The criminal justice system now serves as the chief provider of health care services to a significant portion of society. This includes the provision of physical and mental health care for offender populations who require substantial health care resources. To date, little is known or understood with regard to how these services and programs are being delivered. This book addresses the gaps in our knowledge by presenting a range of studies detailing the daily practices that occur in places where criminal justice and public health systems intersect. This includes an assessment of sheriff agency emergency communication systems, a study of problem behaviours and health using a juvenile sample, the challenge of treating mentally ill prison inmates with note of important gender differences, the impact of case management on justice systems, and a review of substance abuse cessation programs among pregnant women currently serving probation and parole sentences. Also included is a policy piece in which the authors call for an integrated model that is neither criminological nor public health specific. These readings provide a range of empirical examples that highlight important successes and challenges facing the criminal justice and public health systems. They suggest that integration and partnerships represent the most efficacious means to reduce critical social problems such as violence, poor health, and criminality. This book was originally published as a special issue of Criminal Justice Studies.

Building on the success of the first edition and the growth of research in the field over the past decade, this book offers an authoritative overview of the assessment, treatment, and management of violent and sexual offenders. This new and expanded edition reflects the considerable developments in research and empirical data and captures the increasing breadth of risk assessment approaches, the wider range of empirically based therapies, and the more creative means of considering management. The second edition captures key developments in this area, with new chapters drawing on a range of pressing contemporary issues, such as female offenders, Internet offenders, terrorists, young people involved in harmful sexual behaviour, and protective factors for aggression. There is also extended coverage of the management of offenders within secure settings and in the community, referring to a wider variety of approaches and the incorporation of technology. This book will be of considerable interest to academics, practitioners, and students engaged with understanding and/or treating violence and aggression, sex crime, forensic psychology, and the assessment, treatment, and management of offenders.

Winner, W. E. B. DuBois Distinguished Book Award presented by the National Conference of Black Political Scientists Examines the lifelong consequences of a felony conviction through the compelling words of former prisoners Felony convictions restrict social interactions and hinder felons' efforts to reintegrate into society. The educational and vocational training offered in many prisons are typically not recognized by accredited educational institutions as acceptable course work or by employers as valid work experience, making it difficult for recently-released prisoners to find jobs. Families often will not or cannot allow their formerly incarcerated relatives to live with them. In many states, those with felony convictions cannot receive financial aid for further education, vote in elections, receive welfare benefits, or live in public housing. In short, they are not treated as full citizens, and every year, hundreds of thousands of people released from prison are forced to live on the margins of society. Convicted and Condemned explores the issue of prisoner reentry from the felons' perspective. It features the voices of formerly incarcerated felons as they attempt to reconnect with family, learn how to acclimate to society, try to secure housing, find a job, and complete a host of other important goals. By examining national housing, education and employment policies implemented at the state and local levels, Keesha Middlemass shows how the law challenges and undermines prisoner reentry and creates second-class citizens. Even if the criminal justice system never convicted another person of a felony, millions of women and men would still have to figure out how to reenter society, essentially on their own. A sobering account of the after-effects of mass incarceration, Convicted and Condemned is a powerful exploration of how individuals, and society as a whole, suffer when a felony conviction exacts a punishment that never ends.

Sexual offenders - arguably the most hated and feared of all offenders - commit their crimes in our communities and are then hidden from public view as they serve long prison sentences. However, despite the public's understandable anxiety, our criminal justice systems hold to the premise that almost all offenders have the right to hope for rehabilitation, even redemption. Therefore the majority of sexual offenders return to live in our communities, closely monitored by criminal justice agencies and subject to rigorous controls. This book provides an authoritative guide to working with sexual offenders, with a focus on managing those who are reintegrating into the community. It includes those with the most striking histories of trauma and psychological difficulty, and those who have previously failed in their attempts at resettlement. It covers helpful theoretical ideas, such as attachment theory and models of desistance, as well as the latest evidence base for good quality risk assessment. The book supports practitioners on the front line of this work by providing them with evidence-based guidance. It presents a multitude of case examples and practice tips that can support effective decision making and achieve safe outcomes, as well as help such offenders build worthwhile community lives.

