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Positive criminology [1] is based on the perspective that integration and positive life influences that help individuals develop personally and socially will lead to a reduced risk of criminal behavior and better recovery of offenders. Integration works in three levels: inter-personal, intra-personal and spiritual. [2] Positive influences include participation in recovery programs, such as those for substance use disorders. Factors that can make growth difficult include a long-standing pattern of criminal activity, serious adverse life events, and chronic mental health illness. [3]
The term "positive criminology" was first introduced by Natti Ronel and his research team at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. Accordingly, it represents a wide perspective that includes several existing models and theories. It is partially based on Peacemaking criminology and on Positive Psychology, and relates to known and accepted models such as restorative justice.
Enrico Ferri, a socialist, [4] introduced his theory of positive criminality, which was based upon the elimination of antisocial conduct according to "a science of society, taking on for itself the task of the eradication of crime", [5] during three lectures in Naples, Italy in 1901. [6] Rather than punishment, Ferri believed that crimes should be addressed by social sanctions, in proportion to the degree of danger of the criminal act and risk to society. [7] He and other determinists, like Baruch Spinoza, eschewed the concept of moral guilt and responsibility. While libertarianists, like Immanuel Kant of the 18th-century, believed in the concept of morality that may be subject to change. [8] In the 19th century, there were also social scientists that believed that effectively combating criminality included improving society's health and welfare and eliminating poverty. [4]
In recent years, various programs have been developed in the field of rehabilitation of offenders, in community and prison, based on the principles of cognitive-behavioral approach, usually implemented in a group setting. These programs are considered a form of strength-based treatment, due to the emphasis on personal, interpersonal and social skills developed that enable participants to acquire pro-social lifestyle, which may also reduce their need for deviant behaviors. The assumption underlying these programs is that those who work on acquisition of new positive skills, rather than just avoidance from negative behaviors, will achieve better results and be able to maintain the positive outcomes for the long run. Recent studies indicated their effectiveness in reducing recidivism amongst released offenders. [9] [10]
The Good Lives Model (GLM), first proposed by Ward and Stewart [11] and further developed by Ward and colleagues, [12] is a strengths-based approach to offender rehabilitation that is responsive to offenders' particular interests, abilities, and aspirations. It also directs practitioners to explicitly construct intervention plans that help offenders to acquire the capabilities to achieve the things that are personally meaningful to them. It assumes that all individuals have similar aspirations and needs and that one of the primary responsibilities of parents, teachers, and the broader community is to help each of us acquire the tools required to make our own way in the world. [11] [13]
Criminal behavior results when individuals lack the internal and external resources necessary to satisfy their values using pro-social means, or where a single aspiration or need is valued exclusively over all other aspirations or needs. In other words, criminal behavior represents a maladaptive attempt to meet life values, or a singular focus on one specific life value. [11] [13]
Offenders, like all humans, value certain states of mind, personal characteristics, and experiences, which are defined in the GLM as primary goods. Following an extensive review of psychological, social, biological, and anthropological research, Ward and colleagues [14] proposed eleven classes of primary goods: (1) life (including healthy living and functioning), (2) knowledge, (3) excellence in play, (4) excellence in work (including mastery experiences), (5) excellence in agency (i.e., autonomy and self-directedness), (6) inner peace (i.e., freedom from emotional turmoil and stress), (7) friendship (including intimate, romantic, and family relationships), (8) community, (9) spirituality (in the broad sense of finding meaning and purpose in life), (10) happiness, and (11) creativity. [12] : 79 Whilst it is assumed that all humans seek out all the primary goods to some degree, the weightings or priorities given to specific primary goods reflect an offender's values and life priorities. Moreover, the existence of a number of practical identities, based on, for example, family roles (e.g., parent), work (e.g., psychologist), and leisure (e.g., rugby player) mean that an individual might draw on different value sources in different contexts, depending on the normative values underpinning each practical identity. Instrumental goods, or secondary goods, provide concrete means of securing primary goods and take the form of approach goals. [15]
