Search results

Young offender mentoring programmes aim to support young people’s desistance from offending, but despite the importance, there remains limited exploration into mentor experiences of supporting the young people. This study aims to explore how a community-based mentoring intervention supports desistance in young offenders by understanding the mentor's experiences, with a specific reflective focus on facilitators and barriers to their work.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven mentors from Northumbria Coalition against Crime, a youth and community service. Interview transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, with external auditing conducted by the research supervisor.

Two superordinate themes resulted: “Factors for engagement” and “Personal experiences”, with participant disclosures reflecting professional reward and a sense of success. This was interwoven with “burnout”, emotional investment and challenges linked to barriers to effectiveness. Challenges included the young people having external negative influences, multiple individuals involved in a person’s care and the barrier of in person activities during the coronavirus pandemic. The clinical importance of mentoring programmes, implications for future working practice and research limitations are considered.

The clinical importance of mentoring programmes, implications for future working practice and research limitations are considered.

These findings contribute to understanding mentors’ experiences of working with young people in the community, offering critical insight into the mentorship and wider service dynamics. Furthermore, it provides an inaugural evaluation of the Northumbria Coalition against Crime services.

Whilst a great deal of research exists on the effectiveness of treatment with violent offenders comparatively little is known about the experience of treatment providers. The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of four prison officers delivering a high-intensity intervention, with violent offenders.

A qualitative approach was used to gain a rich, individualised account of treatment providers’ experiences, with interpretative phenomenological analysis applied by the lead researcher (first author). External auditing analysis was conducted by the second author.

The analysis generated two superordinate themes: “Impact on Self-Coping” and “With Great Challenge Comes Great Reward” with pertinent sub-themes. The findings support the existing evidence regarding the relevance of individual characteristics and coping style on well-being, regardless of the nature of the offences being discussed. Working with violent offenders could be challenging yet rewarding with adequate support in place.

It is imperative that treatment providers are offered support and encouragement in undertaking their role and that a rehabilitative culture is promoted and reinforced within custodial environments. Additional training for facilitators to develop effective self-coping strategies was recommended in addition to careful management of delivery periods.

These findings add to the evidence base in relation to the impact of high-intensity treatment provision on individual well-being; suggestions are made to support clinical and organisational good practice.

Cognitive-behavioural interventions, such as the substance related offending behaviour programme (SROBP), are being implemented across forensic contexts in an attempt to address the detrimental economic, social and personal impacts of substance use and offending. Whilst support exists for the effectiveness of such treatment, there remains to be limited knowledge of offenders’ experiences of treatment and factors that promote treatment efficacy and support desistance. This study aims to develop an idiographical understanding of those processes.

Six prisoners who had completed the SROBP were interviewed via a semi-structured schedule to collate their individual experiences of engaging in treatment. Interviews transcripts were analysed by the lead researcher using interpretative phenomenological analysis, and external auditing analysis was conducted by the research supervisors.

Three superordinate themes resulted: “Therapeutic processes and relationships,” “Therapeutic outcomes” and “Threats to post treatment recovery.” Participants identified factors which facilitated the effectiveness of treatment and were effective in meeting their needs, although there were other factors that required improvement.

The important role of motivation at various stages of treatment as this engenders commitment to treatment aims and longer-term recovery. Treatment efficacy is linked with perceived relevance and value of treatment outcomes in supporting desistence from substance use. Pro-social peer relationships are important for effective application of learning and recovery. Attentiveness to participants specific needs is required. The lack of post-programme support has the potential to threaten therapeutic alliances and reinforce experiences of rejection and abandonment. The management of the exit phase from programmes is critical.

Results are discussed in light of their implications for future working practices in supporting therapeutic processes and rehabilitative culture.

Although support exists for the effectiveness of treatment for personality disordered offenders there is limited knowledge about the processes underlying the therapeutic change. The purpose of this paper is to explore the treatment experiences of six male psychopathic offenders who attended a social skills treatment component implemented within a high-secure personality disorder treatment service.

Interview transcripts were analysed by the lead researcher (first author) using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) who compared and contrasted findings to develop superordinate themes across the group. External auditing analysis was conducted by the second author.

Several themes were identified that may indicate the unique ways this client group experienced treatment. These related to the importance of “group cohesion” with treatment progression and shared learning experiences, the significance of “therapeutic alliance” with treatment providers and perceived effectiveness of treatment, and the conflict participants experienced when acquiring and applying skills from their engagement in treatment. Participants identified aspects of the treatment component that facilitated the effectiveness of treatment and were effective in meeting their needs and some that would benefit from improvement.

Positive group dynamics are important. Operational staff inclusion within the facilitation team is beneficial. Attentiveness to participants’ specific responsivity needs is required. Supporting skill application post-treatment is important.

These findings add to the evidence base in relation to factors that support personality disordered offenders’ engagement within treatment. Areas that validate treatment delivery are highlighted, as are suggestions for change to maximise treatment gain for psychopathic and personality disordered offenders.

