Cognitive Behavioral Programs - Research Paper Example

Cognitive Behavioral Programs Abstract Imprisonment costs and prison expansions had always strained the states for their financial demands. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which is evidence based practice, was found to be effective in lowering recidivism. CBT brings together different practices borrowing from cognitive and behavioral therapies, as well as social learning concepts. It introduces varying programs, which require proper and strategic implementation for them to be effective upon application. The first two common CBT programs are MRT and R&R, which are practiced widely across the world. Since their introduction, research has indicated that they have acquired wide acceptance and regarded more effective than others in treatment of offenders. The others are RPT and Criminal Conduct and Substance Abuse Treatment: Strategies for Self-Improvement and Change (SSC) which have commonly been used in treating addicts of substance abuse, ART to displace destructive behavior based on aggression, and T4C to correct criminogenic thinking. Keywords: Cognitive Therapy Behavioral Therapy, CBT Programs, Patient, Treatment, Offenders, Re-Arrest, Social Skills, Interventions, Aggression, Moral Reasoning, Thoughts, Prison, Exercise, Cognitive Deficits, Substance Abuse, Addiction, Change, Sessions, Risk Treatment. Explain the Cognitive Behavior Programs and discuss the different types Cognitive behavioral therapy is accepted as one of the general interventions effective in assisting criminals to change and reduce recidivism. In offering its treatment, it places considerations in evaluating the offenders’ relationships between their behaviors, perceptions and how they feel. The CBT programs have been used in a wide range of applications to help patients and most of them have been successful upon implementation. Over the past, offenders have been identified to have cognition problems which were subject towards influencing their thinking and wrong behavior. CBT programs therefore employ “the behavioral learning techniques to alter the general adaptive behavior of offenders” (Hansen, 2008). The programs vary in their implementation and their effectiveness, some of which would be too costly and time consuming in the patient’s treatment. Certain problems are best addressed through specific CBT programs to help make sense of the overwhelming problems. Below are the different types of CBT programs. 1. Aggressive Replacement Training (ART) This program was formerly developed with a focus to assist the youths and young people struggling with aggression. However, the program has broadened to assist even the adult offenders who manifest antisocial behavior. It is “a multimodal, psycho educational intervention that focus on altering the behavior of chronic aggressive offenders; it includes skill training, moral education and anger control training” (Kaunitz, Andershed, Brannstrom & Smedslund, 2010, p. 6). In the social skills training, the offenders are taught the pro social behaviors and learn competent interpersonal behaviors that they lack, to displace the destructive behavior. Offenders can also learn to manage their anger and overcome anger arousing experiences. Moral education focuses on improving their decision making in social dilemmas, in order to raise their level of moral reasoning. With that, they can give considerations to other’s concerns and make a fair decision. 2. Think for a change (T4C) It is focused on correcting the criminogenic thinking of offenders and helps them to take control of their thoughts to avoid repetition of ill conducts. According to Bush, Glick and Taymans, “its curriculum uses as its core, a problem solving program embellished by both cognitive restructuring and social skills interventions” (1997, p. 2). The process of cognitive restructuring enables the participants to engage in the process of self-reflection to realize their anti-social behavior (reactions, beliefs, attitudes, thoughts among others). Pro-social behaviors are fostered by the social skills lessons. Participants can interact with the different skills presented to enhance their self-awareness and understand themselves better; this in turn enables them to comprehend the effect of their actions towards others. Integrating the social skills and cognitive restructuring lessons, certified trainers can assist offenders to address challenges they encounter progressively. 3. Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT) The program provides an opportunity for offenders to realize their thinking errors. Its evolution can be traced back in the 80s from the therapeutic community program, which was a self-drug contained treatment. The arising problems of incompletion of the program and increased recidivism led to the incorporation of the cognitive elements into the program, which introduced the MRT approach. According to Beam, “it is a cognitive-behavioral chemical dependency treatment approach initially designed for an inmate population, but expanded into a treatment program for most prisons; it is an educational tool designed to assist people reevaluate how they make ethical and moral decisions” (2008, p. 46). The development of the program served as a response to the established deficits in offenders’ moral reasoning. Research by Little and Robinson had established the existing inefficiencies in the offenders’ perception of themselves, their attitudes, and other factors which contributed to their resistance to change. MRT “progressively address ego, social, moral, and positive behavioral growth… and takes the form of group and individual counseling using structured group exercises and prescribed homework assignments” (NRCPFC, 2013, p. 1). Therapists have a task to educate the participants in most areas of life, especially surrounding their moral and social behavior, in order to instill a strong sense of identity and improve their moral judgment level. This enables them to lower the chances of engaging in criminal behavior when they engage in abstract thinking, and give consideration to others. 