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The purpose of this paper is to describe the profile of community members admitted to the first high secure Therapeutic Community (TC) for males with learning disability and personality disorder.

This paper presents descriptive data.

The characteristics of the men admitted to a TC in the National High Secure Learning Disability Service are likely to present considerable challenges to the development and delivery of the service.

There is very little literature describing interventions for offenders with learning disability and personality disorder. This paper is one of a series that will describe the effectiveness of a TC for men with such difficulties.

The paper's aim is to describe the development of a therapeutic community for prisoners with a learning disability and suggested methods for increasing responsivity of the programme for this population.

This is a technical paper providing a descriptive account of the development of a new service provision for prisoners with a learning disability.

No research findings are presented, but the paper seeks to illustrate that programme responsivity can be enhanced by incorporating flexibility into the design and delivery of programmes.

With the exception of the adapted sex offender treatment programme there have been few available interventions for offenders with a learning disability in the criminal justice system. This paper provides an overview of both the process of accreditation and the development of the current accredited TC model for this population.

The core deficits associated with ASD pose significant obstacles to achieving social competence; indeed, the deficits, in many cases, define social incompetence. The diagnostic criteria for autism include qualitative impairment in social interactions and verbal and non-verbal communication, including delay in the acquisition of expressive language (American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2000). A pattern of narrow, restricted interests and stereotyped behavior are also requirements of the diagnosis. The diagnostic criteria for Asperger's Disorder also include impaired social interaction and restricted interests without delay in language acquisition and with average to above average intelligence (APA, 2000). In sum, ASD is defined by significant impairment in social functioning that is qualitatively distinctive from both typical social functioning and from social functioning deficits associated with other diagnoses.

The purpose of this paper is to compare learning-disabled (LD) and non-LD offenders in terms of their relating styles and to examine the relationship between relating styles and offence types.

Two groups of male offenders completed the Person’s Relating to Others Questionnaire – Version 3 (PROQ3) and were compared using an independent groups design. An adapted version of the PROQ3 was given to the first group, which consisted of 18 LD offenders detained within a mental health hospital. The second group consisted of 30 offenders detained within a Category B prison in the UK. Offenders were assigned to one of four offence categories (violence, homicide, sexual and robbery) and compared in terms of their PROQ3 scores.

The findings suggest that the sample of LD offenders had increased relating deficits compared to the non-LD offenders. The LD offenders achieved higher scores on four of the eight PROQ3 subscales; Upper Neutral (UN), Upper Close (UC), Neutral Close (NC), Lower Distant, and the total score. Significant differences were found on the UN, NC, Neutral Distant (ND), Upper Distant (UD) subscales and the total score for the robbery offenders compared to the other offence categories. Violent offenders achieved higher scores on the UC and Lower Distant subscales.

The need for research to focus on evaluating the treatment needs of lower functioning offenders in order to aid the development of LD-specific interventions. The need to evaluate the appropriateness of adapting mainstream offence focussed programmes for the LD population, given that there are potentially different treatment needs between these two distinct groups.

The results indicate that cognitive functioning is associated with higher levels of interpersonal deficit, suggesting increased treatment needs for the LD offender population. The study also highlighted that different treatment needs exist between the LD and non-LD offenders.

The purpose of this chapter is to summarize and integrate a body of psychological literature regarding an individual difference related to the experience of anxiety that largely, and somewhat surprisingly, has been overlooked by organizational scientists. This variable, most often called social anxiety or social phobia, reflects a strong fear that one is in danger of behaving inappropriately, inadequately, or ineptly, with impending disastrous consequences such as rejection, humiliation, or ouster from a group (Trower & Gilbert, 1990). In providing a summary of the construct and ongoing investigations, the chapter offers ideas for future research into how this important variable may influence behaviors at work.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between psychopathic features as measured with the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV) and behavioural and emotional functioning in young female offenders in custody.

This is a quantitative interview study investigating the relationship with psychopathic traits, measured with the PCL:YV (Forth et al., 2003), and different psychological characteristics as well as AD/HD, self-harm, and childhood trauma in adolescent offenders across genders. Data were collected from a sample of 40 female and 40 male adolescents who were incarcerated in Victoria, Australia.

Results indicated that the behavioural subscales of the PCL:YV were associated with externalising behaviours possibly underpinned by histories of abuse and substantiated child protection incidences. The presence of AD/HD was strongly associated with affective deficits suggesting that the PCL:YV may be identifying young females with AD/HD rather than core psychopathic traits. Findings also indicate that female-specific manifestations of manipulation are likely being misidentified as behavioural phenomena precluding clinical recognition as a core interpersonal trait. Significant dissimilarities with a young male comparison group were identified and are discussed within.

The sample size is very small and the results should be seen as an indication rather than generalising.

