What’s new in the literature?
By David Riley, Chief Adviser Psychological Services
It’s always pleasing to report on the publication of work done by Corrections’ staff. It’s doubly pleasing when the research has appeared in the leading criminal justice journal, and won prestigious research awards both in New Zealand and overseas.
Principal author Gwenda Willis, who is an intern psychologist at Corrections’ Kia Marama unit, and her university supervisor Randy Grace, investigated the significance of good reintegration planning for 141 child sex offenders who completed the Department’s Kia Marama and Te Piriti programmes.1
They found that good reintegration planning was a major factor in stopping the men from re-offending.
Specifically, they found that planning for suitable accommodation, employment, and social support were most strongly associated with preventing re-offending.
This piece of research was very well conducted, and a high level of confidence can be placed in these results. Clearly, we need to think about incorporating a measure of the quality of reintegration planning into clinical risk assessments.
We also need to consider how we can improve reintegration planning for child sex offenders who exit our special treatment programmes.
The emphasis in this research on reintegration, as opposed to treatment, is consistent with a growing trend in criminal justice enquiry. It may well be that detailed evaluations of offenders exiting other treatment programmes will also highlight the critical importance of the reintegration process.
Footnote
1 Willis G. M., and Grace R. C. (2009) – Assessment of community reintegration planning for sex offenders: Poor planning recidivism, Criminal Justice and Behaviour, 36, 494-512.
ISSN 1178-8453
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ISSN 1178-8453