Existential therapy is based on the premise that there are several factors that influence one's life, like culture and biology, and that the central problems people experience are due to isolation, anxiety, despair, and loneliness. The goal of therapy is to develop skills to make good life choices and use positive forces—like love, authenticity, and creativity— to create a meaningful life. [16] Viktor Frankl, psychiatrist and author of Man's Search for Meaning , said that according to research there was a correlation between lack of meaning in one's life and depression, addictions, and criminal behavior. People who do not have a sense of meaning in their life are prone to neurotic compulsions and obsessions, boredom, materialism, hatred, power, and hedonistic pleasures. [17] Rather than focusing on the past or future, existential therapy focuses on the present and the relationship with one's self, by being aware of one's feelings, using relaxation and other forms of therapies, and learning how to deal directly with issues. [18]
Yoga and meditation programs have been used in correctional facilities to promote reflection, mindfulness and patience, and reduce stress [19] [20] in an environment that is a breeding ground for violence and negative thinking. [21] A yoga program was established in the United States at San Quentin State Prison in 2002 by James Fox. [22] Formalized later as the Prison Yoga Project, it teaches asana, pranayama, and meditation practices—and how to train the mind not to be reactive [23] —which helps individuals cope from past trauma and develop more productive behavior patterns. [21] [22] More than 100 jails and prisons in the United States have replicated the Prison Yoga Project programs. [22] [a] Steven Belenko, a professor with Temple University's Department of Criminal Justice states that yoga and meditation instruction could be provided via DVDs, which would be a relatively low-cost solution for prisons. [20]
One of the most popular approaches in the Western world for self-change in the field of addiction is that of the twelve-step program. Self-help groups in general, and in particular the twelve-step programs, which emphasize spiritual and moral change, represent another aspect of positive criminology. The groups serve as a place for learning and practicing new behavior and values, alongside spiritual development. Research conducted among addicts who participated in the twelve-step program and the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) self- and mutual-help groups has identified several therapeutic elements that helped addicts in the recovery process, including change in their perception of life and finding new and noble meaning to life, [26] spiritual awakening through faith in a higher power that helps them to abstain from psychoactive substances, [27] transformation of anger and resentment into forgiveness, [28] and sponsoring another person in the recovery process. [29] According to Ronel (1998), self-help organizations such as NA constitute a bridge to recovery, connecting the drug subculture to the general dominant culture. [30]
The twelve-step program originated in AA and was then adopted by other self-help organizations that target a variety of problems, such as drug addiction (NA), eating disorders (Overeaters Anonymous [OA]), emotional disturbance (Emotions Anonymous [EA]), and others. [31] Since its inception, the twelve-step program has caught the attention of professionals as a possible expert approach of therapy, first limited to addiction [32] and later extended into other fields, such as domestic violence [33] or victims' assistance, [34] [35] as well. It could, therefore, be perceived as being a general, professional treatment method and program for recovery, also known as Grace Therapy. [36] In a professional setting, the 12 steps may be adapted to the changing needs of the participants. [36] [37]
The concept of "positive victimology" [38] evolved from positive criminology and it was first proposed by Natti Ronel and his research team. Positive victimology's focus is on those who were hurt by crime and/or abuse of power.
Social acceptance and life transformation in the rehabilitation of imprisoned sex offenders was the first that was designed and conducted according to the principles of positive criminology. [39] The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify the internal and external factors that assist imprisoned sex offenders to recover and change their way of life. Most participants reported that they had experienced personal and social changes during their current imprisonment, attributed to the support they received from various sources both inside and outside the jail, particularly spouses, parents, therapists, and religious figures. Participants reported that those who supported them expressed their social acceptance of them; note that this does not refer to unconditional acceptance, but one that requires taking responsibility and making a significant change by the side of the offender. It might be referred as conditioned love, where the conditions are for the benefits of the loved ones. It contains components similar to those included in the re-integrative shaming mechanism. [40] Research findings also suggest that positive changes can be achieved even under harsh conditions such as imprisonment, through the encounter with human strengths. In a way that continues these findings, Siebrecht Vanhooren, Mia Leijssen, and Jessie Dezutter from the Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Belgium, conducted a pilot study with a mixed-method design on posttraumatic growth and psychological stress in a sample of sexual offenders (n = 30) in ongoing therapy. [41]
