Substance Violence Case Studies

Correctional psychologists have many duties within the prison setting. When offenders arrive to correctional institutes, the correctional psychologist conducts assessments to assist the offender in their rehabilitation process. For example, correctional psychologists provide assessment to prevent self harm, substance abuse, anger management and crisis intervention. They also develop programs to assist with recidivism of offenders (Bartol & Bartol, 2012). Prior to an offender being release from prison, the correctional psychologist conducts a risk and needs assessment. The information collected assesses the offender’s attitude and behaviors to determine the chance of reoffending (James, 2015). The purpose of the paper is to assess the risk factors which may contribute to Craig to becoming a repeat offender.

The primary risk factors for criminal behavior majorly come into play in the early years of a person’s life.

Factors that are the best sources for security determinations are considered by the offender’s gender, sex, age at their first conviction, disabilities and/or mental deficiencies are not caused by the offender and these factors are not likely to change. These permanent factors are natural to the offender and are stated as static risk factors. Static risk factors are the best basis for security determinations. Dynamic risk factors are an individual’s characteristics that can change and that are controlled or influenced by the criminal, for example, their work, drug addictions, motivation, and their family relationships. These features are very useful for treatment providers, but these features are not sound fundamentals for security determinations

Bradley R. E. Wright, Avshalom Caspi, Terrie E. Moffitt and Ray Paternoster Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 2004 41: 180 DOI: 10.1177/0022427803260263 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jrc.sagepub.com/content/41/2/180

Youth choosing to engage in criminal behavior is not a new phenomenon. Youth who choose to do this repeatedly are referred to as re-offenders. The age and the sex of the offender also contribute to the recidivism rate and the types of consequences. Other contributing factors in recidivism include the relationship the youth has with peers or parents, whether they abuse substances, and the racial origins of the young offender. There is a wide spectrum of consequences and different ways in which treatment attempts to aid re-offenders. Re-offenders commit various crimes and differ greatly in their response to treatment.

Larry was identified as an overall high risk to re-offend, with moderate high dynamic risk and moderate protective factors. Larry and his family’s strengths and protective factors include family support. Larry and his family specific priority areas that should be targeted to reduce the risk of reoffending include reducing Larry’s criminal activity and involvement and maintaining stabling housing. Larry and his family should target community and peers, attitude and

More recently, the combination of risk/needs assessments have changed the course of classification models. No longer are risks assessments conducted solely for the institutionalized but also are used to foresee new transgressions with needs that are similarly elements of offender

One problem area we will focus on is criminal thinking. According to Barbour (n.d.) criminals often do not feel remorse for their actions. They take on the victim stance. In addition, criminals tend to exhibit the following thinking patterns; “closed channel thinking, ‘good person’ stance, ‘unique person’ stance, fear of exposure, lack-of-time perspective, selective effort, use of power to control, seek excitement first, and take an ownership stance (Barbour, n.d.).” There are several factors that can contribute to criminal thinking. These include early involvement in deviant, antisocial, and criminal conduct; having a childhood that involved neglect, abuse, and/or lack of parental attention and supervision; failure in school or work; and an early introduction to alcohol or drugs. Offenders have a high probability of recidivism if their criminal thinking is not challenged and changed. The National Institute of Justice cited one study which tracked 404,638 prisoners across 30 different states. Through this study, researchers found that once prisoners were released from prison, 56.7 percent were rearrested within the first year and 76.6 percent were rearrested within the first five years (National Institute of Justice, 2014). Due to the high probability of recidivism

Future behavior is a question that is often asked of a forensic mental health professional. There are many reasons to include assessing potential future dangerousness or recidivism. This area of our work has great impact on the defendant’s life. The conclusions or opinion of the forensic mental health professional can sway the judge, jury, defendant, families, victim/s and society as a whole. This makes risk assessment both difficult and controversial, according to Hanson (2009) Risk assessments for crime and violence are different from other forms of psychological assessment because the presenting problem is not directly observed.

Presenting Problem: Johnathan was referred to outpatient services after he overdosed on Corricidin. He reported that he took 16 pills and was in the hospital for 2 days. His mother reported that he told the Psychiatrist at the hospital that he was not trying to kill himself and that he just wanted to get “High”. Jonathan was released from Dominion on 10/26/15/ He has a HX of running away from home with the longest awol being 3 days. He was placed at Dominion for making threats to peers after being beat up for calling someone a name at school. Mother reported that Jonathan has been stealing drugs from stores and has stolen money from her to pay for his substances. He has a HX of using Marijuana, Alcohol, Coricidin, Benzodiazepines, MDMA and LSD.

The specific inclusion criteria for program enrollment included (a) offenders who reported for Level 2 or 3 probation, (b) had a recommendation or mandate for substance abuse screening in their sentencing order or had a substance abuse screen ordered by the PO at intake, (c) had a probation duration of 6 months or longer, (d) were age 18 years or older, (e) spoke English, and (f) failed their initial urinalysis. Exclusion criteria were (a) diagnosed current and known DSM-IV-R psychotic disorder, (b) current conviction for sex offense (specialized caseload), (c) evidence of neuropsychological dysfunction, (d) life expectancy of less than 6 months, and (e) probation or parole requirements that prevented protocol participation. The final sample

The United States is the world’s number one consumer of narcotics and thus 90% of cocaine seized in the U.S. comes from Mexico due to the close geographical boundaries it is easy to smuggle illegal drugs into the U.S. from Mexico. The U.S.’s demand for narcotics and other drugs creates an 18-39 billion dollar market each year, all coming solely from drug sales. Drug violence is a direct result of protecting each business 's product. Cartels like the Zetas use violence to create a “brand” for their franchise. The violent cartels create a sense of fear so no one gets in their way and so others will comply with their wishes and demands.

Individuals abused as a child are more likely to turn to substance abuse and violence. Their environment socialized them with violence being the answer to all questions or stressed them out enough to run away as an adolescent, nurtured by gangs where they solve problems with violence (69). Some even confide in strangers where they’d be exposed to drugs and later abuses to cope with stress and mental deficiencies. Frequently they are targeted by perpetrators because their vulnerability makes them easy to manipulate and exploit, allowing them to be victimized again (73).

John, is 52 years old and currently serving a sentence following a conviction of aggravated assault against his step-son. The index offence left John’s victim hospitalised, due to the seriousness of his injuries and as a consequence of John’s alcohol fuelled violent behaviour. John is a persistent violent offender and has past convictions against, his current partner and an ex-partner, for which he has was detained in prison. This evaluation was requested to assess the risk and management of future violent behaviour of John.