 1 study
0 1 2
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Hanson et al., 2006
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Cost-Benefits to Treatment

• monetary value of saving a high-risk youth is
  in the order of 1.7 to 2.3 million (Cohen,
  1998, p. 5)
• the program produced benefits of 7.18 for
  every dollar of costs (Caldwell et al., 2006, p.
  162)
• if a 14 percentage point reduction in
  recidivism is achievedthis could result in an
  economic gain of 39,870 per prisoner, or 3.98
  million for 100 treated prisoners (Donato
  Shanahan, 1999, p. 1)

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