Attempts to understand serial murder tend to focus on individual cases rather than the social context in which they occur. In contrast, this book sets the case of nineteenth-century serial killer Mary Ann Cotton in its full social context. Drawing from historical records of Cotton's court appearances, it shows how institutions such as the family, economy, and religion shaped the environment she inhabited.

Building on the success of the first edition and the growth of research in the field over the past decade, this book offers an authoritative overview of the assessment, treatment, and management of violent and sexual offenders. This new and expanded edition reflects the considerable developments in research and empirical data and captures the increasing breadth of risk assessment approaches, the wider range of empirically based therapies, and the more creative means of considering management. The second edition captures key developments in this area, with new chapters drawing on a range of pressing contemporary issues, such as female offenders, Internet offenders, terrorists, young people involved in harmful sexual behaviour, and protective factors for aggression. There is also extended coverage of the management of offenders within secure settings and in the community, referring to a wider variety of approaches and the incorporation of technology. This book will be of considerable interest to academics, practitioners, and students engaged with understanding and/or treating violence and aggression, sex crime, forensic psychology, and the assessment, treatment, and management of offenders.

Domestic violence is a serious, widespread public, social and health problem that affects the lives of many women, children and men. There is also evidence to suggest it has one of the highest rates of recidivism. This comprehensive book provides an overview of what the research tells us about the perpetrators of domestic violence and what works, and what doesn't, in promoting positive change. Collecting together the most up-to-date evidence from the international literature and bringing psychological, sociological, gendered and socio-political theoretical perspectives to bear on the issue, the authors explore: - what domestic violence is, why it happens and how it can be measured - who the perpetrators of domestic violence are, including discussion of non-stereotypical patterns such as male victims, female perpetrators, couples where the abuse is mutual, and couples with abusive relationships who want the abuse to end but the relationship to be sustained - strategies for engaging perpetrators in interventions and for promoting behaviour change - evidence-informed interventions, programmes and policies for working with perpetrators - where robust evidence is lacking and more research needs to be undertaken. Domestic violence is a significant problem for those individuals and families whose life is affected by this issue, the social, health and criminal justice agencies that respond to it, and wider society which must bear the costs and its devastating effects. This volume is an important reference for all those researching and working with the victims, survivors and perpetrators of domestic violence, including academics and students from fields such as social work, sociology, criminology, psychology and social policy.

Parental Incarceration makes available personal stories by adults who have had the childhood experience of parental incarceration. These stories help readers better understand the complex circumstances that influence these children's health and development, as well as their high risk for intergenerational crime and incarceration. Denise Johnston examines her own children's experience of her incarceration within the context of what the research and her 30 years of practice with prisoners and their children has taught her, arguing that it is imperative to attempt to understand parental incarceration within a developmental framework. Megan Sullivan, a scholar in the Humanities, examines the effects of her father's incarceration on her family, and underscores the importance of the reentry process for families. The number of arrested, jailed, and imprisoned persons in the United States has increased since 1960, most dramatically between 1985 and 2000. As the majority of these incarcerated persons are parents, the number of minor children with an incarcerated parent has increased alongside, peaking at an estimated 2.9 million in 2006. The impact of the experience of parental incarceration has garnered attention by researchers, but to date attention has been focused on the period when parents are actually in jail or prison. This work goes beyond that to examine the developmental impact of children's experiences that extend long beyond that timeframe. A valuable resource for students in corrections, human services, social work, counseling, and related courses, as well as practitioners, program/agency administrators, policymakers, advocates, and others involved with families of the incarcerated, this book is testimony that the consequences of mass incarceration reach far beyond just the offender.

This is the first book to explore coercion as a pathway into crime for co-offending women. Using newspaper articles and case and court files, it analyses four cases of women co-accused of a crime with their partner who suggested that coercive techniques had influenced their involvement in the offending. Considering the legal and social construction of coercion, this fascinating book concludes by exploring the implications for public understanding of coercion and female offending more broadly.

