Negative societal attitudes toward ex-offenders serve as barriers to jobs and opportunities. Released offenders with limited opportunities revert to what they know best and end up re-incarcerated with failed reentry. The purpose of this study was to analyze attitudes of college students toward ex-offenders. A correlation quantitative research…

Numerous research studies have focused on recidivism rates ignoring education to inmates as a technique of reducing recidivism. This qualitative study investigates the faculty perception of teaching in selected correctional facilities. A sample of fifty-three faculty members teaching within four selected correctional facilities within a 60 mile…

Objective: This study evaluated the ability of delinquent peer affiliation to mediate the effects of multidimensional treatment foster care (MTFC; Chamberlain, 2003) on girls' delinquent behavior. Method: This study used a sample of girls from 2 cohorts (N = 166; M = 15.31 years old at baseline, range 13-17 years; 74% European American, 2% African…

Despite general consensus over the value of measuring self-reported offending, discrepancies exist in methods of scoring self-reported offending and the length of the reference period over which offending is assessed. This analysis compared the concurrent interassociations and longitudinal predictive strength of diversity, frequency, and severity…

This study compares sexually victimized and nonsexually victimized male adolescent sexual abusers on a number of variables. Self-report measures were administered to 325 male sexually abusive youth (average age 16) in six residential facilities in the Midwest, 55% of whom reported sexual victimization. The results indicate that the sexually…

Background: This cross-sectional study aims to assess whether there are differences in staff job satisfaction, including organizational and individual characteristics, between three residential models for adults with intellectual disabilities (small residential home, group home and institution) and to investigate the organizational and individual…

As prison populations soar at unprecedented rates, the need for high quality education behind bars has never been greater. Prison education programs are the vehicle for reform and may be the solution to curtailing an ever-growing prison population. Yet, as the public sector increasingly contracts with the private sector for prison management,…

The authors investigated the differences in characteristics and risk behaviors endorsed by detained adolescent methamphetamine users and compared them with other drug users. Subjects completed the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory and a questionnaire in which sociodemographics and behavioral information were explored and compared. Multivariate…

Background: Staff working within secure services for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) are likely to work with sexual offenders, but very little attention has been paid to how they think about this sexual offending behaviour. Method: Forty-eight staff working within secure services for people with ID were recruited and completed the…

Two groups of male adolescents, incarcerated young offenders (N = 64, mean age = 16.3 years) and a comparison group of community youth (N = 60; mean age = 16.6 years), were administered the Empathy Continuum (measuring cognitive-affective responses to persons in emotionally evocative videotaped vignettes) and questionnaire measures of empathy,…

The effects of "Problem Solving" (Taymans & Parese, 1998) are compared across small diversion and prison samples for men and women. A second program, "Pathfinders" (Hansen, 1993), was compared to the Problem Solving program among incarcerated women offenders to determine whether its focus upon empowerment and relationships enhanced the effects of…

The purpose of the present study was to measure attitudes towards sex offenders held by professionals and paraprofessionals and to evaluate an introductory training workshop aimed at increasing knowledge and improving attitudes to this client group. Eighty-five residential hostel workers and probation officers attended an intensive two-day…

Background: Recent government papers have expressed concern about the poor educational attainment of "looked after" children. Early reading development has been found to be significant in their subsequent academic achievement. The possibility that biosocial factors extraneous to their experiences in public care may underpin their low…