Studies on female juvenile offenders is rare and this study adds to the literature on the construct of psychopathy and its relationship to psychosocial factors as well as associations with AD/HD, self-harm, and childhood trauma, among incarcerated adolescents.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of a gender-specific group treatment programme for personality disordered (PD) women in a medium secure psychiatric setting.

In all, 56 consecutive admissions with a primary diagnosis of personality disorder (mostly borderline type) and co-morbidity were assessed according to their participation in, and benefit from, a core set of five manualised group treatments that focused on social and interpersonal deficits, instability of mood and problematic substance use. A single cohort pre-test post-test comparison design was used with evaluation based on global change over an amalgam of self-report group specific outcome measures.

In all, 70 per cent of patients attended three or more core groups, with attendance for each group ranging from 85 to 53 per cent. Between 65 and 77 per cent of patients showed a significant improvement on pre-group psychometrics. Patients who achieved a significant positive change in one group tended to do so in others. In all, 85 per cent of patients who completed two or more groups had overall positive direction of change scores. Those who benefited from treatment engaged more quickly, were more likely to have been admitted from hospital, to have previously engaged in therapy and to score lower on measures of impulsivity and personality pathology.

In a clinically representative study the absence of a control group limits the extent to which observed changes can be attributed to described interventions.

Findings reflect the importance of providing a broad clinical approach to changing cognitive behavioural functioning with PD patients in secure settings. They also highlight the need to improve ways of engaging patients at an earlier stage of hospital stay and of increasing the acceptability and uptake of relevant group treatments. Further evidence-informed service developments are needed to meet these challenges.

The study adds to a small literature on the clinical impact of a gender-specific group treatment programme for PD women in secure settings.

Using job demands-resources (JD-R) theory as a conceptual apparatus, the purpose of this paper is to report an empirical exploration of the experiences of host-country national (HCN) employees when their organization hosts an expatriate assignment.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 Vietnamese HCNs who had vast experience hosting multiple self-initiated expatriates with organizational development objectives.

The study reveals previously hidden costs associated with locals’ support for expatriates, including a range of extra-role demands and more complex and stressful interpersonal interactions. These demands exceeded the current intercultural capabilities of many respondents, and while offset to some extent by their positive pre-arrival attitudes and culture-specific knowledge, led to sometimes counterproductive coping responses such as withdrawal behaviors.

The study extends the JD-R framework by explicating which demands and resources are pertinent to HCNs, and how these activate particular coping strategies. The cultural context of Vietnam, as both a setting for the workplace interactions and imbued in the values and assumptions of respondents, limits the study’s transferability.

The findings provide guideposts for organizations in ways to offset HCNs’ hindrance demands (e.g. matching demands to current capabilities) and to encourage the use of productive coping strategies via, for instance, anticipating and mitigating potential challenges.

The study’s insights go some way toward articulating more fully the richness and complexity of HCNs’ experiences, and a more rounded perspective of the costs and benefits inherent in international work assignments.

The purpose of this paper is to collate the available research into the characteristics of child abuse material (CAM) offenders to inform future assessment and treatment options. This systematic review collates the contribution and directionality of variables from existing research assessing an offenders’ use of CAM.

Background and definitions of terminology are reviewed, and a summary of sexual reoffending rates provided. Articles were then identified for inclusion through a systematic review using online searches, EBSCOHost and other databases. Articles were also identified from reference lists. After exclusions, the final sample (n=17) were reviewed for identified variables and their directional contribution to risk.

Internet only (IO) offenders present with a range of similarities and differences. The demographic, psychological and offence-specific risk variables identified suggest IO offenders differ from other types of sexual offenders. Using the collated variables, IO offender profiles are suggested.

Limitations have been identified in the availability of research in this area, the variety of terminology and the definitions in common usage. Additionally, there are challenges in ascertaining the truthfulness of self-reported data.

Development of IO offender-specific risk assessment tools would contribute to advances in targeted supervision and treatment. In turn, this contributes to community safety by protecting children from online sexual victimisation.

Based on identified gaps, this review contributes to ongoing research by signalling future pathways for IO offender-specific risk assessment.

The purpose of this paper is to describe in detail the treatment pathway utilised in a male medium and low secure intellectual disability (ID) service. Over the preceding five years, service users have followed the outlined treatment pathway. The current paper offers case study material to illustrate the care pathway.

The treatment pathway is described and two case examples are provided, illustrating participation in the pathway. Evaluative data are provided on length of hospitalisation, direction of pathway at discharge and risk reduction as assessed by the HCR-20, SVR-20 and HONOS Secure measures.

The case examples provided document the assessment and treatment of two male offenders with ID, outlining their treatment pathways, subsequent reductions in assessed risk and their successful community discharge.

A comprehensive treatment pathway is outlined together with the theoretical rationale, with illustrative case examples.