Making a Criminogenic Treatment Programme on the Example of Ruth Ellis - Case Study Example

Case Study on Ruth Ellis who was convicted and executed in 1955 Background and offending account Five feet 2 inches, Ruth Ellis was working as a hostess in Soho nightclub. Ruth Ellis, aged 28 years, was the last woman to be sentenced to death by hanging. She was hung to death on July 13, 1955. She was the 15th women to be hung to death in England. The death penalty was abolished in England in the year 1965. Ruth Ellis was convicted on the charge of murdering her lover, 25 year old David Drummond Moffat Blakely on Easter day in 1955. Ruth Ellis killed David with a 38 caliber gun. Ruth Ellis confessed to the police in a calm manner. Ruth Ellis was not under any influence of drinks and any drugs when she committed the crime and she was charged with murder. Ruth Ellis was remanded in the custody in Halloway prison awaiting trial. Ruth was interviewed and after her consent was taken, she underwent an electro-encephalo graph examination on 3rd May. Ruth was found to be a normal person and she was examined by Dr.D.Whittaker, Psychiatrist for defense on June 4th and Dr Dalzell of home office on June 9th.She was found to be normal in all aspects. Ruth Ellis had said in the court that when she shot at her lover, she meant to kill him. It was this statement given by Ruth Ellis that was believed to lead her to conviction and death sentence. The two points of Ruth killing David and Ruth doing it intentionally was proved beyond doubt and Ruth was charged for conviction and was sentenced for death by hanging. Ruth was allowed visitors in jail and Ruth did show remorse for her act. Ruth did not try to take law into her hands by attempting to run away. Ruth was very co-operative with the law holders. In fact she believed that her hanging was to compensate the loss of life by David. Ruth Ellis had a troubled childhood. Her father was the Musician Arthur Neilson. Ruth’s father was a failure in his chosen profession. Ruth had to leave her school at the age of 14 and she spent her time at the local dancing hall. Ruth had also instance of being sexually abused by her own father. Ruth became pregnant from a Canadian soldier at the age of 17 and had a son born who was named Andre. Ruth was ditched by this soldier on the pretext of having a wife and children. Ruth had another disastrous affair which ended in marriage with George Ellis. They had a daughter together named Georgina. The marriage was a disaster and Ruth had to suffer a lot of domestic violence. Ruth started an extra marital affair with David and had two abortions. It was the second abortion that triggered the path to the murder of David. The case was highlighted in the sense of domestic violence and degree of provocation in later years. An order quashing the murder conviction of Ruth Ellis is expected before the end of the year 2009. If Ruth Ellis had committed the same offence in the year 2008, she would have escaped with life term sentence.( Minkes, John Vanstone & Maurice,September 2006) The aim of this study in context of the case of Ruth Ellis is that criminal behavior has to be understood in context of various psychological and criminological attitudes that can lead to criminal behavior. There will be individual difference between social and cultural issues and that can affect the emotions surrounding the criminal behaviour. This has to be understood in making a crimonogenic treatment programme. The impact of the environment on the offending behaviour will also be addressed in detail in this case study. The understanding of the criminal behaviour has to integrate well with the emotional, psychological, social and cultural aspects of the way people behave in a situation. Both psychological and criminological perspective will be taken to understand the behaviour of the criminal. Criminological and Psychological approach in understanding criminal behaviour There is a wide spread belief that genes are the sole reason behind criminal behaviour of a person (Jospeh,2001.pp.182).There are different ways to define the anti social behaviour. The term criminality can be associated with acts of crime done by the adult persons while the term delinquency has been associated with acts of crime done by minors and which can be termed as juvenile crime.( Rhee & Waldman, 2002) It has been found out that certain chemicals like Neurochemicals has the power to influence and activate behavioural patterns and tendencies in certain areas of brain.