Support for the predictive validity of the multifactor offender readiness model (MORM): forensic patients' readiness and engagement with therapeutic groups.

BACKGROUND: Treatment non-engagement in forensic health settings has ethical and economic implications. The multifactor offender readiness model (MORM) provides a framework for assessing treatment readiness across person, programme and contexts. AIMS: To answer the following question: Are the internal factors of the MORM associated with likelihood of engagement in groups by patients in forensic mental health services? METHOD: In a retrospective design, associations were investigated between internal factors of the MORM, measured as part of assessment for group participation, and the outcomes of treatment refusal, treatment dropout and treatment completion. RESULTS: One hundred and eighteen male patients in a high security hospital consecutively referred for group treatment agreed to participate. Internal factors of the MORM associated with treatment refusals included: psychopathic cognition, negative self-evaluation/affect and effective goal-seeking strategies. Those associated with dropouts included emotional dysregulation, low competencies to engage and low levels of general distress. MORM factors associated with completion included: low motivation, ineffective goal-seeking strategies, absence of psychopathic cognition, high levels of general distress and competency to engage. CONCLUSIONS: Internal factors of the MORM could be useful contributors to decisions about treatment readiness for hospitalised male offender-patients. Up to one in three programmes offered were refused, so clinical use of the MORM to aid referral decisions could optimise the most constructive use of resources for every individual. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Predicting involvement in prison gang activity: street gang membership, social and psychological factors.

The aim of this study was to examine whether street gang membership, psychological factors, and social factors such as preprison experiences could predict young offenders' involvement in prison gang activity. Data were collected via individual interviews with 188 young offenders held in a Young Offenders Institution in the United Kingdom. Results showed that psychological factors such as the value individuals attached to social status, a social dominance orientation, and antiauthority attitudes were important in predicting young offenders' involvement in prison gang activity. Further important predictors included preimprisonment events such as levels of threat, levels of individual delinquency, and levels of involvement in group crime. Longer current sentences also predicted involvement in prison gang activity. However, street gang membership was not an important predictor of involvement in prison gang activity. These findings have implications for identifying prisoners involved in prison gang activity and for considering the role of psychological factors and group processes in gang research.

Community males show multiple-perpetrator rape proclivity: development and preliminary validation of an interest scale.

The literature on Multiple Perpetrator Rape (MPR) is scant; however, a significant proportion of sexual offending involves multiple perpetrators. In addition to the need for research with apprehended offenders of MPR, there is also a need to conduct research with members of the general public. Recent advances in the forensic literature have led to the development of self-report proclivity scales. These scales have enabled researchers to conduct evaluative studies sampling from members of the general public who may be perpetrators of sexual offenses and have remained undetected, or at highest risk of engaging in sexual offending. The current study describes the development and preliminary validation of the Multiple-Perpetrator Rape Interest Scale (M-PRIS), a vignette-based measure assessing community males' sexual arousal to MPR, behavioral propensity toward MPR and enjoyment of MPR. The findings show that the M-PRIS is a reliable measure of community males' sexual interest in MPR with high internal reliability and temporal stability. In a sample of university males we found that a large proportion (66%) did not emphatically reject an interest in MPR. We also found that rape-supportive cognitive distortions, antisocial attitudes, and high-risk sexual fantasies were predictors of sexual interest in MPR. We discuss these findings and the implications for further research employing proclivity measures referencing theory development and clinical practice.

An evaluation of mandatory polygraph testing for sexual offenders in the United kingdom.

This research examined whether a government-initiated pilot project of mandatory polygraph testing would increase the disclosures made by community-supervised sexual offenders in the United Kingdom. The Offender Managers of 332 pilot polygraph sexual offenders and 303 sexual offenders who were receiving usual community supervision were telephoned quarterly, over a 21-month period, to collect information about numbers of clinically relevant disclosures, the seriousness of disclosures made, and actions taken as a result of disclosures. Perceptions of polygraph usefulness were also collected. Offender Managers in the pilot polygraph group-compared to comparison Offender Managers-reported (a) a higher proportion of offenders making at least one disclosure (i.e., 76.5% vs. 51.2% respectively), and (b) that their offenders made more total disclosures overall (Ms = 2.60 vs. 1.25 respectively). The majority of disclosures made by sexual offenders in the polygraph group were associated with the polygraph session itself. Polygraph Offender Managers reported being more likely to take an action that involved increasing supervision, informing a third party, informing Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), changing supervision focus, or issuing a warning to the offender. However, the relative seriousness of disclosures did not appear to differ across groups. In terms of polygraph test results, one third of offenders (most notably those who were higher in risk) failed their first test with "Deception Indicated." This outcome-received on a first test-was most likely to elicit clinically relevant disclosures. Offender Managers described the polygraph as aiding supervision strategies. This research and its associated caveats are discussed.

Rumination and the displacement of aggression in United Kingdom gang-affiliated youth.

