Offenders with Mental Disorders in a South African Prison Population: Profiling the Behavioural Characteristics on Mental Illness

Prinsloo, Johan

doi:10.1080/14330237.2013.10820607

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Further, SA young men who report being stressed are more likely to have a history of arrests. Prisoners and arrestees in SA, as with many other countries, experience higher rates of neuropsychiatric disorders than the general population [19, 20]. A large-scale longitudinal analysis in the United States reports that individuals with severe mental illness are only more violent if they also experience substance abuse [18].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recently, attention has been focused on the mental health of individuals who come into contact with the criminal justice system [17, 18]. As with many other countries, SA experiences high rates of neuropsychiatric disorders in its prison system [19, 20]. Thus, we expect these individual factors (less income and education, younger age, and less cohabitation) and mental health risks (more stress and depressed symptoms) to be associated with arrests.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Community context and individual factors associated with arrests among young men in a South African township

Christodoulou¹,

Stokes²,

Bantjes³

et al. 2019

PLoS ONE

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BackgroundIn high-income countries, individual- and community-level factors are associated with increased contact with the criminal justice system. However, little is known about how these factors contribute to the risk of arrest in South Africa, which has one of the highest rates of arrests globally. We examine both individual- and community-level factors associated with arrests among young men living in the townships of Cape Town.MethodsData were collected from a stratified community sample of 906 young men aged 18–29 years old living in 18 township neighborhoods. Communities with high and low rates of arrest were identified. Logistic regression models were used to assess which individual-level (such as substance use and mental health status) and community-level (such as infrastructure and presence of bars and gangs) factors predict arrests.ResultsSignificant predictors of arrests were substance use, gang activity, being older, more stressed, and less educated. Living in communities with better infrastructure and in more recently established communities populated by recent immigrants was associated with having a history of arrests.ConclusionsWhen considering both individual- and community-level factors, substance use and gang violence are the strongest predictors of arrests among young men in South Africa. Unexpectedly, communities with better infrastructure have higher arrest rates. Community programs are needed to combat substance use and gang activity as a pathway out of risk among South African young men.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov registration #NCT02358226, registered Nov 24, 2014

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community context and individual factors associated with arrests among young men in a South African township

Christodoulou¹,

Stokes²,

Bantjes³

et al. 2019

PLoS ONE

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“…There is a growing body of literature describing the inhumane and unsafe conditions within South African prisons. Overcrowding and resource constraints are major concerns, and are associated with elevated levels of psychological stress, psychiatric illness, interpersonal violence, physical assault and sexual abuse within South African prisons [ 30 – 33 ]. Benatar [ 11 ] has drawn attention to how overcrowding leads to a lack of rehabilitation programs, and extremely limited and often non-existent recreational or work opportunities in South African prisons.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rates of interpersonal violence and sexual assault are also alarmingly high within South African prisons, mostly as a result of the nefarious influence of gangs [ 12 , 30 – 32 ]. Furthermore, rates of psychopathology are high among prisoners; Naidoo and Mkize [ 35 ] report that 55.4% of offenders met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for an Axis 1 disorder, and Prinsloo [ 33 ] found that 78.4% of offenders with sentences of more than 25 years had diagnosable mental conditions. There is a significant mental health treatment gap, with very few prisoners receiving the psychological and psychiatric care they require [ 35 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human rights and mental health in post-apartheid South Africa: lessons from health care professionals working with suicidal inmates in the prison system

