What Works in Israeli Prison-Based Sex Offender Rehabilitation Programs: Program Participants’ Perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (9) ◽  
pp. 2601-2623
Author(s):  
Brenda Geiger ◽  
Michael Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Group Therapy ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Appreciative Inquiry ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Therapy Group ◽  
Rehabilitation Program ◽  
Offender Rehabilitation ◽  
Open Communication ◽  
Therapeutic Goals ◽  
Rehabilitation Programs

This study invited 10 of the 22 sex offenders enrolled in a prison-based rehabilitation program in one of the prisons in Israel to engage in the two first of the 4-D ( Discover, Dream, Design, and Deliver) stages of the Appreciative Inquiry . Consistent with the responsivity principle, and the IA tenets, program participants were interviewed to Discover components to which they were responsive and Dream/envision additional ones that would increase engagement and progress. Content analysis of the interviews indicated that despite the initial decision to enrol based on external incentives, participants eventually engaged in group therapy and expressed the desire to understand and regulate their sexual behaviour. While the the modules of Cognitive Behabioral Group Therapy (CBT) were viewed as assets, the lack of sufficient recruitment criteria, the large therapy group size, and its open-ended structure were mentioned as impediments reaching therapeutic goals. Social workers/therapists were criticized for their request that they be informers, and for their accusative therapeutic style whenever sexual issues were broached. Recommendations derived from the offenders’ narrative were to increase staff professionalism to create a therapeutic alliance that promotes trust and open communication. Criminal justice practitioners may then take up the challenge of the never-ending process of Appreciative Inquiry to Design and Deliver program components envisioned by the participants to increase participants’ responsivity to the program and thus its effectiveness.

The Impact of Interpersonal Style and Interpersonal Complementarity on the Therapeutic Alliance Between Therapists and Offenders in Sex Offender Treatment

Sexual Abuse ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachael Watson ◽  
Michael Daffern ◽  
Stuart Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Therapeutic Alliance ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Offender Treatment ◽  
Offender Rehabilitation ◽  
Sex Offender Treatment ◽  
Interpersonal Style ◽  
Rehabilitation Programs ◽  
Interpersonal Complementarity ◽  
The Impact

Therapist and treatment process variables affect the effectiveness of offender rehabilitation programs. This study examined the influence of therapists’ and offenders’ interpersonal styles (IPSs) and interpersonal complementarity on therapeutic alliance (TA). Seventy-five sex offenders and their therapists evaluated each other’s IPSs and the TA after 3 weeks of treatment. Offenders evaluated the TA more positively than therapists. Regarding the impact of IPS, therapist affiliation was positively correlated and therapist control was negatively correlated with offenders’ ratings of the TA; in other words, offenders evaluated the TA more strongly when therapists were perceived as affiliative, and weaker when therapists were viewed as controlling. Offender affiliation was positively correlated with therapists’ ratings of TA; in other words, therapists evaluated the TA more strongly when offenders were viewed as more affiliative; perceptions of offender control were unrelated to offenders’ ratings of TA. Complementarity in IPS between offenders and therapists did not affect TA.

scholarly journals Volunteering With Sex Offenders: The Attitudes of Volunteers Toward Sex Offenders, Their Treatment, and Rehabilitation

Sexual Abuse ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 659-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Kerr ◽  
Ruth J. Tully ◽  
Birgit Völlm
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sexual Offenders ◽  
General Public ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Offender Treatment ◽  
Offender Rehabilitation ◽  
Sex Offender Treatment ◽  
Attitudes Toward Sex

The general public has been shown to hold negative attitudes toward sexual offenders, sex offender treatment, and the rehabilitation of sexual offenders. It appears pertinent to the success of sex offender management strategies that utilise volunteers that selected volunteers do not share these attitudes. Here, volunteers for Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA), a community-based initiative supporting the reintegration of sex offenders, completed three validated psychometric measures assessing attitudes toward sex offenders in general and toward their treatment and rehabilitation. Responses were compared with a U.K. general public sample. The results showed that volunteers held more positive attitudes toward sex offenders, sex offender treatment, and sex offender rehabilitation than the U.K. general public sample. The significance of these findings is discussed alongside directions for future research.

Paternalism and the Good Lives Model of Sex Offender Rehabilitation

Sexual Abuse ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Glaser
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Offender Rehabilitation ◽  
Rehabilitation Process ◽  
Good Lives Model ◽  
Management Techniques ◽  
Good Lives

The lives of sex offenders are often confused and disorganized. Modern sex offender rehabilitation approaches such as the good lives model emphasize holistic aims such as helping offenders to live more satisfying and fulfilling lives, rather than merely teaching them to avoid risk. The appeal of the model lies in its justification by paternalism: Whatever harms are inflicted on offenders during the rehabilitation process are ultimately for their own good. But paternalism has its limitations, which include potential infringements on offenders’ autonomy and human rights, the risk of therapists imposing their own values and attitudes, and false claims that harmful interventions are justified by their benefit for offenders. Furthermore, some recent empirical studies suggest that offenders themselves do not necessarily prefer personal well-being goals over risk management techniques and that some offenders find it distressingly easy to incorporate “good lives” principles into an ongoing antisocial lifestyle. These limitations need to be taken into account when applying a good lives approach.