In light of the clinical importance of understanding co-morbidity within offender populations, the purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence and comorbidities of clinical disorder (Axis I) and personality disorder (Axis II) within a sample of high risk, male offenders located in a high secure, prison-based personality disorder treatment service.

The study utilised clinical assessment data for both Axis I diagnoses (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV) and Axis II diagnoses (International Personality Disorder Examination) of 115 personality disordered offenders who met the criteria for the treatment service between 2004 and 2015.

Co-morbidity between Axis I and Axis II diagnoses was high, with 81 per cent of the sample having co-morbid personality disorder and clinical disorder diagnosis. The most prevalent Axis I disorder was substance misuse, and Axis II was antisocial, borderline, and paranoid personality disorder. Following χ² analysis, Cluster A personality disorder demonstrated co-morbidity with both mood disorder and schizophrenia/other psychotic disorder. Paranoid, schizoid, narcissistic, and avoidant personality disorder demonstrated a level of co-morbidity with Axis I disorders. There was no association found between the clinical disorders of substance use and anxiety with any personality disorder within this sample.

In part these results suggest that certain Axis II disorders may increase the risk of lifetime Axis I disorders.

The findings of no co-morbidity between the clinical disorders of substance use and anxiety with any personality disorder within sample are inconsistent to previous findings.

The London Mayoral Election of 4 May 2000 was probably the first in British electoral history when all the candidates had established a presence in cyberspace. An analysis of the 11 websites showed that politicians are beginning to realise the potential influence of the Web in political circles, both as a means of publication and also for canvassing support. Most of the web pages were well designed with a reasonable amount of content and simple levels of interactivity. Multimedia features were also evident on most sites, though in terms of currency and timeliness of information, some improvements could still be made.

Ned Piper needs to improve the performance of Acme Lumber’s Broken Arrow store. There are two candidates for the store manager’s position, Larry Frazier and Chip Farmer. Larry has worked for Acme for 35 years in a variety of positions and is related to the Johnson family who has owned and managed Acme for three generations. Chip has worked for Acme for 19 years and has successfully helped to turn around another store. Chip is not related to the Johnsons. Ned is feeling pressure from the business and family to make the right decision. Which candidate should he select to become a manager?

The authors used a case study methodology.

Human resources, selection, staffing, and family business management.

Socioemotional wealth perspective, and agency theory.

This article examines how contact with the police led to the death of Michael Brown (an unarmed 18-year-old Black teenager from Ferguson, Missouri, who was shot and killed during an altercation with a police officer). And, how Darren Wilson (the White police officer from the Ferguson Police Department who shot and killed Michael Brown) was portrayed in mainstream newspaper articles covering the story of Brown’s death.

Using both frame analysis and Hall’s framework of discursive domains for organizing and making sense of events in social life, we analyzed news coverage of Brown in three of the top circulating daily newspapers in the US: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. The Lexis Nexis database was used to retrieve a set of newspapers using the search term “Michael Brown.” Articles from the three leading newspapers were collected from the day the event occurred, August 9, 2014, through the end of the year, December 31, 2014.

The news articles used in this study were mostly written with an episodic frame. The articles presenting the socioeconomic background of Brown and Wilson were described as profiles on each individual and the neighborhood they came from, rather than a discussion about where they fell on the economic structure of this country and the larger, upstream forces that might influence those positions. The feelings and attitudes of the reader are also likely to be influenced by details included in the articles and how they were presented.

The findings contribute to the broader literature looking at the relationships between police and Black communities. Public health can play a role in advocating and facilitating programs that build better linkages between police and community. The public health field can take a leadership role in holding the news media accountable when they are engaging in frenetic inaction. Only by having difficult and challenging conversations that examines the upstream causes of violence and deaths like Brown’s, can we make progress in preventing them.

This chapter examines the framing of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement in mainstream media. An analytic sample of 4,303 articles collected from the Dow Jones Factiva database reveals variation in depth, breadth, and intensity of BLM coverage in the following newspapers between 2012 and 2016: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Al Jazeera English. We review contemporary literature on racial inequality and employ Media Framing and Critical Race Theory to discuss the implications of our findings on public perceptions, future policy formation, and contemporary social protest worldwide.

This paper aims to enhance understanding of organizational change by countering managerial and critical assumptions that it is possible to break with the past.

A qualitative, case study approach involving interviews with 50 staff, ten supervisors, eight deputy supervisors, four assistant managers, two departmental managers plus the IT, training and personnel managers. The paper focuses on the experiences of supervisors and deputy supervisors.

That culture cannot be so readily forgotten or reinvented as management gurus assume or critics fear. Memories are stubborn and culture is constituted through them in ways that lead to continuity and change.

Limitations leading to future research include that the study explores only one organization. Second, consultants are not used. Third, the reengineering only focus on a part of the organization. Fourth, the findings can be contrasted with an organization that is considered leading edge.

The qualitative findings provide a complex understanding of change especially in terms of how memory can serve to both facilitate and hinder change initiatives and how attempts to introduce more “informal” cultures simultaneously reproduce “formality”.