Volume 29, numéro 1, printemps 1996 Intervenir auprès des délinquants Sous la direction de Guy Lemire et Jean Proulx

EN :

Epidemiologic and clinical studies are presented of persons with mental disorders and a history of violent behavior. Knowledge of the risk factors associated with acts of violence committed by mentally disordered persons is essential for the initiation of preventive programs. The aim of this paper is therefore to introduce epidemiologic and clinical elements useful in assessing these risk factors. Furthermore, intervention strategies are described to deal with violence in mentally ill patients.

EN :

We have conducted a research on therapeutic follow-ups with delinquents on parole, in Metropolitan Montreal, by analyzing the following characteristics: the clientele's professional care, the proportion of subjects who use the therapeutic follow-ups during their jail term and parole, the relevance of treatment, and the beneficiary's legal status of parole. According to our results, 81% of the subjects had classified clinical diagnostics at DSM III-R; 23,33% for double diagnostics; 14% for substance abuse and 6,67% for mood swings.

85,3% of the clients receive treatment given by psychologists, making it the most popular. Officers estimate that therapeutic follow-ups are pertinent in 91,9% of the cases, when the treatments are given to individuals with behavior problems or mental health disorders, and in 86,6% of the cases, when dealing with clients who are less motivated to take treatment. The results also show that 61,3% of the subjects were involved in therapeutic follow-ups in the last months of incarceration. This percentage proves that subjects who receive psychological treatments during their incarceration are the most likely to continue during parole. Generally speaking, the results were very encouraging and contradict some statements to the effect that there is a lack of motivation in delinquents and that therapeutic follow-ups offered to parole clientele are impertinent. Results also show that the clientele who remains in psychological treatment is motivated to continue the treatment and that these follow-ups are considered pertinent by the clientele.

EN :

In the last decades, many types of intervention, seeking to alter the subject's level of cognition, have been developed for the rehabilitation of young delinquents. Among these different cognitive models, some are inspired by developmental-cognitive psychology, which has been used to improve rehabilitation and prevention initiatives.

This article's objective is to make the developmental-cognitive approach known, in order to make intervention models more accurate and to help these youngsters improve their ability in building and maintaining interpersonal relationships, as well as their sense of responsibility and their moral judgment.

The first part of the article introduces the general characteristics , of developmental-cognitive psychology. The second describes intervention methods which were developed from these theoretical principals. And the third section presents the developmental-cognitive intervention model as it is currently applied in the experimental differential intervention project with teenagers in difficulty, who were placed in rehabilitation internship in Montreal.

EN :

The author focuses on therapeutic communities, particularly the KEY and CREST programs, applied in the state of Delaware since 1988. There programs are aimed at substance users living either in correctional settings (KEY) or on probation (CREST). This research tries to evaluate both programs according to the subject's relapse rate after 6 months. Based on the results, it has been determined that the subjects who participated in these programs successively had better chances of never using drugs again than those who had been in only one of the two programs, or neither. Other American experiments of the same kind have shown similar results.

EN :

The aim of the current study was to assess the role of a treatment program (uncompleted; completed ; extended) on the posttreat-ment recidivism of sexual aggressors. Data on five types of recidivism (sexual ; violent ; property offense ; against a person ; total) were gathered for 102 pedophiles and 70 rapists. The recidivism rates for pedophiles who completed the treatment program was lower than for those of the pedophiles who did not complete the treatment. As to the rapists, the recidivism rates were lower for those who underwent an extended treatment program than for the other two groups. These data show that a treatment program reduces the recidivism rate in sexual aggressors. The optimal duration of treatment, however, varies according to the type of offender.

EN :

This paper adresses the complex unconscious identificatory processes which may silently be active within the clinician when he proposes treatment either to a child or adolescent in an institution or to an adult in a correctionnal setting. Three representations of treatment serve as a backdrop to analyse different identificatory movements on the part of the clinician and how such unconscious motivations may affect his work.

EN :

Compared to male offenders, very few studies have been published on drug use by female offenders. This paper, base on the interviews of 94 female offenders incarcerated aim to enlighten this obscure situation. Results indicate that drug use by female inmates is very important and, in some way problematic. It is not to say that their drug use cause crimes, but their drug problem need to be addressed thoughtfully.

EN :

This paper tries to shed a light on the attrition process and on the factors influencing the sentencing's decision making process, for criminal homicide cases prosecuted in Montreal between 1985 and 1989 inclusively. The results showed that unlike the police mainly laying murder charges, 55 % of the 142 sentenced were found guilty of manslaughter. Therefore a large number has less than eight years in prison to serve before eligibility to full parole. The accused who commited an homicide associated with another crime or a settling of accounts, who went through a trial, who had a criminal record and who killed a woman significantly encounter a greater possibility to be sentenced on a murder charge. Yet a sequence in the decision making process can be observed: once is settled the type of charge to be definitive at the end of the criminal process, the factors studied influence rather little the severity of the imposed sentence. Finally the author points out how the prosecution mode of these homicide cases played an important part on the two levels of decision.