Several studies examined the impact of a personal encounter with perceived goodness, as represented by volunteers who are perceived as altruistic by those they help. The studies focused on the encounter between lay volunteers and either: (1) at-risk street youths in a mobile outreach service (a qualitative study), [42] (2) at-risk youth in drop-in centers for youth at-risk in Israel (a qualitative and quantitative study) [43] and (3) two experiments carried out by Niek Hoogervorst, Judith Metz, Lonneke Roza, and Eva van Baren from the Netherlands that support this indirect effect of volunteerism on affect-based trust. [44]
Many philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche and Spinoza, already discussed the importance of using positive human components for creating a better human society. They also argued that the ability for human kindness is not predetermined but can be changed by external interventions, such as through exposing the individual to positive encounters that may lead to appropriate changes in the person and the surroundings. [45]
Positive criminology stresses the healing effect of positively perceived experiences. During the last years there is an increase in research on happiness, understood as a subjective perception of well-being, and it seems it is finding its place in criminology research as well. [46]
Positive criminology associates social integration with rehabilitation and with human strengths. Tharina Guse and Daphne Hudson, from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, conducted a study in 2014. [47]
Positive criminology looks for integrative means of rehabilitation, as an alternative to the disintegrative nature of incarceration. In a qualitative study, Carla Barret from John Jay College, New York, attempted to understand how young male participants benefited from yoga and mindfulness training within an Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) program. [48]
Michael Hallett and colleagues presented an ethnographic account of the "self-projects" of inmate graduates of Louisiana State Penitentiary's ("Angola's") unique prison seminary program. [49]
Drug rehabilitation is the process of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and street drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, heroin, and amphetamines. The general intent is to enable the patient to confront substance dependence, if present, and stop substance misuse to avoid the psychological, legal, financial, social, and medical consequences that can be caused.
Criminal psychology, also referred to as criminological psychology, is the study of the views, thoughts, intentions, actions and reactions of criminals and suspects. It is a subfield of criminology and applied psychology.
Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been trained to extinguish it. Recidivism is also used to refer to the percentage of former prisoners who are rearrested for a similar offense.
A halfway house is an institute for people with criminal backgrounds or substance use problems to learn the necessary skills to re-integrate into society and better support and care for themselves.
Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is an investigative strategy used by law enforcement agencies to identify likely suspects and has been used by investigators to link cases that may have been committed by the same perpetrator. The originator of modern profiling was FBI agent Robert Ressler. He defined profiling as the process of identifying all psychological characteristics of an individual and forming a general description of their personality based on an analysis of crimes they have committed.
The feminist school of criminology is a school of criminology developed in the late 1960s and into the 1970s as a reaction to the general disregard and discrimination of women in the traditional study of crime. It is the view of the feminist school of criminology that a majority of criminological theories were developed through studies on male subjects and focused on male criminality, and that criminologists often would "add women and stir" rather than develop separate theories on female criminality.
Emotions Anonymous (EA) is a twelve-step program for recovery from mental and emotional illness. As of 2017 there were approximately 300 Emotions Anonymous groups active in the United States and another 300 around the world.
Atascadero State Hospital, formally known as California Department of State Hospitals - Atascadero (DSHA), is located on the Central Coast of California, in San Luis Obispo County, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. DSHA is an all-male, maximum-security facility, forensic institution that houses mentally ill convicts who have been committed to psychiatric facilities by California's courts. Located on a 700+ acre grounds in the city of Atascadero, California, it is the largest employer in that town. DSHA is not a general purpose public hospital, and the only patients admitted are those that are referred to the hospital by the Superior Court, Board of Prison Terms, or the Department of Corrections.
The Macdonald triad is a set of three factors, the presence of any two of which are considered to be predictive of, or associated with, violent tendencies, particularly with relation to serial offenses. The triad was first proposed by psychiatrist J. M. Macdonald in "The Threat to Kill", a 1963 article in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Small-scale studies conducted by psychiatrists Daniel Hellman and Nathan Blackman, and then FBI agents John E. Douglas and Robert K. Ressler along with Ann Burgess, claimed substantial evidence for the association of these childhood patterns with later predatory behavior. Although it remains an influential and widely taught hypothesis, subsequent research has generally not validated this line of thinking.
