COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL INTERVENTION

Assess the Potential for Cognitive Behavioural Intervention to address the Violent Behaviour of Offenders

Assess the Potential for Cognitive Behavioural Intervention to address the Violent Behaviour of Offenders

Introduction

Each day, more than 7.3 million offenders are under some form of correctional supervision in the United Kingdom (1 out of every 31 adults), with approximately one third incarcerated and the remainder on probation or parole. Within the last 30 years, the number of incarcerated offenders has grown exponentially, to its highest level at 2.3 million (Ward, 2008, 55).

At present, the United Kingdom has an incarceration rate five times higher than any other Western country.

Moreover, each year in the United Kingdom, 700,000 incarcerated offenders are released back into the community; however, many will not successfully make this transition. This “revolving door” has resulted in creating a process where two thirds of offenders will most likely be arrested within 3 years, and one half will be returned to prison for either parole violations or new charges (Walker, 1989, 69).

Because most offenders will return to society, one of the objectives of sentencing is offender treatment. While incarcerated, or in a community release programme, treatment is often an integral goal of corrections. Violent offenders are those convicted of such offenses as robbery, sexual assault, and murder. Many of these offenders are recidivists, with a history of violence. Several of them have drug abuse issues as well. Thus, treating these offenders requires a comprehensive approach incorporating a variety of strategies (Skolnick, 2005, 96). Cognitive behaviour approaches along with medical interventions are often used in treating violent offenders.

In addition to low personality development and unfavourable influences in his early childhood and adolescence, psychological testing revealed that Tyrone was of dull-normal intelligence. The relationship between IQ and crime has been debated since 1913, when Charles Goring's findings were published in The English Convict (Moster, 2008, 109).

Although there is consensus across many studies that most offenders are not mentally retarded, there is disagreement regarding the intelligence of the majority of criminals. Some studies have found that the average IQ scores of offenders were in the below-average range, whereas others have found that they were in the average to above-average range (Meyer, 1992, 24). The literature on both juvenile and adult offenders indicates, however, that, regardless of intelligence potential, many have struggled in educational settings and experience difficulties reading and performing academically.

Discussion

Significant disagreement exists with respect to the prevalence of neurological impairment in criminals, which may be partly due to differences in assessment and reporting practices used by various clinicians. Neurological assessment is most likely to be done in cases of violent offenders (Marques, 2005, 79).

It is reported that more than 600,000 offenders are released from county prisons annually. According to the British Bureau of Justice Statistics (BBJS), in 2006, approximately 60% of county prison inmates were there for violent crimes.

Violent offenders are distinguished from other offenders by the psychological and physical injuries they cause, their motivation for violence (hatred, ...