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Effective Interventions for Acquisitive Offenders: An Investigation of Cognitive Skills Programmes

NCJ Number
199625
Journal
Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2003 Pages: 83-101
Author(s)
Sally Wilson; Gill Attrill; Francis Nugent
Date Published
February 2003
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether cognitive skills programs operated for inmates in England and Wales were less effective with offenders who had histories of convictions for acquisitive crime, which has been suggested by previous similar research.
Abstract
Study participants were male (n=7,997) and female offenders (n=306) who were serving prison sentences in England and Wales. All of the participants had completed a cognitive skills program (either Enhanced Thinking Skills or Reasoning and Rehabilitation) during the custodial part of their sentence. In order to determine the extent of each participant's involvement in acquisitive crime, the number of convictions the participants had received were examined both for their current sentence and for previous sentences. Participants were assigned to one of the following three groups: non-acquisitive, for whom no convictions for acquisitive crime were found (n=2,537); medium acquisitive, who had at least 1 and no more than 3 convictions for an acquisitive crime (n=2,537); and high acquisitive, who had at least 4 convictions for an acquisitive crime (n=3,339). A checklist pertinent to the participants' behavior was completed for each offender. Questionnaires measured the cognitive deficits targeted by the programs. The questionnaires and the behavior checklist were completed by the participants before, after, and 8 weeks after the end of the course. The study found that offenders in the high acquisitive group showed greater need in the cognitive deficits at the precourse stage than the other two groups for both the self-completion questionnaires and the behavior checklist. A comparison of the precourse and postcourse scores on the questionnaires and the behavior checklist showed positive effects for all three groups; however, some of the variables showed a greater change from precourse to postcourse in the groups that had been convicted of more acquisitive offenses. Thus, the study found that cognitive skills programs are apparently as effective with offenders convicted of acquisitive crimes as non-acquisitive crimes, although highly acquisitive offenders may benefit from an additional intervention. Additional studies are required to determine whether this same result is upheld when the outcome measure is recidivism. 7 tables, 53 references, and appended behavior checklist