What Is The Study Of The Psychological Abuse Of Criminals?

The way the criminal justice system should handle crimes has always been a debated subject. For over the last forty years, ever since the war on drugs, there are more policies made to be “tough on crime”. From then, correctional systems have grown and as people are doing more crimes, there are plenty of punishments for them. In the mid 1970’s, rehabilitation was the main concern for the criminal justice system. It was common that when someone was convicted of a crime, they would be sentenced to prison but there would also be diagnosed treatments to help them as well. Most likely, they would have committed a crime due to psychological problems. When they receive treatment in prison, they can be healed and would not go back to their wrong lifestyle they had lived before. As years have gone by, people thought that it was better to take a more punitive stance in the criminal justice system. As a result of the turnaround of this more punitive criminal justice system, the United States now has more than 2 million people in prisons or jails--the equivalent of one in every 142 U.S. residents--and another four to five million people on probation or parole. The U.S. has a higher percentage of the

The current prison and criminal justice system has not proven to be helpful in rehabilitating offenders and preventing recidivism. To successfully alter this situation it is important to understand what steps and measures are available to assist those who find themselves imprisoned. The techniques used in cognitive behavioral therapy have proven to be effective in treating depression, anxiety and drug addictions among other things. Analyzing the techniques developed in cognitive behavioral theory and applying them to psychotherapy in prison environments can assist in making improvements in the prevention of criminal activity, rates of incarceration and safety and security of the general population. The literature shows that the use of

From 1973 to 2000 the imprisonment rate in the U.S has increased by a multiple of four, while the actual crime rate saw no such increase over that period. (Visher and Travis, 2003, p. 89-90) Historically, the prison system in America had always been marred with inadequacies and failures, specifically in rehabilitating prisoners. The significant increase in incarceration rates have put an even greater burden on the already inefficient prison system. In reality, the prison system does not actually function as a means of rehabilitating prisoners, and real purpose of the institute is to basically keep the “deplorables” of society away from the public eye. It serves as a tool to degrade members of society to the bottom of the social ladder and strip them of their most basic rights. For many prisoners, rehabilitation comes in the form of “corrections” which is largely characterized by the humiliation, abuse, and subjugation of inmates by correction officers. This form of rehabilitation is largely malicious and ineffective in its procedures and outcomes. Often times inmates, leave prison more emotionally and physically damaged that they were upon entrance as a consequence of the dismal conditions they were subjugated to. The current high rates of recidivism have testified to the fact that our prisons have failed as a deterrent. As a result, it must be

When envisioning a prison, one often conceptualizes a grisly scene of hardened rapists and murderers wandering aimlessly down the darkened halls of Alcatraz, as opposed to a pleasant facility catering to the needs of troubled souls. Prisons have long been a source of punishment for inmates in America and the debate continues as to whether or not an overhaul of the US prison system should occur. Such an overhaul would readjust the focuses of prison to rehabilitation and incarceration of inmates instead of the current focuses of punishment and incarceration. Altering the goal of the entire state and federal prison system for the purpose of rehabilitation is an unrealistic objective, however. Rehabilitation should not be the main purpose of

If prisons starting focusing on inmates as individuals, they will be able to address their issues and better prepare them to integrate into society upon release. Mental illnesses are fairly common among today’s prisoners. A third of deaths in jails are caused by suicide. (Fiscella 1). Giving inmates the resources to properly deal with mental illness, such as medication and therapy, will help to lower the suicide rate. Offering programs to prisoners that address their individual needs will increase their chance of success outside of prison. Programs that target the needs of an individual such as parenting courses and anger management classes will help to decrease the chance of an individual being rearrested. (U.S. Department of Justice Roadmap to Reentry 3). Addressing these needs while an individual is in custody can resolve them before they are released. This may be what they need in order to break their cycle of crime. A prisoners family is also affected when it come to their incarceration. Children who have a parent in prison are more likely to struggle with mental illness, poor relationships with family members, bad grades in school, and misconduct. (Bender 3). Having an absent parent is a disadvantage in any child’s life, especially if the parent is incarcerated because the child is likely to develop similar behavior. If jails and prisons

Mental illness affects roughly 56 percent of state prison inmates and 64 percent of jail inmates. It is a disorder that interferes with mental cognition involving changed thinking, emotion, behavior, or a combination of both. Several things are thought to be correlated with mental illness among the incarcerated. Some examples include prior life stressors, gender differences, prison life environment, etc (Drapalski et al., 2009; Gosein, Stiffler, Frascoia, & Ford, 2015). In the present paper, the role mental illness plays in the life of incarcerated inmates is investigated. It is hypothesized that individuals diagnosed with a mental illness are more likely to be incarcerated than inmates without a mental

The issue chosen by the researchers, is a relevant issue facing the criminal justice system. The predominance of mental health problems among incarcerated persons in both prisons and jails present major problems for each component of the criminal justice system; law enforcement, courts, and corrections. The entire criminal justice system is negatively impacted and overburdened by untreated mental illness. According to Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than half of all prison and jail inmates have a mental health problem (James & Glaze, 2006).