scholarly journals Keeping violent offender rehabilitation on track: How the diffusion and redirecting of attentional focus/mood work in the GRIP program

2020 ◽  
pp. 147332502092191
Author(s):  
Bowen Paulle ◽  
Alex van der Zeeuw
Keyword(s):  
Building Blocks ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Rehabilitation Program ◽  
Violent Offender ◽  
Offender Rehabilitation ◽  
Somatic Awareness ◽  
Rehabilitation Programs ◽  
Violent Offenses ◽  
Social Work Interventions ◽  
Operational Excellence

There is an urgent need to understand how programming inside prisons can facilitate rehabilitation and reentry processes, especially among men convicted of violent offenses. GRIP (Guiding Rage into Power) is a year-long “Offender Accountability” program presently spreading through the California prison system. GRIP is a group-therapy and trauma-healing program that follows a somatic-awareness-centered model. We use audiovisual data to investigate the sequenced, second-to-second inner workings of what actually constitutes operational excellence in this evidence-based in-prison rehabilitation program. Making use of interaction ritual theory and conversation analysis, we demonstrate how two processes—the diffusion and the redirecting of attentional focus/mood—transpire in GRIP classrooms. The conclusion argues that these two processes may be the “hidden” building blocks, or what is lacking, in countless rehabilitation programs and other social work interventions—both inside and outside of correctional facilities.

The Assessment of a Drama Therapy Process for Patients with Severe Psychiatric Patients

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S615-S615
Author(s):  
F. Sancar ◽  
S. Şahin ◽  
G. Şahin ◽  
N. Eren
Keyword(s):  
Group Therapy ◽  
Psychiatric Treatment ◽  
Therapy Group ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Life Quality ◽  
Rehabilitation Program ◽  
Drama Therapy ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Positive Effects

IntroductionDrama therapy is a useful therapy method for improving the life quality of psychiatric patients. Drama therapy is a rehearsal of everyday life. In this therapy method, clients actively join the creative process in order to better understand their life experiences.ObjectivesDrama therapy may improve patients’ ego functions, psycho-social and self-expression abilities, problem-solving skills, real-life adaptations and contribute to patient's psychiatric treatment.AimThe main aims were to examine the curative effects of drama group therapy and the effects of drama therapy on functionality in psychiatric patients.MethodThe study was performed at the Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine. Patients were referred from the Psychiatry Polyclinic of this university to Art Therapy and Rehabilitation Program. Drama therapy is an applied drama-based art group therapy. The 10 subjects in our study, ranged from 20 to 50 years old. This therapy group gathered once a week for a ninety minute session. Subjects continued their medical care and received psychotherapy throughout the 24-week study. The therapy plan included an introduction, a warm-up session, a drama therapy work and a sharing session. Patients were assessed in pre and post-treatment with Global Assessment of Functioning and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test was used for statistical analysis. Yalom's Group Curative Factors Scale was applied.ResultThere was a significant decrease in loss of functioning (P < .05). In Group Curative Factors, the means of hope, identification, group cohesion and altruism were determined high.ConclusionOur study demonstrates that drama therapy has positive effects on patients with severe psychiatric patients.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Review of the Empirical and Clinical Support for Group Therapy Specific to Sexual Abusers

Sexual Abuse ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 731-764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry L. Jennings ◽  
Adam Deming
Keyword(s):  
Group Therapy ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Specific Treatment ◽  
Individual Therapy ◽  
Offender Treatment ◽  
Empirically Supported ◽  
Abuse Treatment

This review compiles 48 empirical studies and 55 clinical/practice articles specific to group therapy with sex offenders. Historically, group therapy has always been the predominant modality in sex offender–specific treatment. In the first decades of the field, treatment applied a psychoanalytic methodology that, although not empirically supported, fully appreciated the primary therapeutic importance of the group modality. Conversely, since the early 1980s, treatment has applied a cognitive behavioral method, but the field has largely neglected the therapeutic value of interpersonal group dynamics. The past decade has seen a growing re-appreciation of general therapeutic processes and more holistic approaches in sex offender treatment, and there is an emerging body of empirical research which, although often indirectly concerned with group, has yielded three definitive conclusions. First, the therapeutic qualities of the group therapist—specifically warmth, empathy, encouragement, and guidance—can strongly affect outcomes. Second, the quality of group cohesion can profoundly affect the effectiveness of treatment. Third, confrontational approaches in group therapy are ineffective, if not counter-therapeutic, and overwhelmingly rated as not helpful by sex offenders themselves. Additional conclusions are less strongly supported, but include compelling evidence that sex offenders generally prefer group therapy over individual therapy, that group therapy appears equally effective to individual therapy, and that mixing or separating groups by offense type is not important to therapeutic climate. Other group techniques and approaches specific to sexual abuse treatment are also summarized.

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