(Elliot,2000).Monoamine oxidase(MAO) is an enzyme that has been related to antisocial behaviour. A low MAO has been said to trigger impulsivity and aggression (Elliot,2000). Moreover MAO has been related to psychosis causing chemicals like norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine. Neurochemicals are responsible for the activation of behavioural patterns and tendencies in specific areas of the brain (Elliot, 2000). As seen in the study by Brunner et al, there have been attempts to determine the role of neurochemicals in influencing criminal or antisocial behaviour. Included in the list of neurochemicals already cited by researchers are monoamine oxidase (MOA), epinephrine, norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine. Specifically, low MAO activity results in disinhibition which can lead to impulsivity and aggression (Elliot, 2000). The Brunner et al. study is the only one to report findings of a relationship between a point mutation in the structural gene for MAOA and aggression, which makes the findings rare. However, there has been other evidence that points to the conclusion that deficiencies in MAOA activity may be more common and as a result may predispose individuals to antisocial or aggressive behaviour (Brunner et al., 1993). MAO is associated with many of the neurochemicals that already have a link to antisocial or criminal behaviour. Norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine are metabolized by both MAOA and MAOB (Elliot, 2000). While, according to Eysenck (1996), MAO is related to norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine, which are all related to the personality factor of psychosis. Another neurochemical under scanner is serotonin. This neurochemical has been associated with depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder. People having more of this serotonin have been found to be suffering from these disorders. (Larsen & Buss, 2005). Dopamine has been associated with pleasure and this neurochemical has been the main factor causing Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)(Morley and Hall,2003). When talking of disorders, Conduct Disorder (CD), Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD) Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are the dangerous disorders that has the power to influence the way a adult behaves in later stages ( Holmes, Slaughter, & Kashani, 2001). ODD is a disorder that shows the trait of argumentativeness, on compliance, and irritability in the childhood. When growing older, this can lead to a situation of lying and stealing, engaging in vandalism and cal also lead to a situation of showing aggressiveness to peers (Morley and Hall,2003) ADHD is a disorder that can be related of the inability to focus on one thing. The child with this disorder will have the inability to learn from past experiences and more over cannot understand the consequences of an act. Conduct Disorder child may have the urge to defy social norms and rules. All these disorders can lead to Anti Social Personality Disorders and that can lead to criminal activity in adult stage or later stage (ASPD). It is not only genes that influence a behaviour and in some cases environment has an influence on the way a person becomes. There is a belief that family contributes to the hyper activity of the child (Schmitz, 2003). If a family has weak bonds and poor communication, then the child has every chance of developing aggressive and criminal behaviour (Garnefski & Okma, 1996). Families that do not punish children for crimes or wrongs conducted at early age also have a high chance of turning out crime related children. Children and adolescents have every chance of being influenced by environment when compared with adults. Adults have the freedom and maturity of moving into positive environment or the power of influencing the situation. Adolescents and children will be tied to environment even if they want to leave and that can influence the behavioural pattern of the child and adolescents. (Rhee & Waldman, 2002).A child may be neglected if shows aggressive behaviour towards peers in school and that can lead to a situation of getting in company of aggressive children and a belief that their behaviour is justified leading to more aggressiveness.( Miles & Carey, 1997). Adult personality will be influenced by the pattern of behaviour that has been established in childhood. The fact is that adults have more control of the present environment but they should be careful of past actions not influencing their future. An intertwining of genetics and environment takes place and it is the duty of everyone to make sure that children are presented with healthy environment to grow on. Psychodynamic Approach The base of Psychodynamic approach as stated by Freud is that it tries to make sense of the relationships, experiences and how the people see the world. In the case of Ruth Ellis, she has been disturbed by the fact that David was seeing lot of girls or was having casual affairs. She was also influenced by the words of Desmond and killed David. Ruth was in jealous of an affair that David was having though in reality he was not having any affair. This was the main factor that would have influenced the decision of killing David. Cognitive Approach It is the thinking that affects the thoughts and actions of persons. In this case, Ruth Ellis was attracted into a thought process of being deceived by David and that triggered a jealousy in her. It was this jealousy that made her act wild listening to the words of Desmond and it was Desmond who taught Ruth how to use gun. Ruth had said to Desmond that if she knew how to use a gun she would have killed David. That thought was met with action and David was killed. Behavioural Approach It is the approach of stating that environment decides our future and in this case Ruth was influenced by bad child hood memories and her affairs with Canadian soldier and George Ellis. The feeling of losing out David to another girl would have made her act in an impulsive manner. Responses to certain stimuli can be seen in the case of Ruth Ellis as she was tuned to use a gun by Desmond. 