CORRECTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 1

PSY469 Forensic and Police Psychology 2011Sylvie Koubalíková

INTRODUCTION: LECTURERS

Sylvie Koubalíková• Prison service of the Czech

Republic (PSCR)• Prison psychologist: Remand

Prison České Budějovice• Contact information:

sylviekoub@mail.muni.cz

Michaela Borovanská• Police of the Czech Republic

(PCR)• Police psychologist: Police

presidium in Prague• Contact information:

michaela.borovanska@gmail.com

CORRECTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AS A PART OF FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY I• Applied psychological discipline - within a correctional setting • Part of forensic psychology

• together with Police Ψ, Law/„Legal“ Ψ, Investigative/Criminal Ψ…• Production and application of psychological knowledge within

criminal justice system• system of governmental institutions and practices directed at asserting

control, reducing crime and punishing those who violate law

CORRECTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AS A PART OF FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY II

• Prosecution development

• criminal activity investigation accusation (custody

remand prison) proceeding in front of the court judgement

punishment (confinement prison) resocialization • Main activities within a correctional system

• Treating offenders in correctional facilities• Design and implementation of interventional and preventative

programs• Research and theory building• Prison staff selection / training / support / care

Easy!

BRIEF HISTORY OF CORRECTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

• One of the newest branches of applied psychology• Development especially within USA • 1910´s -1920´s: the detection of “feeble-mindedness” among

offenders • 1920´s – 1930´s: classification of inmates into various groups • 1924 - Wisconsin - comprehensive psychological examinations of all

admissions to its prison system and applications of parole • 1940´s – federal and state prisons employed a total of 80-100 prison

psychologist (testing, diagnostic services, educational, vocational and personal guidance, working relationships with other prison staff)

• 1960´- 1970´s - expansion – attention shift from mere diagnostic to rehabilitation

• 1980´s – establishment of modern correctional psychology• Recent situation: explosive growth of the area, increasing prison

population, renewed interest in providing correctional rehabilitation programs

BRIEF HISTORY OF CZECH CORRECTIONAL SYSTEM AND PSYCHOLOGY I

• 1847 - 1862 - the work of prison chaplain, educator and prison reformer František Josef Řezáč

• 1918 to 1938 - relatively progressive system - gradational liberalization of punishment in dependence on inmate's behaviour, separated reformatory prisons for juvenile offenders and women

• Development of forensic psychology during the last 50 years• Dependence of scientific progress on political changes • 1958 - foundation of the Institute of Criminalistics for the purposes of

criminalistic and technical activities and judiciary expertise • 1964 - renewal of the field with liberalization of political restraints - founding

of the scientific journal „Kriminalistika“• 1967 - 1980 - Research Institute of Penology (the direction of Dr. Jiří

Čepelák, CSc. ) - important success of penitentiary sciences: research, academic activities, psychologists had entered the area of the education of police officers, lawyers, criminologists, release of important publications

BRIEF HISTORY OF CZECH CORRECTIONAL SYSTEM AND PSYCHOLOGY II

• 1980´s - forensic psychology had started to develop in other areas besides interrogation and interviewing, from writing papers and books psychologists moved into practice

• After 1989 - reformative changes - depolitisation of prisons, demilitarisation in the sense of dealing with prisoners, and decentralisation - strengthening the position of prison directors

• The reorganization of the prison service was based upon experiences from the west-European penitentiaries as well as from positive results in penitentiary from Czech history and older traditions

• Since 1990 – significant changes, modern forensic and correctional psychology, Czech journals (Kriminalistika, Československá psychologie, Česká a slovenská psychiatrie, etc.); important institutes creation: Institute for Criminology and Social Prevention, the Department of Crime Prevention, the Department of Psychology and Sociology of the Czech police

PRISON PSYCHOLOGIST: JOB DESCRIPTION I

• Primary mission of correctional psychologist• to assist in offender's rehabilitation and reintegration

• Secondary mission• enhances safety of staff and inmates by promoting a healthy institutional

environment• fulfils plurality of another tasks (personnel selection, training of prison

staff, advisory function etc.)

PRISON PSYCHOLOGIST: JOB DESCRIPTION II

• In relation to prisoners• Preliminary inmates screening: assessment to evaluate supposed risks and probable

problems of each prisoner within correctional facility (personal history findings, mental health screening, contemporary troubles)

• Preventative controls: most „problematic“ clients • Emergency duty: suicidal ideation, aggressive acts in between inmates, cell

destructions, riots, victimization, major depression, mania, panic attacks, grief in the case of break ups or death of a loved one, many types of unusual or nonconforming behaviour

• Counselling psychology, individual and group therapy• Specialized departments (adjustment disorder, variety of mental disorders, life

difficulties, anti-drug prevention) • Diagnostics: various test administration (intelligence, aptitude, personality) and

interviews to determine background, attitudes and personality traits• Planning, revising programs of offender’s treatment and rehabilitation • Informative, advisory, consultant function in different commissions, selection of

inmates, recommendations (free movement, job assignment, parole)• Close cooperation with other specialists – in the field of medicine, psychiatry,

pedagogy, prison security, with the courts etc.