The concept of gang aggression oftentimes elicits images of brutal intergang violence. In reality, gang-related aggression can vary widely, can have various motivations and causal factors, and includes interpersonal as well as intergroup aggression. This study examined the tendency of UK youth to engage in displaced aggression (aggression aimed at undeserving targets) and examined the relationship among gang affiliation, ruminative thought, and aggression levels. Students in three London schools were asked to complete a questionnaire that assessed levels of gang affiliation, rumination about aversive events, and a tendency to engage in displaced aggression. Our analyses found a three-way interaction between gang affiliation, rumination, and gender, such that males who were high in affiliation and rumination had the greatest tendency to displace aggression toward innocent others. Additionally, it was shown that rumination could account for a significant part of the correlation between gang affiliation and displaced aggression. Furthermore, regression analyses showed that even after controlling for trait aggression, anger, hostility, and irritability, rumination remained a significant predictor of displaced aggression. The implications for understanding gang-related aggression and for conducting future research in this area were discussed.

Gang Members, Gang Affiliates, and Violent Men: Perpetration of Social Harms, Violence-Related Beliefs, Victim Types, and Locations.

Adult gang involvement attracts little empirical attention, so little is known about how they compare to nongang violent men in social harms beyond gang contexts. This study, based on unpublished data of 1,539 adult males, aged 19 to 34, from the Coid et al. national survey, compared gang members' (embedded in a gang; n = 108), affiliates' (less embedded in a gang; n = 119), and violent men's (no gang association; n = 1,312) perpetration of social harms by assessing their violence-related dispositions and beliefs, victim types, and locations of violence. Results showed that compared with violent men, gang members and affiliates were equally more likely to: cause social harms to a wider range of victims, including family and friends; seek violence; be excited by violence; and carry weapons. Gang members and affiliates were equally more likely than violent men to be violent at home, in friends' homes, and at work; they also thought about hurting people, but felt regret for some of their violence. A decreasing gradient was identified in gang members' (highest), affiliates' (next highest) and violent men's (lowest) beliefs in violent retaliation when disrespected, the use of violence instrumentally and when angry, and worry about being violently victimized. Implications of findings are that interventions need to address anger issues across all levels of adult gang membership. Importantly, adult gang members' regrets regarding violence and anxiety about being violently victimized could be key factors that interventions could use to help them relinquish their gang involvement.

Comparison of Emotional Dispositions Between Street Gang and Non-Gang Prisoners.

Effectively recognizing, identifying, and utilizing emotional stimuli is essential for successful social interactions, with deficits in these robustly identified as risk factors for offending. Psychological understanding of street gang membership is limited, particularly surrounding emotional dispositions distinguishing street gang from non-gang offenders. This study examined how street gang members compare with non-gang offenders on trait emotional intelligence (TEI), antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), callous-unemotional traits, anger rumination, and aggression. Recruited through volunteer sampling, participants included 73 (44 street gang and 29 non-gang) male offenders incarcerated at a U.K. Category C prison. Participants completed seven questionnaires assessing emotional dispositions, social desirability, and, consistent with the Eurogang definition, street gang membership. To compare participants' demographics and identify the predictors of street gang membership, chi-square and discriminant function analyses were conducted. With a significant discriminant function, Λ = .80, χ2(6) = 14.96, p = .021, high levels of ASPD, anger rumination, and aggression and low levels of TEI predict street gang membership. Compared with non-gang prisoners, street gang prisoners did not differ on callous-unemotional traits, age, or ethnicity. Results suggest that, compared with non-gang prisoners, street gang members were more likely to possess dysfunctional emotional dispositions. Findings from this research have important implications in terms of developing interventions for street gang membership. Specifically, this research supports the need for gang-specific early intervention and prevention programs, with emotion-focused components. Ideas for future research are discussed, including the identification of further sociocognitive, personality, and emotional traits distinguishing street gang from non-gang offenders.

Gang involvement: psychological and behavioral characteristics of gang members, peripheral youth, and nongang youth.

Research has noted the existence of a loose and dynamic gang structure. However, the psychological processes that underpin gang membership have only begun to be addressed. This study examined gang members, peripheral youth, and nongang youth across measures of criminal activity, the importance they attach to status, their levels of moral disengagement, their perceptions of out-group threat, and their attitudes toward authority. Of the 798 high school students who participated in this study, 59 were identified as gang members, 75 as peripheral youth, and 664 as nongang youth. Gang members and peripheral youth were more delinquent than nongang youth overall; however, gang members committed more minor offenses than nongang youth and peripheral youth committed more violent offenses than nongang youth. Gang members were more anti-authority than nongang youth, and both gang and peripheral youth valued social status more than nongang youth. Gang members were also more likely to blame their victims for their actions and use euphemisms to sanitize their behavior than nongang youth, whereas peripheral youth were more likely than nongang youth to displace responsibility onto their superiors. These findings are discussed as they highlight the importance of examining individual differences in the cognitive processes that relate to gang involvement.