1) RECOMMENDATION 1.1Risk Assessment using Cognitive Approach Claire Harris,2002 states that it is the cognitive process that determines the emotional reactions that can trigger psychosocial behaviour. The emotional reactions include, depression and anxiety. 1.2 Offending behaviour programme assessment R.M. Ryan, 2000 states that high risk offence prisoners can be mixed with low-risk prisoners and adopting behavioural program that are accessible by prisoners with cognitive impairment. Individual intervention based on criminogenic needs Andrews,1990 has stated that the main aim should be to ensure that the offender does not repeat the crime or should not be involved in any criminal activities in future. Higher risk patients should be targeted first when compared with low risk patients and they should be motivated, supervised,and the training should be made in accordance with the tempearament,gender culture and other factors applicable. The advantage of using this method as per Andrews,1990 ,is that it addresses the criminogenic needs. Some of the examples of this criminogenic needs that can be addressed are changing of criminal personality, changing antisocial attitudes, getting away from the control of criminal peers, improving self control and so on. The disadvantage of using the model as per Andrews,1990is that it is dependent on the motivation of both the teacher and the learner. It may take time and patience on the part of teacher to make the offender motivate to try this method. The whole method falls apart if teacher is not motivated. J. Austin, 2001 states that the evaluation should be done by doing performance audit which can be done regularily and keeping the staff focussed on the goal of correcting the offender. Ludeman,1991 ststes that appropriate community intervention should be done for high risk offenders as the cause of doing big crimes may be due to faulty family. Treatment models for offending acts, importance of context in offending acts Understanding personality disorder and its causation has been approached by various theories. The various forms of theories can be termed as Psychodynamic, behavioural, cognitive, interpersonal and social theories.( Day, A. (2003)).Personality disorder has to be understood first to be treated. The Cognitive model: Controlling emotions, self-control techniques, self instruction in times of crisis, controlling stress are some of the methods used in this theory. Behaviour model will have stimulus control strategy directed to specific criminogenic behaviours. Psychoanalytical model will have behaviour therapy that develops positive peer culture. It has been found out personality disorder has been found in adult prisoners, juvenile prisoners and the most common personality disorder can be antisocial personality disorder (Fazel and Danesh,2002).The prisoners with antisocial personality disorder do have high chance of committing big crimes.( D’Silva, K., Duggan. C. & McCarthy, L. (2004)).Prisoners with antisocial personality disorder has been linked with violent offences including sexual offences.(Hemphill,1998). The effective treatment of prisoners with personality disorder should begin with a working model that is based on the assessment of the personality traits presented. Criminals needs to be treated in a manner of first removing dysfunctional aspects of their personality and also change the criminogeic needs of the person. (Nunes, K. L., Firestone, P., Bradford, J. M., et al (2002) Criminals may be reluctant to start a treatment programme due to a belief that they are coerced into treatment and internal beliefs, emotions and behavioural deficits. The other factor that has to be addressed is that the staff should be motivated for the purpose. ( Ward, T. & Brown, M. (2004)) Some of the examples of Cognitive-behavioural therapy include schema therapy, anger management in the form of Emotional regulation therapy, the assessment of behaviour using Dialectical behavior therapy, cognitive analytic therapy and so on. Cognitive behavioural therapy has been found to be the most effective in dealing with anti social personality disorder. Importance of multi-agency action with regard to criminal behaviour Multi-agency problem solving can be done each month to make anti social behaviour is kept in check. Youth activities should be increased in such a way that the youth would not stray into anti social behaviour. In case of violent crime offenders ,a law enforcement meeting, a community leader meeting and a control group meeting should be arranged inside the jail and the change in behaviour towards perception of risk and crime should be assessed..There is nothing wrong in concluding that social factors do contribute to criminal acts. The basic thing to point out that criminal motivation may vary from one person to another and just by researching deeper into the situation of the crime, it is not possible to prevent the crime in future. What is implied is that