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Young People’s Self-Disclosure in Secure Forensic Settings
Abstract
This chapter explores the act of self-disclosure for young people in forensic settings. Self-disclosure is a process whereby we verbalise personal thoughts, feelings, behaviours and autobiographical details, and let them become known to another. The general (non-forensic) adult psychotherapy literature has long understood the importance of self-disclosure for physical and psychological well-being (Jourard 1971; Besharat 2007; Forrest 2010). It could be argued that self-disclosure is equally important in forensic contexts, in order to improve the well-being of the young person and to ensure that information is obtained for an accurate assessment of risk to self and to others. However, it is also possible that there are specific costs to the young person when disclosing personal information about themselves in a secure forensic setting; these potential costs must also be considered when conceptualising the process of disclosure.
Incarcerated individuals experience mental health symptoms resulting from the stress of incarceration, as well as from prior histories of trauma. In addition, the growth of the prison population and the increase in sentence lengths have eroded conditions in correctional facilities, leading to increased stress, trauma, and other mental health issues. Psychologists can help incarcerated individuals address existing mental health issues, cope with the trauma of incarceration, and prepare for successful re‐entry into society. However, the effectiveness of psychotherapy may be hampered by a number of factors that inhibit client disclosure in correctional settings. Based on interviews with forensic psychologists and an incarcerated patient, this paper explores the circumstances that prevent disclosure in correctional settings and proposes recommendations for psychologists to facilitate disclosure to improve therapeutic effectiveness.
The primary aim of this multimethod study was to investigate client perceptions of the process, benefits, difficulties, and consequences of disclosing and withholding material in psychotherapy sessions. Twenty-one clients in psychotherapy, most engaged in long-term psychodynamically oriented treatment, participated in semistructured interviews and completed several Likert-type scales. Results indicate that most clients feel that therapy is a safe place to disclose, made especially so by the goodness of the therapeutic relationship; that the disclosure process initially generates shame and anticipatory anxiety but ultimately engenders feelings of safety, pride, and authenticity; that keeping secrets inhibits the work of therapy, whereas disclosing produces a sense of relief from physical as well as emotional tension; that disclosures in therapy facilitate subsequent disclosures to one's therapist as well as to family members and friends; and that therapists should actively pursue material that is difficult to disclose. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Self-disclosure, as communication of information about one's affects, behaviors, and cognitions, has been emphasized as one of the central issues of the psychotherapeutic process. Verbal and nonverbal aspects of disclosure are important factors of psychotherapeutic communication, both for therapist and patient. This paper presents an account of the development and reliability of an observational instrument to measure patient's response style to therapist and therapy: the self-disclosure and emotional engagement. One hundred thirty eating disordered patients were interviewed using a semi-structured interview. Videotapes were assessed by two independent raters. Inter-rater reliability was good for both dimensions of the Patient Response Style Scale (PRSS): Self-Disclosure (SD) and Emotional Engagement (EEn).
The authors examined the relation between a client's disclosure of emotional material in an analogue psychotherapy session and the depth and smoothness of that session. Transcripts of 33 prepracticum psychotherapy sessions (3 sessions each from 11 volunteer clients) were coded for client disclosures, and the text of these disclosures was subjected to a computer analysis to count the number of positive and negative emotion words. While controlling for client functioning, sessions in which clients disclosed more and used more positive-emotion words in their disclosures were rated as having more depth. Clients' use of emotion in their disclosures was not related to session smoothness. Findings from this study suggest aspects of client disclosure that are associated with deeper sessions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).
This article fully explicates the disclosure management model developed from my research, providing a comprehensive description of each of the four styles of “disclosure”. It includes numerous transcript excerpts by way of illustration. The intention is to provide theorists and clinicians with sufficient information to be able to accurately apply the model in clinical practice. In this way treatment issues can be identified and addressed to promote therapeutic engagement. A key component of the functional engagement of child sex offenders in a group-based programme is the disclosure of certain personal information. Such information is required to be of a type and presented in a way that facilitates open exchange in the group, promoting understanding of the presenter’s offence pattern and conveying his sole responsibility for the offending. The model explained in this paper, based on an outcome from a grounded theory study, describes in detail four distinct orientations to such disclosure. Each is associated with a particular style of managing the disclosure encounter. Three of these disclosure management styles can be described as essentially “resistant” in nature, but only one is overtly oppositional. The two other “resistant” styles of disclosure management emerge as more covert and perhaps less readily identifiable expressions of reluctance. The implications of the model for work with this population and in more general settings are discussed.
third of the respondents had been working prior to coming to prison. The remainder mostly said they had been unemployed and looking for work or living off crime. More than eight out of 10 of the young offenders in the sample said that they currently smoked cigarettes. Just over one in 10 respondents said they had never drunk alcohol in the year before coming to prison, while over a quarter said they drank alcohol four or more times a week during that time. More than six out of 10 said they had used some illicit drug in the month before coming to prison. Very few of the young offenders had been in prison for two or more years during their current prison term (less than 2%) and the majority had been in prison for less than a year. Over half the young offenders were being held for acquisitive offences— burglary, robbery, and theft—while about one in five were being held for a violent offence. Among the women drug offences were also common: about one in five of the sample were being held for these offences.