Winner of the 2014 Outstanding Book Award presented by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Over 2% of U.S.children under the age of 18--more than 1,700,000 children--have a parent in prison. These children experience very real disadvantages when compared to their peers: they tend to experience lower levels of educational success, social exclusion, and even a higher likelihood of their own future incarceration. Meanwhile, their new caregivers have to adjust to their new responsibilities as their lives change overnight, and the incarcerated parents are cut off from their children's development. Parental Incarceration and the Family brings a family perspective to our understanding of what it means to have so many of our nation's parents in prison. Drawing from the field's most recent research and the author's own fieldwork, Joyce Arditti offers an in-depth look at how incarceration affects entire families: offender parents, children, and care-givers. Through the use of exemplars, anecdotes, and reflections, Joyce Arditti puts a human face on the mass of humanity behind bars, as well as those family members who are affected by a parent's imprisonment. In focusing on offenders as parents, a radically different social policy agenda emerges--one that calls for real reform and that responds to the collective vulnerabilities of the incarcerated and their kin.

This insightful book focuses on developments since the publication in 2007 of the Corston Report into women and criminal justice. While some of its recommendations were accepted by government, actual policy has restricted the scale and scope of change. The challenges of working with women in the current climate of change and uncertainty are also explored, seeking to translate lessons from good practice to policy development and recommending future directions resulting from the coalition government's Transforming Rehabilitation plans. This timely analysis engages with wide-ranging considerations for policy makers, providers and practitioners of services and interventions for women who offend, and questions whether women should be treated differently in the criminal justice system.

Lonnie H. Athens' path-breaking work examines a problem that has baffled experts and the general public alike: How does a person become a predatory violent criminal? In the original edition, the process that Athens labeled "violentization" encompassed four stages: brutalization, defiance, dominative engagements, and virulency. In this edition, Athens identifies a new final stage, violent predation, as the culmination of the violent criminal's development. He uses vivid first-person accounts gleaned from in-depth interviews and participant observation of nascent and hardened violent criminals to back up his theory. In this vastly expanded edition, Athens examines how his thinking and ideas have evolved over the past thirty years and renames and clarifies two stages of development. Athens also addresses, for the first time, criticisms of his original theory. Milestones of this important work are discussed, as well as the paradoxes surrounding its present-day status in the field of criminology. Athens proposes a revised theoretical model that will be useful for classroom use, as well as for interested general readers and professionals.

Featuring a collection of essays by leading experts, Female Sexual Offenders: Theory, Assessment and Treatment is the first book to bring together current research, clinical assessment, and treatment techniques of female sexual offenders into one accessible volume. * Describes the most recent research data regarding female sexual offenders, covering such issues as female-perpetrated sexual abuse prevalence and juvenile offenders * Includes an assessment of the risk of recidivism, international treatment initiatives, and a discussion on the use of the polygraph with female sexual offenders * Features practitioner-focused essays which evaluate current assessment strategies, treatment needs, effectiveness, and processes for female sexual offenders

This insightful book focuses on developments since the publication in 2007 of the Corston Report into women and criminal justice. While some of its recommendations were accepted by government, actual policy has restricted the scale and scope of change. This book explores developments since Corston, as well as possible future directions resulting from the Coalition Government's 'Transforming Rehabilitation' plans. This timely analysis engages with wide-ranging considerations for policy-makers, providers and practitioners of services and interventions for women who offend, and questions whether women should be treated differently in the criminal justice system.

Featuring a collection of essays by leading experts, Female Sexual Offenders: Theory, Assessment and Treatment is the first book to bring together current research, clinical assessment, and treatment techniques of female sexual offenders into one accessible volume. * Describes the most recent research data regarding female sexual offenders, covering such issues as female-perpetrated sexual abuse prevalence and juvenile offenders * Includes an assessment of the risk of recidivism, international treatment initiatives, and a discussion on the use of the polygraph with female sexual offenders * Features practitioner-focused essays which evaluate current assessment strategies, treatment needs, effectiveness, and processes for female sexual offenders

Prisons and imprisonment have become a commonplace topic in popular culture as the setting and rationale for fiction and documentaries and most people seem to have a clear notion of what it is like in prison, ranging from the idea of the prison cell as a cosy nook with fast internet access to that of a dungeon with a hard bed and a diet of bread and water. But what is prison really like? Do prisoners have the same rights as everyone else? What are the similarities and differences between prisons in different European countries? This book answers all of these questions, whilst also presenting cutting-edge research on the living conditions of long-term prisoners in Europe and considering whether these conditions meet international human rights standards. Bringing together leading experts in the field, with comprehensive coverage of the issues in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Spain and Sweden, this book offers the first comparative study on the subject. Whereas past research in this area has concentrated on the Anglo-American experience, this book offers a truly comparative European approach and pays due attention to the differences in prison systems between the post-Soviet countries and continental Europe. This book will be key reading for academics and students of criminology, criminal justice and penology and will also be of interest to students and practitioners of law.