Bantjes

Swartz

Niewoudt

2017

BMC Int Health Hum Rights

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BackgroundDuring the era of apartheid in South Africa, a number of mental health professionals were vocal about the need for socio-economic and political reform. They described the deleterious psychological and social impact of the oppressive and discriminatory Nationalist state policies. However, they remained optimistic that democracy would usher in positive changes. In this article, we consider how mental health professionals working in post-apartheid South Africa experience their work.MethodsOur aim was to describe the experience of mental health professionals working in prisons who provide care to suicidal prisoners. Data were collected from in-depth semi-structured interviews and were analyzed using thematic content analysis.ResultsFindings draw attention to the challenges mental health professionals in post-apartheid South Africa face when attempting to provide psychological care in settings where resources are scarce and where the environment is anti-therapeutic. Findings highlight the significant gap between current policies, which protect prisoners’ human rights, and every-day practices within prisons.ConclusionsThe findings imply that there is still an urgent need for activism in South Africa, particularly in the context of providing mental health care services in settings which are anti-therapeutic and inadequately resourced, such as prisons.

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“…maintains that this inventory has several important advantages over other violence risk measures: a) the SAQ can be completed approximately in only 20 minutes, b) the SAQ can be administered in groups, and c) interpreting the results requires minimal professional time, minimal training, and no special certification to obtain credible and reliable results. Despite that the use of self-report questionnaires can be vulnerable to self-presentation biases in forensic settings, different studies have also found evidence that self-report questionnaires can be as reliable and valid as observer rating instruments for violence risk assessment Mills, Loza, & Kroner, 2003;Prinsloo, 2013). From these considerations about the SAQ for predicting violence risk, the purpose of this study was to analyze the concurrent and predictive validity of this self-report measure in a sample of Spanish offenders.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting risk of violence through a self-appraisal questionnaire

Rodríguez

Peña-Fernández

Loza

2016

The European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context

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a b s t r a c tThe Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ) is a self-report that predicts the risk of violence and recidivism and provides relevant information about treatment needs for incarcerated populations. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the concurrent and predictive validity of this self-report in Spanish offenders. The SAQ was administered to 276 offenders recruited from several prisons in Madrid (Spain). SAQ total scores presented high levels of internal consistency (alpha = .92). Correlations of the instrument with violence risk instruments were statistically significant and showed a moderate magnitude, indicating a reasonable degree of concurrent validity. The ROC analysis carried out on the SAQ total score revealed an AUC of .80, showing acceptable accuracy discriminating between violent and nonviolent recidivist groups. It is concluded that the SAQ total score is a reliable and valid measure to estimate violence and recidivism risk in Spanish offenders. Predicción del riesgo de violencia mediante un cuestionario de auto-evaluaciónPalabras clave: Cuestionario de autovaloración Riesgo de violencia Validez concurrente y predictiva r e s u m e n El cuestionario Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ) [cuestionario de autovaloración] es una medida de auto-informe que predice el riesgo de violencia y reincidencia, además de permitir evaluar las necesidades de tratamiento para poblaciones penitenciarias. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar su validez concurrente y predictiva en una muestra española de delincuentes. El cuestionario fue administrado a 276 delincuentes procedentes de varios centros penitenciarios de Madrid (España). El coeficiente alfa de Cronbach que se obtuvo para la puntuación total del SAQ fue elevado (alfa = .92). Las correlaciones obtenidas con otros instrumentos de riesgo de violencia fueron estadísticamente significativas y presentaron una magnitud moderada, indicando un razonable grado de validez concurrente del instrumento. El análisis de la curva ROC reveló un área bajo la curva de .80, mostrando una aceptable capacidad de precisión a la hora de discriminar entre grupos de reincidentes violentos y no violentos. Se concluye que la puntuación total del SAQ proporciona una medida suficientemente fiable y válida para estimar violencia y riesgo de reincidencia en población de delincuentes españoles.

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Offenders with Mental Disorders in a South African Prison Population: Profiling the Behavioural Characteristics on Mental Illness

Cited by 10 publications

References 7 publications

Community context and individual factors associated with arrests among young men in a South African township

Community context and individual factors associated with arrests among young men in a South African township

Human rights and mental health in post-apartheid South Africa: lessons from health care professionals working with suicidal inmates in the prison system

Predicting risk of violence through a self-appraisal questionnaire

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