This study examines correlates of offender confession in criminal sexual conduct cases involving children. The cases consist of all closed court files (N=318), spanning the last 10 years from a single jurisdiction. This jurisdiction has a community-wide protocol for handling child sexual abuse cases, a high rate of charging (69%), a high rate of confession (64%), and high rates of pleas to sex crimes (77%). To determine what factors were associated with suspect confession before adjudication, we examined characteristics of the suspect, the child, the abuse, and the system using bi-variate and multi-variate analysis. The following four variables are associated with suspect confession: (1) having the state police conducting the law enforcement part of the investigation, (2) more serious abuse, (3) younger age of the suspect, and (4) having a court appointed (as opposed to a retained) attorney.
This book constitutes a critical case study of the modern search for public sector reform. It includes a detailed account of a study aimed at developing a meaningful way of evaluating difficult-to-measure moral dimensions of the quality of prisons. Penal practices, values, and sensibilities have undergone important transformations over the period 1990-2003. Part of this transformation included a serious flirtation with a liberal penal project that went wrong. A significant factor in this unfortunate turn of events was a lack of clarity, by those working in and managing prisons, about important terms such as ‘justice’, ‘liberal’, and ‘care’, and how they might apply to daily penal life. Official measures of the prison seem to lack relevance to many who live and work in prison and to their critics. The author proposes that a truer test of the quality of prison life is what staff and prisoners have to say about those aspects of prison life that ‘matter most’: relationships, fairness, order, and the quality of their treatment. The book attempts a detailed analysis and measurement of these dimensions in five prisons. It finds significant differences between establishments in these areas of prison life, and some departures from the official vision of the prison supported by the performance framework. The information revolution has generated unprecedented levels of knowledge about individual prisons, as well as providing a management reach into establishments from a distance, and a capacity for ‘chronic revision’, that was unimaginable fifty years ago. Another major transformation – the modernisation project – brought with it a new, but flawed, ‘craft’ of performance monitoring and measurement aimed at solving some of the problems of prison management. This book explores the arrival and the impact of this concept of performance and the links apparently forged between managerialism and moral values.
While the use of imprisonment continues to rise in developed nations, we have little sociological knowledge of the prison's inner world. Based on extensive fieldwork in a medium-security prison in the UK, HMP Wellingborough, this book provides an in-depth analysis of the prison's social anatomy. It explains how power is exercised by the institution, individualizing the prisoner community and demanding particular forms of compliance and engagement. Drawing on prisoners' life stories, it shows how different prisoners experience and respond to the new range of penal practices and frustrations. It then explains how the prisoner society - its norms, hierarchy, and social relationships - is shaped both by these conditions of confinement and by the different backgrounds, values, and identities that prisoners bring into the prison environment.
This book examines how young men between the ages of 18 and 21 make the transition to prison life and how they adapt practically, socially and psychologically. Based on extensive research in Feltham Young Offenders Institution, this book examines in particular the role of social support, both inside and outside prison, in relation to their adaptation, along with the constructs of trust, locus of control, and safety. It concentrates both on the successful adaptation to prison life and on the experience of individuals who have difficulties in adapting; it pays special attention to those who harm themselves whilst in prison. It is the first study to provide an in-depth account of the psycho-social experience of imprisonment for young adults. Understanding this early stage of imprisonment is of major importance to policy makers and practitioners in the light of the fact that up to a half of completed suicides occur within the first month in prison.
Purpose
– The current study aims to report on the development of a self‐report measure of disclosure strategies in adult male prisoners (violent and acquisitive offences) and its association with personality and self‐esteem.
Design/methodology/approach
– The study employed an adapted version of the Delphi technique to develop initial items for inclusion in the new disclosure measure (Disclosure Management Questionnaire: DMQ). This element of the study utilised an “expert sample” of forensic psychologists. A total of 94 prisoners then completed the developed measure. Factor analysis was utilised to explore the structure of the measure, which subsequently allowed associations between disclosure strategies, personality and self‐esteem to be identified.
