Positive criminology
Positive criminology[1] is based on the perspective that integration and positive life influences that help individuals develop personally and socially will lead to a reduced risk of criminal behavior and better recovery of offenders. Integration works in three levels: inter-personal, intra-personal and spiritual.[2] Positive influences include participation in recovery programs, such as those for substance use disorders. Factors that can make growth difficult include a long-standing pattern of criminal activity, serious adverse life events, and chronic mental health illness.[3]
History
The term "positive criminology" was first introduced by Natti Ronel and his research team at
Treatment and rehabilitation
Strength-based treatment programs
In recent years, various programs have been developed in the field of rehabilitation of offenders, in community and prison, based on the principles of cognitive-behavioral approach, usually implemented in a group setting. These programs are considered a form of strength-based treatment, due to the emphasis on personal, interpersonal and social skills developed that enable participants to acquire pro-social lifestyle, which may also reduce their need for deviant behaviors. The assumption underlying these programs is that those who work on acquisition of new positive skills, rather than just avoidance from negative behaviors, will achieve better results and be able to maintain the positive outcomes for the long run. Recent studies indicated their effectiveness in reducing recidivism amongst released offenders.[9][10]
The Good Lives Model
The Good Lives Model (GLM), first proposed by Ward and Stewart[11] and further developed by Ward and colleagues,[12] is a strengths-based approach to offender rehabilitation that is responsive to offenders' particular interests, abilities, and aspirations. It also directs practitioners to explicitly construct intervention plans that help offenders to acquire the capabilities to achieve the things that are personally meaningful to them. It assumes that all individuals have similar aspirations and needs and that one of the primary responsibilities of parents, teachers, and the broader community is to help each of us acquire the tools required to make our own way in the world.[11][13]
Criminal behavior results when individuals lack the internal and external resources necessary to satisfy their values using pro-social means, or where a single aspiration or need is valued exclusively over all other aspirations or needs. In other words, criminal behavior represents a maladaptive attempt to meet life values, or a singular focus on one specific life value.[11][13]
Offenders, like all humans, value certain states of mind, personal characteristics, and experiences, which are defined in the GLM as primary goods. Following an extensive review of
Existential therapy
Yoga and meditation programs
Self-help groups and the 12-step program
One of the most popular approaches in the Western world for self-change in the field of addiction is that of the twelve-step program. Self-help groups in general, and in particular the twelve-step programs, which emphasize spiritual and moral change, represent another aspect of positive criminology. The groups serve as a place for learning and practicing new behavior and values, alongside spiritual development. Research conducted among addicts who participated in the twelve-step program and the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) self- and mutual-help groups has identified several therapeutic elements that helped addicts in the recovery process, including change in their perception of life and finding new and noble meaning to life,[26] spiritual awakening through faith in a higher power that helps them to abstain from psychoactive substances,[27] transformation of anger and resentment into forgiveness,[28] and sponsoring another person in the recovery process.[29] According to Ronel (1998), self-help organizations such as NA constitute a bridge to recovery, connecting the drug subculture to the general dominant culture.[30]
The twelve-step program originated in AA and was then adopted by other self-help organizations that target a variety of problems, such as
Positive victimology
The concept of "positive victimology"[38] evolved from positive criminology and it was first proposed by Natti Ronel and his research team. Positive victimology's focus is on those who were hurt by crime and/or abuse of power.
Studies
Social acceptance and life transformation
Social acceptance and life transformation in the rehabilitation of imprisoned sex offenders was the first that was designed and conducted according to the principles of positive criminology.[39] The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify the internal and external factors that assist imprisoned sex offenders to recover and change their way of life. Most participants reported that they had experienced personal and social changes during their current imprisonment, attributed to the support they received from various sources both inside and outside the jail, particularly spouses, parents, therapists, and religious figures. Participants reported that those who supported them expressed their social acceptance of them; note that this does not refer to unconditional acceptance, but one that requires taking responsibility and making a significant change by the side of the offender. It might be referred as conditioned love, where the conditions are for the benefits of the loved ones. It contains components similar to those included in the re-integrative shaming mechanism.[40] Research findings also suggest that positive changes can be achieved even under harsh conditions such as imprisonment, through the encounter with human strengths. In a way that continues these findings, Siebrecht Vanhooren, Mia Leijssen, and Jessie Dezutter from the Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Belgium, conducted a pilot study with a mixed-method design on posttraumatic growth and psychological stress in a sample of sexual offenders (n = 30) in ongoing therapy.[41]
Impact of interactions with volunteers
Several studies examined the impact of a personal encounter with perceived goodness, as represented by volunteers who are perceived as altruistic by those they help. The studies focused on the encounter between lay volunteers and either: (1) at-risk street youths in a mobile outreach service (a qualitative study),[42] (2) at-risk youth in drop-in centers for youth at-risk in Israel (a qualitative and quantitative study)[43] and (3) two experiments carried out by Niek Hoogervorst, Judith Metz, Lonneke Roza, and Eva van Baren from the Netherlands that support this indirect effect of volunteerism on affect-based trust.[44]
Altruism
Many
Improving offender's well-being
Positive criminology stresses the healing effect of positively perceived experiences. During the last years there is an increase in research on happiness, understood as a subjective perception of well-being, and it seems it is finding its place in criminology research as well.[46]
Posttraumatic growth of South African ex-offenders
Positive criminology associates social integration with rehabilitation and with human strengths. Tharina Guse and Daphne Hudson, from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, conducted a study in 2014.[47]
Mindfulness and rehabilitation of young offenders
Positive criminology looks for integrative means of rehabilitation, as an alternative to the disintegrative nature of incarceration. In a qualitative study, Carla Barret from John Jay College, New York, attempted to understand how young male participants benefited from yoga and mindfulness training within an Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) program.[48]
Angola's Christian seminary
Michael Hallett and colleagues presented an ethnographic account of the "self-projects" of inmate graduates of Louisiana State Penitentiary's ("Angola's") unique prison seminary program.[49]
Notes
- ^ For example, The Prison Yoga Project – New York and Liberation Yoga Project, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Hygiene (DHMH), have provided yoga programs for men, women, and youth in several state correctional facilities, including Rikers Island and the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women.[19][24][25]
References
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- ^ Elizabeth Aston (November 30, 2014). "Long-term recovery from addiction: criminal justice involvement and positive criminology?". Edinburgh Napier University. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-135-26539-7.