The BSC Critical Criminology Network's Book of the Year 2016 Why do some men use physical violence against others? How do some men come to value physical violence as a resource? Drawing on in-depth ethnographic research conducted with men involved in serious violence and crime over a period of two years in the North of England, Anthony Ellis addresses these questions and the complex relationship between these men and their use of physical violence against others. Using detailed life-history interviews and extended periods of observation with these men, Men, Masculinities and Violence describes their 'inner' subjective lives and experiences, exploring how they came to value violence, why they are willing to use it against others and risk serious harm to themselves in the process. Over the course of the book a picture emerges of a group of men that have experienced and perpetrated serious violence throughout their lives. This book advances a critical psychosocial understanding of such violence by situating these masculine biographies within their immediate contexts of de-industrialisation, fracturing working class community and culture, and broader shifts within the political economy of liberal capitalism. With its synthesis of rich ethnographic material and new developments in criminological theory, this book is essential reading for students and academics interested in issues of gender and violence.

Winner of the 2014 Division of Women and Crime Distinguished Scholar Award presented by the American Society of Criminology Finalist for the 2013 C. Wright Mills Book Award presented by the Society for the Study of Social Problems Compelling interviews uncover why tough drug policies disproportionately impact women in the American prison system Since the 1980s, when the War on Drugs kicked into high gear and prison populations soared, the increase in women's rate of incarceration has steadily outpaced that of men. As a result, women's prisons in the US have suffered perhaps the most drastically from the overcrowding and recurrent budget crises that have plagued the penal system since harsher drugs laws came into effect. In Breaking Women, Jill A. McCorkel draws upon four years of on-the-ground research in a major US women's prison to uncover why tougher drug policies have so greatly affected those incarcerated there, and how the very nature of punishment in women's detention centers has been deeply altered as a result. Through compelling interviews with prisoners and state personnel, McCorkel reveals that popular so-called "habilitation" drug treatment programs force women to accept a view of themselves as inherently damaged, aberrant addicts in order to secure an earlier release. These programs were created as a way to enact stricter punishments on female drug offenders while remaining sensitive to their perceived feminine needs for treatment, yet they instead work to enforce stereotypes of deviancy that ultimately humiliate and degrade the women. The prisoners are left feeling lost and alienated in the end, and many never truly address their addiction as the programs' organizers may have hoped. A fascinating and yet sobering study, Breaking Women foregrounds the gendered and racialized assumptions behind tough-on-crime policies while offering a vivid account of how the contemporary penal system impacts individual lives.

Disordered Personalities and Crime seeks to better understand how we respond to those individuals who have been labelled at various points in time as 'morally insane', 'psychopathic' or 'personality disordered'. Individuals whose behaviour is consistent with these diagnoses present challenges to both the criminal justice system and mental health systems, because the people who come to have such diagnoses seem to have a rational and realistic understanding of the world around them but they can behave in ways that suggest they have little understanding of the meaning or consequences of their actions. This book argues that an analysis of the history of these diagnoses will help to provide a better understanding of contemporary dilemmas. These are categories that have been not only shaped by the needs of criminal justice and the claims of expertise by professionals, but also the fears, anxieties and demands of the wider public. In this book, David W. Jones demonstrates us how important these diagnoses have been to the history of psychiatry in its claims for professional expertise, and also sheds light on the evolution of the insanity defence and helps explain why it remains a problematic and controversial issue even today. This book will be key reading for students, researchers and academics who are interested in crime and its relationship to mental disorder and also for those interested in psychiatry and abnormal psychology.