certain people may have the same criminal motivation but all will not end up as criminals. So tackling of motivations should be at individual level and Sampson et al. (1988) have referred to as "the criminalization of the discourse of social policy." That means that multi agency group to become the norm in present era to prevent the crime and all agencies should be used together right from the onset in preventing a crime.The link between process and outcome should studied deeper by the multi agencies to understand the pattern of crime. Importance of environment on offending behaviour The role of the environment in creating another offence in case of a released prisoner is important. The roles of not being employed, marital status of being single, personal emotional problems, being associated with criminals or substance abuse or drugs are important environmental factors. Treatment programmes should be done in supportive environment keeping these factors in mind. Otherwise, the model will fall short of reaching its objectives. (Motiuk, L. (1998)) References Sampson, A., H. Blagg. P. Stubbs and G. Pearson,1988, "Crime, Localities and the Multi-Agency Approach", British Journal of Criminology,Vol.28,pp.478-493. Miles, DR, & Carey, G 1997, 'Genetic and environmental architecture of human aggression' Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol.72, pp.207-217. Minkes, John Vanstone & Maurice,September 2006,'Gender, Race and the Death Penalty: Lessons from Three 1950s Murder Trials', Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, Vol. 45, No. 4, pp. 403-420. Rhee, SH, & Waldman, ID,2002, 'Genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behaviour: A meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies', Psychological Bulletin, Vol.128, pp.490-529. Schmitz, MF, 2003, 'Influences of race and family environment on child hyperactivity and antisocial behavior', Journal of Marriage & the Family, Vol.65, pp.835-849. Elliot, FA,2000,' A neurological perspective of violent behavior: The science, treatment, and prevention of antisocial behaviors', Application to the criminal justice system ,pp. 19-1 to 19-21. Brunner, HG, Nelen,M, Breakefield,XO, Ropers, HH, & van Oost, BA,1993,' Abnormal behavior associated with a point mutation in the structural gene for monoamine oxidase A',Journal of Science, Vol.262, pp.578-580 Eysenck, HJ,1996,' Personality and crime: Where do we stand?,'Journal of Psychology, Crime, & Law, Vol.2, pp.143-152. Garnefski,N, & Okma, S,1996, 'Addiction-risk and aggressive/criminal behavior in adolescence: Influence of family, school, and peers', Journal of Adolescence, Vol.19, pp.503-512. Larsen,RJ, & Buss, DM,2005 Personality psychology: Domains of knowledge about human nature (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. Morley,K, & Hall, W,2003,' Is there a genetic susceptibility to engage in criminal acts?’,Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice,Australian Institute of Criminology, Vol.263, pp.1-6. Holmes, SE, Slaughter, JR, & Kashani, J, 2001,' Risk factors in childhood that lead to the development of conduct disorder and antisocial personality disorder', Journal of Child Psychiatry and Human Development, Vol.31, pp.183-193. Joseph, J,2001,' Is crime in the genes? A critical review of twin and adoption studies of criminality and antisocial behavior', The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Vol.22, pp.179-218. Day, A,2003, 'Reducing the risk of re-offending among Australian indigenous offenders, What works for whom?', Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, Vol.37, pp.1–16. D’Silva, K, Duggan, C, & McCarthy, L,2004, 'Does treatment really make psychopaths worse? A review of the evidence', Journal of Personality Disorders, Vol.18, pp.163–177 Hemphill, J, Hare, R, & Wong, S, 1998, 'Psychopathy and recidivism. A review', Legal and Criminological Psychology, Vol.3, pp.139–170. Fazel, S & Danesh, J, 2002,' Serious mental disorder in 23 000 prisoners', A systematic review of 62 surveys,Vol. 359,pp.545–550. Ward, T, & Brown, M. 2004, 'The good lives model and conceptual issues in offender rehabilitation', Psychology, Crime and Law, Vol.3, pp.243–257. Nunes, KL, Firestone, P, Bradford, JM, 2002' A comparison of modified versions of the Static–99 and the Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide (SORAG), Sexual Abuse', A Journal of Research and Treatment, Vol.14, pp.S253–269. Motiuk, L,1998’ Using Dynamic Factors to Better Predict Post-Release Outcome’, Forum on Corrections Research, Vol.10,pp.12-13. Claire Harris,2002,’Using Cognitive Mapping for Psychosocial Risk Assessment’,Risk Management,Vol.4(3),pp.7-21. Andrews,1990, “Classification for effective rehabilitation: Rediscovering psychology,” Criminal Justice and Behavior ,Vol.17 pp.19-52; R.M. Ryan, 2000,“Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, andwell-being,” American Psychologist ,pp.68-78. Austin, 2001,“An objective review of the effectiveness and essential characteristics of performance feedback in organizational settings,” Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, vol,21,pp. 3-29 Ludeman,1991, “Measuring skills and behavior,” Training & Development ,pp.61-66; Read More