- ISBN 978-1-135-00687-7.
- ^ Enrico Ferri (1906). The Positive School of Criminology: Three Lectures Given at the University of Naples, Italy, on April 22, 23, and 24, 1901. C.H. Kerr. p. 8.
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- ^ Ross,R.R. & Hilborn, J (2008). Rehabilitating Rehabilitation: A Neurocriminology Program Model for Prevention and Treatment of Antisocial Behavior.
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- ^ S2CID 46007628.
- ^ ward, Tony; Maruna, shadd (2007). Rehabilitation. Routledge.
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- ^ "Chapter 6 – Brief Humanistic and Existential Therapies, Brief Interventions and Brief Therapies for Substance Abuse". National Center for Biotechnology Information. 1999. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
- ^ "Viktor Frankl". Pursuit of Happiness, Inc. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
- ISBN 978-1-4899-2103-1.
- ^ a b Ullman, Dana. "Bringing Yoga to Prison". The Atlantic. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
- ^ a b "How Yoga Can Help in California's Overcrowded Prisons" (Video). Time.com. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
- ^ a b c Craig, Kenneth (November 25, 2015). "Prisons offer yoga to help rehabilitate inmates". CBS News. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
- ^ "James Fox: YJ People's Choice Seva Award scholarship nominee, Good Karma Awards". Yoga Journal. March 22, 2015. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
- ^ Atluri, Srihari (November 15, 2015). Incredible Story Of How A Child Trafficking Survivor Overcome The Horrific Past: Anneke Lucas. India: NRI Samay Radio. Event occurs at 1:16.
- ^ Atluri, Srihari (November 15, 2015). Incredible Story Of How A Child Trafficking Survivor Overcome The Horrific Past: Anneke Lucas. India: NRI Samay Radio. Event occurs at 6:00.
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- ^ Ronel, N & Humphreys, K (1999–2000). "World-views transformations of Narcotics Anonymous members in Israel". International Journal of Self-Help and Self-Care. 1 (1): 101–127.
- ^ Hart, Kenneth, E; Shapiro, David, A (2002). "Secular and spiritual forgiveness interventions for recovering alcoholics harboring". Convention of the American Psychological Association. Chicago, IL.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - PMID 11841900.
- ^ Ronel, N (1998). "Twelve-step self-help groups: The spontaneous emergence of 'Grace Communities'". Social Development Issues. 20 (3): 53–72.
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- ^ White, William, L (1998). Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America. Bloomington, IL: Chestnut Health System/ Lightouse.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Ronel,N. & Claridge, H (1999). "Grace Therapy: A new approach to the treatment of male batterers". Contemporary Justice Review.
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- ^ Uzan, T (2009). Becoming delinquent and volunteering with the life stories of youth at risk. Bar Ilan University.
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Further reading
- Ronel, N., & Segev, D. (eds.). (2015). Positive criminology. Routledge.
- Gold, D.; Sutton, A.; Ronel, N. (2015). "Non-violent empowerment self-help group for male batterers on recovery". Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 32 (20): 3174–3200. S2CID 20485226.
- Ronel, N.; Segev, D. (2014). "Positive criminology in practice". International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. 58 (11): 1389–1407. S2CID 34768144.
- Maruna, S., & Immarigeon, R. (eds.). (2013). After crime and punishment. Routledge.
- Ronel, N.; Frid, N.; Timor, U. (2013). "The practice of positive criminology: a vipassana course in prison". International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. 57 (2): 133–153. S2CID 24495192.
- Purvis, M.; Ward, T.; Willis, G. (2011). "The Good Lives Model in practice: offence pathways and case management". European Journal of Probation. 3 (2): 4–28. S2CID 19994905.
- Nolan Jr., James L. (2009). Legal accents, legal borrowing: the international problem-solving court movement. Princeton University Press.
- Braithwaite, J (2002). Restorative justice and responsive regulation. Oxford University Press.
- Drogin, E.Y. (2000). "From therapeutic jurisprudence... to jurisprudent therapy". Behavioral Sciences & the Law. 18 (4): 489–498. PMID 11018781.
- Ronel, N (1998). "Narcotics Anonymous: understanding the "bridge of recovery"". Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. 27 (1–2): 179–197. .