QUESTION: Why is it important for the offender to tell their story to the criminal justice counselor? Describe some of the methods used to capture the offender’s story. Which of these methods would be considered evidence-based and why? Which method has the potential for obtaining more information than others? Rank the methods you chose from most effective to
least effective and explain why.
CRITICAL THINKING/REACTION PAPER RUBRIC
Mechanics:
cover page; citations; references; format
Technical writing and Spelling:
No typos or spelling errors; complete/succinct sentences; APA style; meets or exceeds page
length.
Content:
Writing done in the active voice (first person); clarity and conciseness in articulating response;
the content remains on task & summarized; no content has no fluff & doesn’t rehash course
information.
Relevance/Analysis:
Use of consistent analysis and reflection on the material; writing goes beyond simple writing;
information is synthesized; the writer stays on task and uses original ideas
Critical Thinking
Name:
Date:
Critical Thinking
Criminal justice counselling is important, especially in making offenders tell their criminality stories. Offenders telling their stories to the criminal justice system makes the offenders have a close relationship with the counsellor (Welldon, 2015). Telling a story provides information about the offender’s grief and loss, especially when offenders have history of substance abuse. Additionally, offenders telling their stories to the criminal justice counsellor makes the offenders overcome attachment, trauma, addiction, and how to cope in prison.
Offenders need to deal with anger and hostility because most offenders develop emotional stress disorder and mood swings. Counselling enable offenders to deal with hostility and avoid being violent or causing harm to others and making the offenders understand their emotions (Hundt,et,al., 2015. Also, counsellors enable offenders to understand and learn the difference between behaviours, feelings, and thinking because most offenders tend to confuse anger and feelings or use anger to maintain adrenaline.
Counselling enable offenders to learn how to control anger and control their behaviour by learning that feelings are not facts (Taylor,,2015). Through their stories, counsellors can have a better platform on how to bring change and enable the offender to think of changing their behaviours. For instance, counsellors use various techniques, such as the development of offender’s problem-solving skills, how to think positively for change, development of social skills, and how to assess’ feelings or developing cognitive-self change skills (Taylor,,2015). Counsellors enable offenders to deal with negative thinking, such as don’t care attitude, don’t need anybody attitude, rigid thinking, pride, deserve it attitude, and power thrust.
Offenders telling their stories enable the counsellors to understand their emotional journey and, identify feelings involves, such as embarrassment, understand the source of feelings, identify the impact of anger on the offender’s future goals, and deflecting the attention of anger (Welldon, 2015). Counsellors Help offenders in setting limits on the use of anger, how to avoid violence by retreating, through providing a safe environment for expressing and exploring anger issues.
Nevertheless, the offender telling their story to the criminal justice counsellor to deal with identity issues. Most offenders go through identity issues, especially when the case involved racial, religion, or ethnic discrimination (Welldon, 2015). Also, the offenders have Helped their identity and their importance in society. Mostly, offenders go through challenges of coming in terms with being labelled a criminal and the fear of going into prison/jail. Counsellors Help the offenders in being ready for punishment after understanding the story and knowing theory personality traits.
To capture the attention of offenders requires the counsellor to be in control, address the behaviour not focusing on the content, avoid power struggles, and good communication skills, such as avoiding interrupting the offender or raising the voice (Taylor,,2015). Counsellors use various techniques and engagement skills, for instance, forming a close and working relationship with the offender, use of cognitive behavioural therapy, and other types of therapies.
The behavioural and psychological therapies, such as psychodynamic therapy and commitment therapy to understand the root cause of criminality and creating a healthy relationship with clients to reduce resistance. The relationship enables the offender to gain trust and confidence in telling their stories without feeling judged (Hundt,et,al., 2015). Also, counsellors may use motivational interviews and engagement programs, such as creating support groups. Involving the offender in social activities and support groups enable them to realize that the issues faced are universal and unavoidable (Taylor,,2015). Providing a friendly and flexible schedule with offenders is the best because the offender gets the time to gain courage plan thoughts compared when Woking with a fixed schedule. Counsellors use network intervention and frequent contact with the offender in the early stages of counselling and treatment.
Some of the counselling methods and therapies are evidence-based, such as dialectics behaviour therapy, psychodynamic therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, and acceptance and commitment theory (Taylor,,2015). The evidence-based methods acquire information from the offenders and enhance accountability and promote quality treatment towards the offenders (Stirman,et,al.,2015). Acceptance and commitment therapy is very effective in Helping offenders dealing with mental health issues such as anxiety, addiction, and physical health problems.
Additionally, cognitive behavioural therapy engages the offender on how to think critically to change the behaviour (Schuhmann, 2015). The evidence-based therapies are used to acquire past and current information concerning an offender according to information collected by counsellors (Stirman,et,al.,2015). The dialectical behavioural therapy is used to improve the results of offenders with personality disorder and treatment of offenders with psychological issues. The evidence-based approaches provide the offenders past mental history, and how psychological issues affected the offender before the crime and how to cope with the new environment in jail.
Cognitive behavioural therapy is an evidence-based therapy that can obtain more information compared to other methods. Cognitive behavioural therapy provides every information concerning the offender’s psychological issues, such as anxiety, depression, psychosis, eating disorder, and body dysmorphic disorder (Stirman,et,al.,2015). Cognitive behavioural therapy provides information on behaviours criminal acts. Counsellors invest more time and resources on cognitive behavioural to obtain quality information concerning an offender.
I would choose cognitive behavioural therapy because the approach consists of internet-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy used to treat and provide information about all psychological disorder. Cognitive behavioural therapy is the best approach when juvenile counselling delinquency compared to dialectic behavioural therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (Stirman,et,al.,2015). I would rank the counselling techniques according to the ability to collect information. Cognitive behavioural therapy is the most effective method, followed by acceptance and commitment therapy, dialectical behavioural therapy, and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (Hundt,et,al., 2015) Behavioural therapy enables the offender to understand the impact of engaging in bad behaviours, increase the offender’s freedom, and have the ability to make the right choices.
References
Hundt, N. E., Mott, J. M., Miles, S. R., Arney, J., Cully, J. A., & Stanley, M. A. (2015). Veterans’ perspectives on initiating evidence-based psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 7(6), 539.
Schuhmann, C. (2015). Stories of crime, stories of suffering: A narrative perspective on ethical issues in criminal justice counselling. European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling, 17(1), 21-38.
Stirman, S. W., Gutner, C. A., Crits-Christoph, P., Edmunds, J., Evans, A. C., & Beidas, R. S. (2015). Relationships between clinician-level attributes and fidelity-consistent and fidelity-inconsistent modifications to an evidence-based psychotherapy. Implementation Science, 10(1), 1-10.
Taylor, C. (2015). The place of psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the treatment of high-risk personality-disordered offenders. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, 29(3), 262-275.
Welldon, E. (2015). Forensic psychotherapy. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, 29(3), 211-227.
