Yuille, John C.

This study investigated the role of culture, healing and spirituality in treatment programs for Aboriginal offenders. Aboriginal people have been profoundly affected by their contact with Europeans and one negative consequence is their over-representation in the Canadian Criminal Justice System (CJS) (Chisholm, 1994). In British Columbia, Aboriginal adults constitute approximately 5% of the population, but they represent 20% of those incarcerated; Aboriginals comprise 8% of the adult population in Saskatchewan, yet they constitute 76% of incarcerated individuals (Boe, 2000). By virtue of their overrepresentation, Aboriginals present as a special interest group in the CJS. As the Correctional Services of Canada (CSC) implements a number of treatment programs that Aboriginal inmates have an opportunity to attend (CSC webpage, www.csc-scc.gc.ca ), knowledge of the effectiveness of these programs is important. A total of 50 offenders participated in the study: 40 Aboriginal men and 10 non-Aboriginal men. Participants were required to fill out a research package consisting of the following components: a consent form, a background information questionnaire, a treatment/program involvement questionnaire, the Native American Acculturation Scale, and the Balanced Inventory for Desired Responding. The results of the study support prior findings (Hodgson & Heckbert, 1994; Johnston, 1997; Waldram, 1993) indicating that spirituality, culture and practicing traditions are fundamental components of treatment programs for Aboriginal offenders. More specifically, many Aboriginal participants (52%) in this sample indicated that they considered Aboriginal programs effective because of their cultural and spiritual components. Additionally, Aboriginal participants reported that healing contributed to treatment effectiveness for both Aboriginal programs (44%) and, to a lesser extent, non Aboriginal programs (18.5%). Furthermore, an encouraging discovery was that these participants reported that Aboriginal programs are, in their view, moderately (28%) to highly (40%) likely to decrease their recidivism. Additionally, Aboriginal participants also reported that they most often solicit assistance and support from Aboriginal people when experiencing personal problems (92.5%), institutional problems (85%) and consider Aboriginal people to be the most supportive people (90%). Although results indicated that it is necessary for CSC to be culturally sensitive in accommodating Aboriginal offenders, further research is required to investigate the actual, as opposed to perceived, effectiveness of current Aboriginal programs operating at CSC, as well as assisting in designing and implementing future programs and activities that are culturally appropriate.

In predicting treatment compliance in individuals with severe mental illness, research has focused on variables such as substance abuse, personality, history of child abuse, and symptomatology, although these relationships have not been investigated in great detail in individuals at the onset of mental illness. To better understand these correlates of treatment compliance, two samples were examined: a sample of 117 individuals presenting with a first episode of psychosis and a more chronic forensic sample of 65 participants recruited from a psychiatric hospital. These samples were investigated for service engagement in terms of violence history, substance abuse, symptom severity, psychopathic traits and history of childhood abuse. Linear regressions performed for the first episode sample revealed that childhood physical abuse was the strongest predictor of poor service engagement, followed by problems with alcohol, a history of physical violence, any history of violence and higher psychopathic traits. Linear regression revealed for the forensic group that a lower level of service engagement was most strongly predicted by a history of childhood abuse and a higher score on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS). Results are presented in light of the existing literature and clinical implications are discussed.

(Purpose). Evaluating truthfulness is an integral part of any forensic assessment. Unfortunately, the motives underlying the use of deceptive strategies by offenders and how these may be mediated by personality are not well established, particularly in adolescent samples. Accordingly, the aim of the present study was to identify different deception‐related motivations in a sample of juvenile offenders, with special emphasis placed on the relationship between these motivations and psychopathic traits. (Methods.) Archived file and videotaped information for 60 Canadian federal juvenile offenders were reviewed in order to identify real‐life (spontaneous) patterns of deceptive motivations. (Results.) It was found that there were significant differences between the low, medium, and high groups across psychopathic traits for the motivations of (1) lies to obtain a reward; (2) to heighten self‐presentation; and (3) for duping delight. (Conclusions.) Not only were juvenile offenders found to lie for a variety of reasons, but also psychopathy was found to mediate the specific motivational patterns leading to offender perpetrated deception. The relevance of these findings to the assessment of truthfulness in offender populations is discussed.