Convicted sex offenders released from custody at the end of their criminal sentences pose a risk for re-offense. In many US states, Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) laws have been enacted that allow for the post-prison preventive detention of high risk sex offenders. SVP laws require the courts to make dispositions that protect the public from harm while at the same time respecting the civil rights of the offender. This book describes these SVP laws, their constitutionality, and aspects of their operation. Courts hear expert risk testimony based heavily on the results of actuarial risk assessment. Problems associated with this testimony include the lack of a theory of recidivism risk, bias due to human decision-making, and the insularity of scholarship and practice along developmental lines. The authors propose changes in legal standards, as well as a unified developmental model that treats sexual violence as an "evolving" condition, with roots traceable to childhood and paths that extend into adolescence and adulthood.

'Offender management' for probation means continuing commitment to constructive work with individuals who break the law but in a changing multi-agency context. Providing a comprehensive introduction to criminal justice work, this book negotiates the structures set by law and policy and allows readers to think critically about roles, accountabilities and professional skills and judgement. Looking at key areas of practice and law, including youth justice, human rights and safeguarding children, the book will be essential for students and practitioners in criminal justice and probation studies.

Written by the Chief and Deputy Chief Psychologists for the Ministry of Justice, and updated to take account of the changes in structure within offender management Services, "Psychology in Prisons," second edition, takes an in-depth look at the work of psychologists in Prisons.

Building on the key strengths of the first edition, this book focuses exclusively on the prison environment, where other competing texts do not, and prioritizes the practical application of theory. The authors begin by contextualising psychological work in prisons, and then covering evidence-based practice in key areas such as drug misuse, violent offending and sex offending. The focus is very much on the needs of the patient/client group, and the third section consists of four chapters on the practicalities of psychological assessments and interventions.

This new edition is further strengthened by more in-depth consideration of 'diversity' issues such as age, gender, socio-economic group, sexuality and ethnicity, which arguably impact on effective practice and will be fundamental reading for practitioners working in prisons.

The study of criminal careers is of increasing interest in criminology. It is now generally recognised that it is important to try to understand criminal behaviour across the life-course rather than focusing on fragmented incidents which provide only a partial picture. This is an accessible text which clarifies the crucial theoretical and methodological debates surrounding the study of criminal careers.

It focuses on some major longitudinal studies discussing the onset, persistence, desistance and the duration of a criminal career. The important topics of prediction, risk and specialisation are addressed. The challenging question of 'When do ex-offenders become like non-offenders?' points a way forward. The book concludes by proposing an even more ambitious approach to the topic of criminal careers.

The study of criminal careers is of increasing interest in criminology. It is now generally recognised that it is important to try to understand criminal behaviour across the life-course rather than focusing on fragmented incidents which provide only a partial picture. This is an accessible text which clarifies the crucial theoretical and methodological debates surrounding the study of criminal careers.

It focuses on some major longitudinal studies discussing the onset, persistence, desistance and the duration of a criminal career. The important topics of prediction, risk and specialisation are addressed. The challenging question of 'When do ex-offenders become like non-offenders?' points a way forward. The book concludes by proposing an even more ambitious approach to the topic of criminal careers.

The delivery of treatment through the use of programmes is an approach to therapeutic intervention that has been present in clinical psychology for some time. The arguments and debates around programmes, both conceptually and in terms of technology, have thus been widely rehearsed in the broader clinical literature. However, the growth in the use of offending behaviour programmes has been exponential within the criminal justice system over the last decade. Typically, offending behaviour programmes are empirically-based interventions, aimed to reduce re-offending, for use with either offenders in general, or with particular groups of offenders such as violent offenders and sex offenders. Offending behaviour programmes are interesting at two levels. Firstly, there are various technical issues, such as the design and implementation of programmes, the accreditation and management of programmes, alongside the critical question of their effectiveness in both motivating offenders to partake in treatment, and ultimately their impact in reducing re-offending. Secondly, there are broader issues such as the impact of programmes on traditional forms of practice, the complications associated with a national roll out of programmes, philosophical objections to working in a prescribed manner, and training practitioners to deliver programmes.

This book considers these issues from both a general perspective, as well as containing chapters considering offending behaviour programmes for specific groups of offenders: generic programmes, violent and domestic violence offenders, sexual offenders, and substance-misusing offenders.