4. Reasoning and Rehabilitation (R&R) Just like MRT, it is an evidenced based cognitive behavioral program to prevent antisocial behavior, while promoting the pro-social competencies. It employs a similar ideology to MRT where offenders suffer from social and cognitive deficits, but rather than focusing on moral reasoning, it places emphasis on the offenders to think first before taking any action, and consider the consequences of their actions (Hansen 2008). It is evident that some convicted offenders engaged in criminal acts because they failed to critically assess their actions before taking them, others act fast without self-control and are poor at solving problems they are involved in. The program is “organized around exercises that focus on modifying the impulsive, egocentric, illogical and rigid thinking of the offenders and other than consider their intended actions, to conceptualize alternative ways of responding to interpersonal problems” (Lipsey, Landenberger &Wilson, 2007, p. 5). R&R has longer sessions compared to MRT and ART, and is highly recommended for most offenders on parole and juveniles. It is quite popular around the world and is very interactive. 5. Relapse Prevention Therapy (RPT) It was originally designed to support patients addictive to substances from returning to the substance use. It acts as a maintenance program after treatment of addictive behavior to assist patients struggling to maintain new non addictive behavioral changes, as well as how to anticipate and cope with chances of relapse. Patients learn to adopt and maintain a balanced lifestyle that enhances coping capacity and manages their cravings and high risk situation through learned coping skills. 6. Criminal Conduct and Substance Abuse Treatment: Strategies for Self-Improvement and Change (SSC) It is also focused on treating substance abuse offenders. It is however designed for the adult group and roles out in 3 stages: to challenge the problem, commit to change and own the change. It takes the longest period to complete all the sessions and treats recommended patients at all levels of the judicial system. Critique programs effective in bringing about change for new involuntary clients ART: Given the children and youngsters are still in their early development, there is a greater potential to learn and influence their behavior through experiences and the program. The children and youths minds are the most active ones and could be highly tuned to adopt certain pro-active behaviors compared to those of adults. T4C: Past analysis of the program indicates that it can produce better results than other types of offender programming, especially for those who complete the program. In studying the interaction effects between the risk level and TFAC group participants on the SPSI-R survey, higher and lower risk treatment group members demonstrated varying improvements on the CTS (Bickle, n.d.). However, the recidivism rate of T4C is much lower compared to programs like MRT and R&R. While MRT program indicated 69 percent, T4C demonstrated 24.5 percent fewer re-arrest than other programs (Little, 2003). MRT: It is the most applied correctional program in the US among other Western nations for its effectiveness in past experiences. Boston and Meier reiterates MRT’s developers’ ideas over its successful reduction of recidivism anywhere to be between 25 to 50 percent (2001). It has numerous benefits to the participants not only in enhancement of their self-concept, but putting them in a better position to confront their behaviors that lead them to re-arrest, and reinforce positive behavior. R&R: Thousands of offenders across the world have been taken through R&R program, and upon most evaluations, numerous correctional institutions made this rehabilitation program a top priority in its service for its effectiveness, especially in treatment of substance abuse and rehabilitating domestic violence and sex offenders (Miceli, 2009). Other than in institutional settings, today it is common in the communities and has the potential to assist both high and low risk offenders. Although multiple meta-analysis evaluation suggests approximately “26 percent reduction in recidivism,… the program is criticized for individualizing criminality without taking the offender’s social and economic context into account” (Tong and Farrington, 2006, p. 19). Antisocial adolescents and youths have benefitted the most under this program. Much research has not been conducted on the SSC and RPT, though both are reported to have cognitive and behavioral control improvements. Acronyms CTS- Criminal Thinking Scale SPSI-R- Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised TFAC- Think for a Change Reference List Beam, C. B. (2008). The Golden Window of Silence: A Way to Become Fully Human. Xlibris Corporation. Bickle, G. (n.d.). An intermediate Outcome Evaluation of the Thinking for a Change Program. Retrieved from http://www.drc.ohio.gov/web/Reports/Eval_ThinkingforaChange.pdf. Boston, C.M. & Meier, A. L. (2001). Changing Offenders’ Behavior: Evaluating Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT®) in the Better People Program. Retrieved from http://www.betterpeople.org/docs/evaluation.pdf. Bush, J., Glick, B. & Taymans, J. (1997). Think for a Change: Integrated Cognitive Behavior Change Program. Retrieved from http://www.ccoso.org/library%20articles/016672-Curriculum.pdf. Hansen, C. (2008). Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions: Where They Come From and What They Do. Federal Probation, 72 (2). Retrieved from http://www.uscourts.gov/uscourts/federalcourts/pps/fedprob/2008-09/07_cognitive_behavior.html. Kaunitz, C., Andershed, A. K., Brannstrom, L. & Smedslund, G. (2010, November, 4). Aggression Replacement Training (ART) for Reducing Antisocial Behavior in Adolescents and Adults. Sweden: The Campbel Collaboation . Retrieved from http://www.campbellcollaboration.org/.../KaunitK_Agression... Lipsey, M. W., Landenberger, N.A. & Wilson, S. J. (2007, August).The effects of Cognitive Behavioral Programs for Criminal Offenders. Retrieved from http://www.sfi.dk/graphics/Campbell/reviews/review%20CBT%20criminal%20offenders.pdf. Little, G. L. Comparison of Post-Treatment Recidivism Rates between the NIC’s Thinking for a Change Program and MRT. Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Review, 12 (2), (2003)8-9. Retrieved from http://www.moral-reconation-therapy.com/Resources/MRTvsTFAC.pdf. Miceli, V. (2009). Analyzing the Effectiveness of Rehabilitation programs. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1160&context=srhonorsprog. NRCPFC. (2013, August). Moral Reconation Therapy. Retrieved from http://www.nrcpfc.org/ebp/downloads/AdditionalEBPs/Moral_Reconation_Therapy_%28MRT%29_8.26.13.pdf. Tong, L.S.J. & Farrington, D. P. How effective is the ‘‘Reasoning and Rehabilitation’’ programme in reducing reoffending? A Meta-Analysis of Evaluations in Four Countries. Pychology, Crime & Law, 12 (1), 2006 p. 3-24. Retrieved from http://www.maccac.org/offender_programs/mn_cog_net/tong%26farringtonr%26r.pdf. Read More