Treatment Programmes.

seubsection 3 for D in forensic A2 psychology for OCR. 

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Cognitive Skills Programmes; Cann.

Psychologists believe one way to stop the cycle of committing offences is to break down the faulty thinking patterns which they believe underlie criminal behaviour. If the pattern is broken progress can be made towards a non-criminal lifestyle CBT - cognitive behavioural therapy, this has shown most success in treating USA prisoners. 

Aim; To find out if cognitive skills programmes were effective in terms of lower re-offending rates for a sample of women prisoners. 

Sample & Procedure; 180 offenders who had started enhanced thinking skills (ETS) or reasoning and rehabilitation (R&R). between '96 - 2000. 14 non-completers against a control group of 540 ofeenders who did not take part. REVIEW. 2 year re-conviction rates were calculated for all women who were matched through high, medium, low risk of re-conviction. actual re-conviction rates done for 1/2 years after release each ETS/R&R was examined for effectiveness. 

Results; no significant differences between the 2 groups on actual re-conviction. R&R group fared worse. 

Conclusion; mixed picture of effectiveness of treatment programmes are better for women. 

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Cognitive Skills Programmes; Cann.

Evaluation;

sample - just on women so any results are just represensative of women therefore are only generalisable to women and not women and other people. 

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Anger Management; Ireland.

Anger has to be controlled in prisons because of the environment being so confined. CALM is a programme used within prisons to control this. 

Aim; To assess whether anger management programmes work with young male offenders (aggressive group stereotypically). 

Sample & Procedure; natural exp. 50 prisoners who completed CALM 37 assessed as suitable but had not taken the course these were the control group. prisoners had been given a cognitive behavioural interview - thinking patterns. officers completed a wing behavioural checklist (says how angry someone is), rating 29 angry behaviours with scores of 0, 1, 2 a week before the interview. prisoners completed a self report questionnaire on anger management with 53 questions. 

Results; prisoners who completed CALM rated themselves lower on anger management questionnaire and lower by prison officers than the control group. 92% improved on 1 measure of aggression. 

Conclusion; short term it is effective. BUT there is not re-offending data available so do not know if it is effective for this. 

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Ear Acupuncture; Wheatley.

Used in prisons for 5 years. it is popular and cheap and easily taught. It does not require the prisoner to be highly motivated and has great potential. It is a combined therapy with CBT. 

Aim; Evaluate the effectiveness of ear acupuncture. 

Procedure; 350 prisoners in 6 high security prisons. received acupuncture and standard care programme (FOCUS) compared to a control group who just received FOCUS. there were 2 trained practitioners who worked with groups of 10-15 prisoners in relaxed settings. needles were then inserted in 5 points in the ear and they relaxed for 40 minutes. 

Results; Quanlitative data - felt less drug cravings, and improved on cognition. better communication and a calmer environment. Quantitative data - 70% reduction in drug related incidents 6 months after. 41% reduction serious incidents. 42% reduction on positive drug tests that they had to do. 

Conclusion; Works well alongside other therapy programmes and should be expanded. 

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