Treatment needs of female offenders: a review

Abstract

The number of women involved in the criminal justice system is growing, yet few programs and services are geared specifically towards their needs. Moreover, even with gender‐specific programming, a risk management model (Andrews & Bonta, 1998) has dominated rehabilitation policy, where criminogenic needs or harm avoidance have been the primary focus. Development of a theoretical approach that embraces gender‐specific treatment and addresses the realities of women's lives is critical. This paper posits that the enhancement model (Ward & Stewart, in press) provides such a framework to guide the construction of rehabilitation programs for female offenders. This model moves away from focusing on criminogenic needs, and instead emphasises enhancing offender capabilities to assist women in living balanced and fulfilling lives. A review of female‐specific treatment needs encompassed within the enhancement model is therefore outlined, including issues of physical and sexual abuse, mental health, children and families, vocation, life skills and substance abuse. The integration of these needs into a holistic rehabilitation framework conceptually based on the enhancement model is then proposed. We argue that this framework is fundamental to reducing female recidivism, and improving women's wellbeing and overall quality of life.

G-map's application of the Good Lives Model to adolescent males who sexually harm: A case study

“…The model appears to have applicability to different populations, including traversing both gender (Sorbello, Eccleston, Ward, & Jones, 2002) and offender types (Ward et al, 2007), as well as having relevance for personality-disordered individuals, including psychopaths (Ward et al, 2007). While this relatively new theory has 'external consistency' and potential 'exploratory depth', its assessment and treatment components currently lack empirical support (Ward, Polaschek, & Beech, 2006).…”

Female Fire-Setters: Gender-Associated Psychological and Psychopathological Features

“…This was further substantiated by the robust follow-up analyses controlling for the other psychopathological features. Some argue that firesetting is a behavioral manifestation of such diagnoses (i.e., Hoertel et al, 2011), and given that internalizing behaviors such as suicide and self-harming are more common in the female offender population (Byrne and Howells, 2002;Sorbello et al, 2002), it can be argued that firesetting is a form of expression. Amongst Axis I diagnoses, fewer differences were found between female firesetters and female control offenders which is mirrored in the existing literature (see Gannon, 2010).…”

“…These findings in firesetters could also be a manifestation of gender differences found in affective and depressive diagnoses. Typically, female offenders are more likely to engage in selfharming behavior (e.g., Blanchette and Brown, 2006;Byrne and Howells, 2002;Sorbello et al, 2002), thus firesetting might be the behavioral manifestation of this form of coping (Hoertel et al, 2011).…”

“…Our study extends this research by comparing female firesetters, female offender controls, and male firesetters in prison settings. Based on the limited research available, when controlling for socio-demographic variables, we hypothesized that: (1) male and female firesetters will exemplify similar gender differences to the wider literature supporting that female firesetters require gender-specific treatment and rehabilitation programme provision (Bloom and Covington, 1998;Sorbello et al, 2002); and (2) female firesetters will be associated with distinct psychopathological and psychological characteristics relative to female offender controls.…”

Descriptive Model of the Offence Process of Women Violent Offenders: Distal Background Variables

“…The primary utility of our general knowledge and understanding of violence lies in its application to the effective rehabilitation of offenders incarcerated for crimes committed within this offence category, with the goal of reducing the overall rate of violent offending. While the literature largely reflects an absence of theoretical understanding of women's violence and a corresponding lack of empirical exploration, researchers are increasingly calling for the planning and implementation of rehabilitation based on the more gender-specific needs identified among women offenders (Sorbello, Eccleston, Ward, & Jones, 2002).…”