Forensic CBT: A Handbook for Clinical Practice

Citation

Peter Schaapveld (2015), "Forensic CBT: A Handbook for Clinical Practice", The Journal of Forensic Practice, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 165-166. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFP-10-2014-0037

This volume is aimed at clinician practicing in the criminal justice field. The authors set out the scope of the book in the preface as providing an authoritative and comprehensive source of expert guidance, clinical wisdom and inspiration for practitioner by bringing together the world of traditional CBT and criminology.

The book is divided into five parts with 23 individual chapters. Part I is subdivided into two sections: “Traditional and next generation CBT models” and “Criminal thinking models”. That three chapters are devoted to “Thinking Skills” models shows influence of the influence of the Risk-Need-Responsivity deficit-based model in current practice. There are two chapters on the strength-based models – (Chapters 14 and 21) – the latter placed within Part IV of the volume “Emerging Ideas for Practice”. Part I devotes seven chapters to treatment for “Antisocial pattern” which the editors justify on the basis that they are “day-to-day pressing concern for practitioners who work in forensic settings”. Of course the traditional RNR model proposes that clinicians direct their attention to “high-risk” individuals and thus it is by definition that such high-risk individuals are captured by the psychopathic/antisocial personality taxon by virtue of existing models of risk assessment which rely on psychopathic traits.

Part II is “CBT interventions for common criminal justice problem areas” and covers the main referral issues encountered in clinical forensic practice – these being anger/violence, sexual aggression and addictions with an addition of intimate partner violence. The latter being often neglected in the treatment literature. Part III turns its attention to the “Special Forensic Populations” of “justice-involved women”, juveniles and ethnic minorities. Part IV directs its gaze towards “Emerging ideas for practice” and in doing so addresses the all important area of engagement with forensic clients (Chapter 20) and the relatively neglected area of strength-based models (Chapter 21).

By and large the volume strikes a good balance between theory and practice. With each chapter introduced well in terms of historical and theoretical underpinnings. Those looking for “How to” information will be satisfied with several chapters devoted to the mechanics of CBT intervention and CBT-informed programmes with good practical case examples (e.g. Chapter 20 “Integrating motivational interviewing with forensic CBT”). These are readily usable by time-strapped forensic practitioners. Despite the preponderance of the received and accepted wisdom of the RNR-CBT skills-based approach there are a couple of chapters which provide nuanced and divergent views and which push the limits of the RNR-CBT model. There is a particularly good chapter (Chapter 18) on culturally responsive CBT which raises more questions than it answers but in essence provides a salient paper on the limits of RNR-CBT-based interventions. That it raises more questions than answers is not the fault of the chapter’s author rather it is a question rightly laid at the door of the dominant treatment/rehabilitation discourse/model in which interventions are provided under the assumption that the causes of offending lie within the offender who is an autonomous (criminally) responsible individual, albeit one who possesses psychosocial cognitive deficits and deficient life-skills. In a similar vein Chapter 16 (CBT with “Justice-involved women”) challenges the traditional RNR-CBT model by discussing “context” and a gender sensitive orientation.

There are some notable exclusions from the volume and these are the ones that give the largest headache to Intervention/Sentence planners and Parole Boards. These include the areas of intellectual disability, mental illness, and offender as concomitant victim, all of which require specialist assistance and act so often exclude from treatment or constrain success in such standard treatments as addressed in this volume. These issues frequently lead to the revolving door offenders and in the UK beyond tariff incarcerations for indefinite sentences. To be fair PTSD is addressed in Chapter 22 (along with depression) and gives a succinct consideration of the expression of PTSD in correctional settings. It does not address the thorny issue of therapy interfering issue of the offender’s experience of victimisation of trauma. All in all this volume represents a useful and readable addition to the literature on therapeutic interventions in forensic settings.