The professional practice of behavior analysis is a domain of behavior analysis, the others being radical behaviorism, experimental analysis of behavior and applied behavior analysis. The practice of behavior analysis is the delivery of interventions to consumers that are guided by the principles of radical behaviorism and the research of both experimental and applied behavior analysis. Professional practice seeks to change specific behavior through the implementation of these principles. In many states, practicing behavior analysts hold a license, certificate, or registration. In other states, there are no laws governing their practice and, as such, the practice may be prohibited as falling under the practice definition of other mental health professionals. This is rapidly changing as behavior analysts are becoming more and more common.
The self-control theory of crime, often referred to as the general theory of crime, is a criminological theory about the lack of individual self-control as the main factor behind criminal behavior. The self-control theory of crime suggests that individuals who were ineffectually parented before the age of ten develop less self-control than individuals of approximately the same age who were raised with better parenting. Research has also found that low levels of self-control are correlated with criminal and impulsive conduct.
A rehabilitation policy within criminology, is one intending to reform criminals rather than punish them and/or segregate them from the greater community.
The management of domestic violence deals with the treatment of victims of domestic violence and preventing repetitions of such violence. The response to domestic violence in Western countries is typically a combined effort between law enforcement, social services, and health care. The role of each has evolved as domestic violence has been brought more into public view.
Relationships of incarcerated individuals are the familial and romantic relations of individuals in prisons or jails. Although the population of incarcerated men and women is considered quite high in many countries, there is relatively little research on the effects of incarceration on the inmates' social worlds. However, it has been demonstrated that inmate relationships play a significant role in their well-being both during and after incarceration, making such research important in improving their overall health, and lowering rates of recidivism.
Gender-responsive prisons are prisons constructed to provide gender-specific care to incarcerated women. Contemporary sex-based prison programs were presented as a solution to the rapidly increasing number of women in the prison industrial complex and the overcrowding of California's prisons. These programs vary in intent and implementation and are based on the idea that female offenders differ from their male counterparts in their personal histories and pathways to crime. Multi-dimensional programs oriented toward female behaviors are considered by many to be effective in curbing recidivism.
Criminal spin is a phenomenological model in criminology, depicting the development of criminal behavior. The model refers to those types of behavior that start out as something small and innocent, without malicious or criminal intent and as a result of one situation leading to the next, an almost inevitable chain of reactions triggering counter-reactions is set in motion, culminating in a spin of ever-intensifying criminal behavior. The criminal spin model was developed by Pro. Natti Ronel and his research team in the department of criminology at Bar-Ilan University. It was first presented in 2005 at a Bar-Ilan conference entitled “Appropriate Law Enforcement”.
Donald Arthur Andrews was a Canadian correctional psychologist and criminologist who taught at Carleton University, where he was a founding member of the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice. He is recognized for having criticized Robert Martinson's influential paper concluding that "nothing works" in correctional treatment. He also helped to advance the technique of risk assessment to better predict the chance of recidivism among offenders. He is credited with coining the terms "criminogenic needs" and "risk-need-responsivity", both of which have since been used and studied extensively in the criminological literature.
Apryl A. Alexander is an American clinical and forensic psychologist who is an associate professor at the University of Denver. Alexander directs students at the Denver Forensic Institute for Research, Service and Training, and engages in clinical psychology practice. She is co-founder of the University of Denver's Prison Arts Initiative where incarcerated individuals engage in a therapeutic, educational arts curricula.
There are about 220,000 women currently incarcerated in America. Over 30% of these women are convicted prostitutes. Much of the research on the sex industry in prisons focuses on the experiences of women because the number of jailed female sex workers greatly outnumbers men. Prominent issues that the criminal justice system and women who are incarcerated on prostitution charges currently face, include the sexually transmitted infections and diseases epidemic, the sex-work-prison cycle, and the prison-to-sex-trafficking pipeline. Intervention and diversion programs, both within prisons and in traditional and specialty courts aim to address these issues, decrease recidivism, and provide these women with resources to assist them in exiting the sex trade. There are a variety of community-based organizations which seek to help resolve these concerns.
Research suggests a complex relationship between climate change and crime. As global temperatures rise, some studies indicate an increase in crime rates, especially violent crimes. However, the evidence is mixed, with some studies finding only weak or inconsistent correlations. Factors such as temperature volatility, seasonal variations, and geographical context play a role in influencing crime rates. Additionally, environmental crimes, such as illegal waste dumping and unauthorized emissions, can contribute to climate change, creating additional factors that may influence crime patterns.
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