Findings
– Analysis revealed a measure of disclosure (the DMQ) comprising four subscales: Exploratory Engagement, Placatory/Evasive Engagement, Passive Resistance and Active Resistance. Significant correlations were identified between the personality trait Neuroticism and higher levels of Placatory/Evasive Engagement and Active Resistance of forensic clients during the disclosure process. Self‐esteem was also found to correlate with disclosure, in that high trait self‐esteem was found to be associated with higher exploratory engagement, whereas low trait self‐esteem was associated with higher levels of active resistance of the disclosure process.
Originality/value
– Developing an understanding of the nature and function of disclosure and how these relate to individual factors such as personality (including trait self‐esteem) provides valuable knowledge and alternative ways of supporting forensic clients in discussing difficult issues related to their offending.
Purpose. This paper is a survey examining beliefs about cues to deception held by prison inmates, prison personnel and students. In line with the ideas about more beneficial learning structures in the environment of criminals and findings from previous studies, we predicted that the beliefs held by prison inmates would be most consistent with the general pattern found in studies examining objective cues to deception.
Method. A total of 326 participants filled out a questionnaire containing questions about cues to deception. The sample consisted of 107 prison inmates from high‐security prisons, 103 prison personnel and 116 students. Both between‐group and within‐group analyses were conducted.
Results. In line with previous surveys, students and prison personnel held stereotypical and wrongful beliefs about cues to deception. Prison inmates' beliefs about deception were less stereotypical than the beliefs of prison personnel and students.
Conclusions. The results indicate that prison inmates have relatively more insight into the psychology of deception. A reasonable explanation for these findings is that the environment of criminals is beneficial in the sense that they receive more adequate outcome feedback than the other two groups. The results indicate that studying this group may generate useful knowledge about the dynamics of deception.
The mental health needs of children and adolescents in secure care are a matter of concern, but little systematic research has been done. Our aim was to assess the mental health, social, and educational needs of these young people in a prospective, longitudinal study.
We enrolled 97 boys aged 12-17 years who had been admitted to secure care. We assessed their needs (n=97) at the time of admission and 3 months later (n=90) with standardised interviews and psychometric tests.
26 (27%) boys had an intelligence quotient (IQ) of less than 70. The need for psychiatric help was high on admission to a secure unit, with the most frequent disorders being depression and anxiety. There were high rates of aggression, substance misuse, self harm, and social, family, and educational problems, and associated needs. The mean number of needs was 8.5 (SD 2.9) on admission and 2.9 (SD 2.4) after 3 months (mean difference 5.6, 95% CI 5.0-6.3). Areas in which needs were mostly met included education, substance misuse, self care, and diet. Areas where the frequency of need fell substantially, but remained high, were social and family problems, and aggressive behaviours. Psychological needs persisted, with new onsets of depression, anxiety problems, and post-traumatic-stress symptoms shortly after admission. The most frequently required interventions were psychological assessment and cognitive behavioural work.
Boys in secure care have many needs and a high rate of psychiatric morbidity. During the admission period, secure care units address some domains of need, but others remain unchanged or get worse. Psychological and psychiatric provision in secure units need to be improved.
A confession, when properly and fairly obtained, is powerful evidence against a suspect and will generally guarantee a conviction. There are a number of theoretical models that explain why suspects confess to crimes they have committed. In this chapter, the key models and the relevant empirical evidence are discussed. The evidence shows that sex offenders, and particularly child molesters, sometimes have a strong need to talk about their crimes due to the feelings of guilt and this gives the police an advantage. However, sex offenders also find it difficult to be open, honest and complete when interrogated due to the feelings of shame, which act to inhibit their motivation to confess. They are therefore torn between feelings of guilt, which encourages them to confess, and feelings of shame, which inhibit them from confessing. As a consequence, feelings of shame need to be overcome during the interrogation, which means that sex offenders need to be interviewed sensitively and skillfully. Any challenges need to be presented in a 'softly' fashion and with understanding of the perpetrator's perspective and emotional needs.
Young prisoners and their mental health: Reflections on providing therapy, Special Issue: Young Prisoners
- J Harvey
Bullying among Prisoners: Evidence, Research and Intervention Strategies
- J Ireland
Three Degrees of Security: Attachment and Forensic Institutions A Matter ofSecurity: The Application ofAttachment Theory to Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
- G Adshead
The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy
- I D Yalom
- ID Yalom
The Mental Health of Prisoners: A Thematic Review of the Care and Support of Prisoners with Mental Health Needs
- HMCIP