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Generic Correctional Programming for Mentally Ill Offenders: A Pilot Study

NCJ Number
222294
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 35 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2008 Pages: 457-473
Author(s)
Jose B. Ashford; Kai W. Wong; Katherine O. Sternbach
Date Published
April 2008
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study examined differences in criminal attitudes and hostile attribution biases among three groups of offenders diagnosed with serious mental disorders.
Abstract
The results indicated that offenders with serious mental disorders had changes in thinking errors from the Hostile Interpretations Questionnaire (HIQ) (the Overgeneralization subscale) that were linked with the study's outcome for measuring arrest. It also found that another measure with no significant changes in cognition was also associated with the arrest variable, the Criminal Sentiments Scale-Modified and Identification with Criminal Others (CSS-M’s ICO) subscale. The scores on the ICO subscale reflect a slight increased, rather than decrease, and this increase on the mean change score was linked with the study's arrest outcome. The observed associations found in this study suggest that some offenders with serious mental disorders can complete a generic cognitive program when the service delivery model takes into account their special needs. In addition, the results show that criminal attitude variables and hostile attribution biases are linked with measures of arrest and technical probation violations that are widely employed in other correctional evaluation research. The cognitive results in this study have implications for improving person-centered interventions for mentally disordered offenders. In as much as the relationship between mental disorders and crime has been unspecified, these preliminary findings offer a promising avenue for further investigations into the relationships between cognitions and crime in persons with serious mental disorders. Demonstrated cognitive interventions for treating ordinary offenders should also be considered for use with mentally disordered offenders because mentally ill offenders have cognitions with links to crime and violence similar to ordinary offenders. The sample included any offenders who completed Monterey County's cognitive intervention from October 2001 through February 2005 and were considered members of the completed treatment group (n=47); the treatment-as-usual group included 31 offenders. Tables, note, references