Rehabilitation is not “the easy way out” to escape legal punishment, but is rather a key crime prevention strategy, the aim of which is to sway young offenders from their criminal paths. In many cases, rehabilitative techniques are more effective than prison sentences. For instance, David Clayton Thomas, who received a prison sentence at age 15 in Canada, provides a description of the prison, calling it “a predatory, upside-down society where the strong rule, the weak are victimized and the inmate code is all that matters.” Thomas says, “Break the code and you could get killed.” These are not the conditions in which our youth should be expected to restore their moral values! It has also been proven that rates of depression, anxiety disorders, ADHD, and substance abuse- all of which rehabilitation counsellors work with in our young offenders- are higher among youth in custody than among those in the general population. Participation in a rehabilitative program is not a lenient sentence; it is a healing process that is often difficult, but at the end of which the goals of the offender and his/her mentors are hopefully

Prison recidivism rates continue to be a problem in the United States. Just within the first 3 years of release from prison, it is estimated that more than 40 percent offenders commit new crimes and are once again incarcerated. This is an obvious sign that the implemented programs and policies to combat recidivism are failing. This study looks at cognitive-behavioral therapy, the most known

The United States criminal justice system has failed to rehabilitate criminals. Even after being penalized for their crimes, prisoners continue to commit crimes without learning that what they did was wrong from being incarcerated and are sent back to prison. Jails are set up to aid those imprisoned by helping them obtain skills that will hopefully reduce future incidences and allow them to act like the citizens they should be. However, punishing criminals is not as productive as many think it is. This is shown by the increased imprisonment rate from 250,000 in 1976 to almost 2 million by 2003 (Lynch 26, 49). Instead of learning how to work towards handling their problems, inmates are expected to learn from their mistakes by being isolated from society and even sometimes from human contact. Since the prisoners are unable to learn from their delinquencies after doing time in prison, many recommit offenses and find themselves back in jail. Prisons should become more education based, to achieve this goal the overall costs of prisons has to decrees. According to Shadd Maruna, director of the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice for Queen’s Law, “of the more than 100,000 released from prison each year, 70 percent will return to prison.” The re-incarceration is mainly due to the incapability of these convicts to re-adapt into society. After being detached from the real world, it is problematic to adjust to changes, depending on how long the prisoners were

The criminal justice system is riddled with a vast number of offenders. Particularly, these offenders are all diverse not only by the crimes they commit, but by their own personal criminogenic characteristics. A tremendously prevalent offender population that is currently being incarcerated at increasing rates is the mentally ill offender population (Moore & Hiday, 2006). This special type of offender population necessitates a completely different approach when punishing, rehabilitating, and re-entering them throughout these various processes. There is an immense amount of literature presently being conducted to aid the criminal justice system in being able to handle these offenders in a more appropriate way. However, according to Moore &

According to, (Landenberger, and Lipsey, 2005), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been shown to make a positive change on inmate’s actions and socially acceptable behavior by restructuring the way an inmate thinks through new cognitive skills involving therapeutic techniques. While inside the Criminal Justice System, inmates receive the opportunity to take advantage of medical care and receive therapeutic treatment that may not have been available to the individual prior to incarceration.

As said in the text on page 511, "although approximately 90 percent of people with mental disorders are in no way violent or dangerous, studies now suggest at least a small relationship between severe mental disorders and violent behavior." Going solely off of this, it shows that not all criminal acts are symptomatic of psychopathology. "Normal" people are the ones who commit most of the crimes. I feel that there are criminals who need treatment and those who need punishment. Some people are just mentally sick, and once they get the help they need, they can live a good life. There are some that can't be helped though, such as repeat sexual offenders. People like this need to be punished. I feel there are other factors besides mental illness that cause someone to commit a crime. I feel that a lot that has to do with it is how someone is brought up. If they are around a criminal type influence, they probably have a higher risk of behaving that way as an adult. Some people are just born with the natural drive to commit crimes, does this automatically mean they have a mental illness? I am not sure. There is such a fine line and it is quite confusing. It is hard to understand why some people can do the terrible things that they do. I think there is still a lot more for us to know and find out in regards to the minds of criminals.

While dedicated research on the subject of psychological damage as a result of imprisonment is surprisingly sparse there are a few articles that touch on the subject. Prison is a ripe case study for many Psychology scholars due to its inherently insular nature and varied subcultures. Researchers have noticed frightening trends among inmates such as increased aggression, impairment of executive functions, and increased development of psychosomatic disorders.

From their inception, prisons have attempted to act as both a deterrent and a rehabilitator. However, in certain times one of these is