The Psychology of Criminal Conduct

Overview

In everyday language, Antisocial Personality Pattern (APP): impulsive, adventurous, pleasure-seeking, generalized trouble (multiple persons, multiple settings), restlessly aggressive, callous disregard for others. APP is one of the Central Eight risk/need factors and therefore, it is an important predictor of criminal behavior and a treatment target. The chapter begins with a discussion of what is meant by “personality” and reviews classical criminology’s dismissal of personality though “knowledge destruction techniques”. Gradually, personality constructs began to be embedded into many theories of criminal behavior and today they are widely accepted. The research on Antisocial Personality Disorder and Psychopathy are summarized and the argument is made that APP is a more comprehensive conceptualization of personality that does not require psychopathologizing criminal behavior

Audio and Videos

Assessment of Trauma and Risk-Need-Responsivity Principles

Dr. Ralph Fretz, is a licensed psychologist in Florida and New Jersey, specialising in a variety of forensic evaluations and clinical treatments. He has been working in the mental health field since 1982 and is Board-Certified through the American Board of Professional Psychology in Couple and Family Psychology. Dr Fretz has worked within the family, civil, and criminal court systems and currently holds a post as Adjunct Professor at Florida Atlantic University, where he teaches courses on Prisoner Re-entry, Corrections Research, and Criminal Risk Assessment.

Part 1: Trauma

In this section of his webinar, recorded for MHS, Dr. Ralph Fretz explores the nature of trauma in its varied forms, and discusses the way in which trauma intersects with the criminal justice population.

the full version of this video can be found on the Videos page of this website.

Discussion questions:

What are some of the considerations that should be taken into account when using the ACEs score?

The Criminologist Podcast: Interview with Brad Bogue Podcast

Bradford Bogue is an internationally recognised expert in probation and parole case management practices, who has worked in the fields of corrections, mental health and addiction since 1982. He has an MA in sociology from the University of Colorado and has been the Primary Investigator for over 70 programme evaluations in corrections, as well as designing the Risk and Resiliency Check-Up Assessment (2006). In 2003 Bogue co-authored with Anjali Nandi, The Probation & Parole Treatment Planner, (Wiley, Inc.). Since 1993 he has been training in motivational interview techniques and exploring methods for implementing MI in corrections systems. In 2012 he co-authored Motivational Interviewing in Corrections with Anjali Nandi that was published by the National Institute of Corrections. He is the founder and Director of Justice System Assessment and Training (J-SAT, Inc.), an agency that supports corrections, mental health, alcohol and other drugs organisations to implement evidence-based practices and principles in their processes.

In The Criminologist host Joseph Arvidson brings criminologists, practitioners, academics and those with lived experiences from around the world together to discuss the age-old dilemma of responding to society’s criminal element. Merging established correctional policy with emerging desistance models, this show illustrates how adopting a holistic lens and constantly questioning established approaches can best serve justice-involved individuals.

“This episode is a MUST listen for professionals who adhere to the Risk-Need-Responsivity model of supervision! Brad Bogue is uniquely qualified to give a well informed and timely critique to the Need Principle. From a re-examination of The Big Four, the very real issue of Differential Diagnosis…. this could be a potential game changer folks!

Brad packs a seminar’s worth of insights into this episode. Always fun to chat with, and a beacon of insight, we hope this is the first of many appearances!” – Joe Arvidson

Examining the Sanctity of the Needs Principle Podcast

All episodes may be accessed via Joseph Arvidson’s website:

https://theparagongroupllc.com/podcasts

Psychopathy and Violence Risk Assessment

Patrick J. Kennealy is a research scientist focused on improving practice and policy in justice settings. His interests include community supervision, risk assessment, mental health and violence, and psychopathy. He serves as the Research and Evaluation Manager for the Ventura County Probation Agency. Prior to his current position, he completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy at the University of South Florida (2014) and received his Ph.D. (2012) from the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior at the University of California, Irvine.

In this video, Dr Kennealy discusses the key findings on the relationship between diagnoses of psychopathy and criminal behaviour.

The full version of this video can be viewed on the MHS Public Safety website:

https://gifrinc.com/course/psychopathy-and-violence-risk/

Worth Remembering

General personality theory describes five basic personality dimensions. The FFM model of personality reduces all the personality traits to five general dimensions. These personality dimensions are common to all and are seen as normal features of personality. Two of these “super traits,” Weak Constraint and Negative Emotionality, are particularly relevant factors in our concept of APP.
Personality encompasses traits and psychological processes that make sense of the situation of action. The expression of personal traits depends on the situations in which we find ourselves and the way we interpret or encode meaning from these situations. To understand behavior we need knowledge of the individual’s personality traits, the situation, and the individual’s characteristic way of encoding the situation.
Criminology has rediscovered the importance of personality in crime. For much of the twentieth century, mainstream criminology ignored the evidence linking personality, especially antisocial personality, with crime. Criminology’s favorite explanatory variable, social class, has now been replaced by more psychological explanations of crime.
Antisocial personality disorder (APD) and psychopathy view some criminals as psychopathological. Many forensic mental health specialists see APD and psychopathy as extremely difficult to treat, although the evidence for this conclusion is very weak.
APD may be more relevant than psychopathological models of antisocial personality. A major advantage of a GPCSL perspective of antisocial personality over psychopathological models is that the door to treatment is opened wider. The dynamic needs of highly antisocial personalities can serve as targets for planned interventions.

Chapter 5 Antisocial Personality Pattern