Differentiating Gang Members, Gang Affiliates, and Violent Men on Their Psychiatric Morbidity and Traumatic Experiences.

OBJECTIVE: Little is known about the differences between gang members and gang affiliates-or those individuals who associate with gangs but are not gang members. Even less is known about how these groups compare with other violent populations. This study examined how gang members, gang affiliates, and violent men compare on mental health symptoms and traumatic experiences. METHOD: Data included a sample of 1,539 adult males, aged 19 to 34 years, taken from an earlier survey conducted in the United Kingdom. Participants provided informed consent before completing questionnaires and were paid £5 for participation. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to compare participants' symptoms of psychiatric morbidity and traumatic event exposure. RESULTS: Findings showed that, compared to violent men and gang affiliates, gang members had experienced more severe violence, sexual assaults, and suffered more serious/life-threatening injuries. Compared to violent men, gang members and gang affiliates had made more suicide attempts; had self-harmed more frequently; and had experienced more domestic violence, violence at work, homelessness, stalking, and bankruptcy. Findings further showed a decreasing gradient from gang members to gang affiliates to violent men in symptom levels of anxiety, antisocial personality disorder, pathological gambling, stalking others, and drug and/or alcohol dependence. Depression symptoms were similar across groups. CONCLUSIONS: The identified relationship between gang membership, affiliation, and adverse mental health indicates that mental health in gang membership deserves more research attention. Findings also indicate that criminal justice strategies need to consider gang members' mental health more fully, if gang membership is to be appropriately addressed and reduced.

«I know how they must feel»: empathy and judging defendants / «Sé cómo se deben sentir»: empatía y juicio de los acusados

The current study investigated the effects of state and trait empathy in legal judgments and tested the relationship between trait and state emotion in one hundred and fifty eight students aged 18-59. Assessments were taken of participants’ trait empathy and then state empathy was induced in half the sample. Following this all participants read a trial transcript and made judgments regarding: the verdict decision; the defendant’s responsibility for the offense; what would be an appropriate punishment; the likelihood that the offender would offend in the future; and whether the defendant felt remorse for committing the offense. Findings showed that both trait and state empathy predicted attributions of offender remorse. State empathy also predicted judgments of offender responsibility and agreement with verdict decisions in a lenient direction. Findings also showed that state and trait empathy did not interact. The results indicate that trait and state empathy work independently to influence legal judgments and that inducing empathy in decision-makers can impact on trial outcomes above and beyond the facts of the case (AU)

Se analizaron los efectos de la empatía estado y rasgo en los juicios legales, y se examinó la relación entre la emoción estado y rasgo. Participaron en el estudio ciento cincuenta y ocho estudiantes de entre 18 y 59 años. Se evaluó la empatía-rasgo de los participantes, y posteriormente se indujo la empatía como estado a la mitad de la muestra. Todos los participantes leyeron la transcripción de un juicio sobre el que se les pidió que dictaminaran: el veredicto; la responsabilidad del acusado en el delito; cuál sería un castigo apropiado; la probabilidad de que el acusado reincidiera en el futuro; y si el acusado había sentido remordimientos por el delito cometido. Los resultados mostraron que, tanto la empatía estado como la empatía rasgo, predecían atribuciones de remordimiento en el acusado. La empatía como estado también predecía juicios más indulgentes sobre la responsabilidad del acusado y el acuerdo con el veredicto. Además, los resultados también pusieron de manifiesto que la empatía estado y la empatía rasgo no interactuaban. Los resultados indicaron que la empatía estado y rasgo actúan de manera independiente influenciando los juicios legales, y que la inducción de empatía en las personas que toman decisiones puede influir en los resultados del juicio más allá de los hechos (AU)

Agency, relatedness, inner peace, and problem solving in sexual offending: how sexual offenders prioritize and operationalize their good lives conceptions.

Untreated imprisoned sexual offenders (N = 42) completed interviews and questionnaires to establish the priority they assigned, at the time of their offending, to three "goods" from the good lives model and to gain insight into how they operationalized these goods at that time. The relationship between the priorities offenders assigned to the goods of (a) agency, (b) relatedness, and (c) inner peace at the time of offending and their problem-solving ability was also explored. A measure of problem-solving ability was obtained with the Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised, and a measure of functional and dysfunctional problem solving was obtained from its scales. The results suggest that sexual offenders tend to experience problems in prioritizing, rather than operationalizing, inner peace, as this good is not related to problem-solving ability but tends to be assigned lower priority than agency and relatedness. Although agency and relatedness tend to be given higher importance, and this is related to better problem-solving ability, there appear to be problems with scope in some offenders' good lives conceptions and problems with the capacity, means, and conflict among the means used to achieve these goods. Directions for future research are suggested.