PRISON PSYCHOLOGIST: JOB DESCRIPTION III

• In relation to the staff• Personnel selection assessment

(psycho-diagnostic assessment – tests, questionnaires, interviews)

• Education and training of prison staff - psychological knowledge and ability

• Prison staff general support and care

• Research, problems of penal psychology investigation, reports

• Guidance of trainee-ship, university students practice and research

• Communication with individuals outside the institution

PERSONNEL SELECTION ASSESSMENT IN PSCR I

• Personnel selection = procedures including psycho-diagnostic assessment: performance-, personality- and projective tests, questionnaires, interview

• Selection of members of the PSCR proceeds in a very similar way like by PCR and all security services

• Unified requirements for potential members of security services• age over 18 years, legal capacity• no criminal record• relevant education – depends on particular position• good health condition, physical and personal ability • restriction of political or other profit-making activity

PERSONNEL SELECTION ASSESSMENT IN PSCR II

• Set of personality characteristics, cognitive abilities and desirable traits • parallel to other security services given by similar demands: influence of

surrounding, stressful and harsh atmosphere of correctional institution with continuous exposure or direct threat of assault, work shifts lasting 12 hours, emergency duty with plenty of extraordinary events and crisis intervention

• Psychical ability:• satisfactory intellectual ability • emotional stability • psychosocially matured • withstand capability (high frustration tolerance)• requires motivation, attitudes, values• adequate cognitive skills and auto-regulation • no aggressiveness or psychopathological traits

GENERAL STRESS FACTORS OF THE PRISON ENVIRONMENT

• Long work shifts in continuous service of a prison• Work with inadaptable individuals• Occurrence of aggressive and self-mutilating acts

between inmates, conflict situations, own life and health exposure

• Long-term confrontation with human suffering

• Increased responsibility • Absence of positive feed-back, lack of visible results of own work• Requirements of a teamwork • Excessive paperwork• Noise, stereotype, unsatisfactory technical equipment• Low social status

OFFENDER AS A CRIME PARTICIPANT: NEUTRALIZATION THEORY I

• Offender versus victim (witness, police, judge…) perspective • Refers to possibility of resocialization

• focus on the degree to which offenders accepts responsibility (or blame) for his acts and perceives own criminal activity

• “Explanatory style” • as a person’s tendency to offer similar sorts of explanations for different

events • correlates with specific behavioural patterns

OFFENDER AS A CRIME PARTICIPANT: NEUTRALIZATION THEORY II

• Neutralization theory• interested in explanations or “vocabularies of motive” used by

offenders when accounting for their behaviours • useful in understanding the psychological aspects of desistance from

crime• Sykes and Matza (1957): ‘‘neutralization techniques“ = excuses and

justifications that deviants use to rationalize their behaviours should be seen as playing a role in the etiology of deviant behaviour

OFFENDER AS A CRIME PARTICIPANT: NEUTRALIZATION THEORY III

• 5 basic techniques of neutralization

(Sykes, Matza, 1957): • denial of responsibility

(„“It’s not my fault. I was drunk at the time.”)

• denial of injury („No one is really harmed.’’)

• denial of the victim („They deserve it.“)• condemnation of condemners (Everybody’s corrupted.”)• appeal to higher loyalties (“I didn’t do it for myself.”)

OFFENDER AS A CRIME PARTICIPANT: NEUTRALIZATION THEORY IV

• Additional types of neutralization techniques• defence of necessity (‘‘I had no other choice.’’)• claim of normality of the behaviour („Everyone is doing it.“)• claim of entitlement („It was my right.“)• metaphor of the ledger („I’ve done more good than bad in my life.”)• justification by comparison (‘‘ If I wasn’t shoplifting I would be doing

something more serious.’’)• postponement (‘‘I just don’t think about it.’’)• denial of negative intent (“It was just a joke.”)• claim of relative acceptability of the behaviour (“There are others

worse than me.”)

• Which technique would you personally use?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

Any questions?

HOMEWORK FOR NEXT LECTURE (4.11.2011)

Purpose and psychological function of punishment

What purposes does penal sanction serve?

What is psychological function of punishment?

What are negative influences of imprisonment?

REFERENCES, RECOMMENDED READING

• Blackburn, R. (1993). The Psychology of Criminal Conduct: Theory, Research and practice. Chicester: Wiley.

• Crighton, D., Towl, G. (2008). Psychology in prisons. Oxford: BPS Blackwell. • Hawkins, J.D. (Ed.), (1996). Delinquency and Crime: Current theories. New York:

Cambridge University Press. • Maruna, S. (2004). Desistance from Crime and Explanatory Style. A New Direction

in the Psychology of Reform. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 20, 2, 184-200.

• Maruna, S., Copes, H. (2005). What Have We Learned in Five Decades of Neutralization Research? Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, 32, 221-320.

• Polišenská, V.A. (2007). Forensic Psychology in the Czech Republic. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 4, 55-67.

• Weiner, I. B., Hess, A. K. (Eds.) , (2006) . The handbook of forensic psychology.   Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

• Schwartz, B. K. (Ed.), (2003). Correctional psychology: practice, programming, and administration. Kingston, New Jersey: Civic Research Institute.