The past two decades, a disproportionate growth of females entering the criminal justice system and forensic mental health services has been observed worldwide. However, there is a lack of knowledge on the background of women who are convicted for violent offenses. What is their criminal history, what are their motives
Juvenile Justice Risk Factors and Functional Family Therapy Fidelity on Felony Recidivism [2018]
Families (n = 5,884) received Functional Family Therapy (FFT) provided as part of court-ordered probation services by 11 community sites throughout Florida. Sites provided home-based FFT to families with male (72%) or female (28%) delinquent youth. Juvenile justice courts referred clients to these services in an effort to redirect them
Stigma Contributes to the Risk of Violence by Persons with Mental Illness [2018]
It is widely documented that persons with mental illness (MI) experience much stigma, contributing to undesirable outcomes for persons with MI and posing barriers to their psychosocial rehabilitation. It is our argument that stigma and violence have a reciprocal relationship. In particular, stigma increases the risk of violence by this
Predicting Offenders’ Institutional Misconduct and Recidivism: The Utility of Behavioral Ratings by Prison Officers [2018]
Measures of current behavior are rarely incorporated into risk assessment. Therefore, the current study used a behavior rating scale to assess prison officers’ observations of inmates prison behavior and examined the contribution of these ratings for risk assessment. Prison officers rated 272 sexual and violent offenders in three different correctional
Interventions That Target Criminogenic Needs for Justice-Involved Persons With Serious Mental Illnesses: A Targeted Service Delivery Approach [2017]
This research describes the development of a targeted service delivery approach that tailors the delivery of interventions that target criminogenic needs to the specific learning and treatment needs of justice-involved people with serious mental illnesses (SMIs). This targeted service delivery approach includes five service delivery strategies: repetition and summarizing, amplification,
Do Demographic Factors Moderate How Well Criminal Thinking Predicts Recidivism? [2017]
Is the relationship between criminal thinking and recidivism the same for criminal justice–involved individuals from varying demographic backgrounds? Relying on two independent samples of offenders and two measures of criminal thinking, the current studies examined whether four demographic factors—gender, race, age, and education—moderated the relationship between criminal thinking and recidivism.
Misdemeanor Arrestees With Mental Health Needs: Diversion and Outpatient Services as a Recidivism Reduction Strategy [2016]
Individuals with mental illnesses who are arrested for criminal activity cycle between criminal justice and mental health systems at disproportionately high rates. Studying recidivism of this population has been difficult due to separate system data bases. This study compared recidivism outcomes of 102 adults with mental illness who were arrested
The Impact of Vocational Education and Training Programs on Recidivism: A Systematic Review of Current Experimental Evidence [2016]
Although the association between unemployment and offending is well established, relatively little is known about the impact of vocational education and training programs on re-offending, with much of the previous work in this area failing to control for, or correct, selection bias. This article reports the findings of a systematic
When Does Religion Matter With Regard to Crime? Examining the Relationship Between Genetics, Religiosity, and Criminal Behavior [2018]
Religiosity has been shown to be a predictor of initial criminal offending, reoffending, and desistance. To date, however, research has generally failed to assess the role that biological factors play in moderating the religiosity–crime relationship. The present study utilizes a nationally representative sample of male adolescents (N = 4,053), to
Making Sense of Heterogeneity in the Influence of Childhood Abuse, Mental Health, and Drug Use on Women’s Offending Pathways [2018]
Building from the developmental and life course literature and the feminist pathways literature, we aim to detail when and how exposure to abuse in childhood shapes female offending trajectories. Using data from 470 female offenders in Australia, our analyses assess whether internalizing symptoms and drug use help explain the link
Personality Traits Differentiate Subgroups of Criminal Offenders With Distinct Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Profiles [2018]
Mental illness and substance use disorder are prominent among jail and prison inmates. Developing more effective mental and behavioral health treatment approaches for incarcerated criminal offenders is a critical step toward reducing rates of recidivism and relapse following release. Specifying subgroups of offenders who differ in cognitive, affective, behavioral, and
Discrimination and Calibration Properties of the Level of Service Inventory–Ontario Revision in a Correctional Mental Health Sample
We examined the predictive properties of the Level of Service Inventory–Ontario Revision (LSI-OR) in a sample of 604 provincially incarcerated men with mental illness from a correctional mental health facility followed up nearly 2 years after release. Recidivism base rates and LSI-OR scores were relatively consistent across major mental disorder
Outcome Effects on Recidivism Among Drug Court Participants [2018]
Drug courts were established to reduce recidivism rates for substance-involved offenders who traditionally would have been sentenced to conventional probation supervision. Past research has reported success in this area, but much of the success is limited to those who graduate the program. Scholars have yet to examine the impact case
The Influence of Family Structure on Delinquent Behavior [2017]
Previous research has linked changes in family structure (especially parental divorce) with involvement in juvenile delinquency. Comparatively less research has attempted to examine the long-term impact of shifts in family structure on delinquent and criminal involvement. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by examining the influence of
Halfway Out: An Examination of the Effects of Halfway Houses on Criminal Recidivism [2018]
Halfway houses are a form of community supervision and correctional programming that have become a staple intervention in recent years. Despite the ingrained belief in their benefits with respect to successful reintegration, this assumption may not be justified based on the existing literature. The current study provides a systematic review
Does electronic monitoring as a means of release preparation reduce subsequent recidivism? A randomized controlled trial in Germany [2018]
This study analyses the recidivism-reducing effect of electronic monitoring (EM) in the context of early work release and home detention as a means of release preparation. We tested the hypothesis that EM reduces recidivism after the termination of EM. The results are based on a randomized controlled trial in Baden-Württemberg,
Mentally Disordered Firesetters: An Examination of Risk Factors [2018]
Objective: In this study, we examined the risk-related characteristics of mentally disordered patients who had either been (1) involved in a firesetting incident or (2) involved in a nonfiresetting comparison incident while under the care of the National Health Service (NHS). Method: A total of 132 participants were recruited from
Offending behaviour, health and wellbeing of military veterans in the criminal justice system [2018]
Background A small but significant proportion of military veterans become involved in the criminal justice system (CJS) after leaving service. Liaison and Diversion (L&D) services aim to identify vulnerable offenders in order to provide them with the health/welfare support they need, and (where possible) divert them away from custody. An
Reducing Violence Risk? Some Positive Recidivism Outcomes for Canadian Treated High-Risk Offenders [2018]
In pursuit of “what works” in violent offending behavior programs, there remain insufficient evaluations of program outcomes. Three hundred forty-five offenders from the Canadian Violence Prevention Program (VPP) were compared after an average 3-year follow-up with 338 non-VPP participants. Outcomes measured were new convictions for violent, sexual, or general offenses.
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Justice-Involved Youth: The Effect of Trauma and Programming on Different Recidivistic Outcomes [2018]
Studies have demonstrated that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are prevalent in justice-involved youth and related to recidivism. However, the effect of programming on reducing reoffending for youth with a trauma history is not well researched. This study aims to examine the prevalence of ACEs across different subsets of justice-involved youth,