Social Problem Solving and Offending: Evidence, Evaluation and Evolution

The evidence for social problem solving deficits being relevant to the understanding and treatment of offending behaviour has been accumulating since the 1980s. Reasoning and Rehabilitation (R&R), the first structured cognitive-behavioural treatment programme used widely with prisoners, included social problem solving as a key component and is now in use worldwide. More recently, interventions that focus specifically on social problem solving have recently been developed. Arranged in three parts (evidence, evaluation and evolution and exploration), this book draws together aetiological and therapeutic research evidence and practice over the last twenty years in social problem-solving with offenders.

By clarifying how people perceive and interpret the actions of others, make decisions about how to respond, and view the morality of their behaviour, we gain access to the thinking processes that can lead to antisocial behaviour. Interventions based on empirical evidence about social problem solving are likely to be the most effective in assisting individuals to live more successful, pro-social lives.

Written by eminent international academics and practitioners, Social Problem Solving and Offending is the first text to draw together research in this field. These scholarly contributions focus on evidence, theory, practice and future directions. Topics covered include developmental issues, personality disorder, substance misuse, sexual offending and psychopathy. Key treatment programmes are described and evaluated, and each chapter emphasizes the important links between practice and research. Advances in research on social cognition and moral reasoning indicate how social problem solving can be enhanced to further our understanding of offending behaviour.

This text provides the reader with the knowledge essential to developing effective practice in the prevention and treatment of offending. It will be of interest to psychologists, psychiatrists, probation officers, social workers, staff of secure mental health services and academics.

Mary McMurran is consultant clinical and forensic psychologist at Llanarth Court Hospital, Wales, and Senior Research Fellow in the School of Psychology, Cardiff University. She has worked with offenders in a young offenders centre, a maximum-security psychiatric hospital, a regional secure unit, and in the community. In 1999, she was awarded a five-year Senior Baxter Research Fellowship by the National Health Service’s National Programme on Forensic Mental Health Research and Development. Her research interests are the assessment and treatment of intoxicated aggression, social problem-solving therapy for personality disordered offenders, and understanding and enhancing offenders’ motivation to change. She is the author, with Philip Priestley, of Addressing Substance-Related Offending (ASRO), an accredited group treatment programme used in HM Prison and Probation Services, and Control of Violence for Angry Impulsive Drinkers (COVAID), an individual treatment programme. She is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and former Chair of the Society’s Division of Forensic Psychology. She is founding editor, with Sally Lloyd-Bostock, of the journal Legal & Criminological Psychology, and is joint editor of Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health. She is a former member of the Scottish Prison Service’s Offender Treatment Programme Accreditation Panel, and is currently a member of Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Services Correctional Services Accreditation Panel.

James McGuire is Professor of Forensic Clinical Psychology at the University of Liverpool, UK, Director of Studies for the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology programme, and an honorary consultant clinical psychologist in Mersey Care NHS Trust. A chartered clinical and forensic psychologist, he carries out psycholegal work involving assessment of offenders and has prepared reports on young offenders charged with offences of violence, for hearings of the Mental Health Review Tribunal on adults detained in secure hospitals, and for the Criminal Cases Review Commission. He has conducted research in prisons, probation services, and other settings on aspects of the effectiveness of treatment with offenders and allied topics. He has engaged in a range of consultative work with criminal justice agencies in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong. He was co-organizer of the What Works series of conferences, and has written or edited 12 books and numerous other publications on this and related areas.