Journal article
A Complexity Perspective on Work With Offenders and Victims of Crime
Emergence: Complexity and Organization, Vol.9(1/2), pp.56-66
2007
Abstract
Internationally, cognitive behavioral theories form the foundation of work with offenders, because they have proved to be the most effective in bringing about changes and reducing levels of reoffending. As with any theory, the original theory has been consistently modified and adapted in attempts to make it even more effective at bringing about behavioral changes in offenders. This paper first gives an overview of cognitive behavioral theory, seeing how its linear approach has cut it off from wider perspectives that might make it more effective. It also develops an understanding of criminal behavior from a complexity viewpoint. From there it examines from a complexity perspective the work of the Community Probation Service in New Zealand, which uses a cognitive behavioral approach, and the recently completed pilot of the restorative justice system, bringing offender and victim together in a mediated forum. An effective complex adaptive system has strong autonomy and efficient connectivity. If any member of a community violates the autonomy or connectivity of another, a crime is committed. Work with offenders and victims focuses on restoring the autonomy and connectivity of those involved and the whole community, better enabling the dynamics of self-organization to re-emerge. Offenders are seen as developing schemas supported by cognitive distortions that allow them to bypass the barriers that keep most of us from offending. If an existing maladaptive schema can be carefully destabilized, it can enable the formation of a new, more effective schema that does not include offending behaviors.
Details
- Title
- A Complexity Perspective on Work With Offenders and Victims of Crime
- Authors
- Victor MacGill (Author) - Freelance Researcher, New Zealand
- Publication details
- Emergence: Complexity and Organization, Vol.9(1/2), pp.56-66
- Publisher
- Institute for the Study of Coherence and Emergence
- Date published
- 2007
- ISSN
- 1521-3250
- Organisation Unit
- School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99449403902621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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