Training Description
This 1.5-hour training event will introduce participants to the emerging model of Desistance from Crime. The R-N-R model of supervision is utilized in the vast majority of correctional agencies around the world. It is indeed considered the gold standard of client reintegration. Yet it is not without its detractors. Critics note that because by its very nature, it is risk aversion model. That is, practitioners are taught to detect and address client risk factors in order to facilitate offender change. It is therefore viewed by some as a deficit-based approach to change.
Conversely, desistance models focus on individual strengths to promote a crime free life. Rather than focusing on commonalties in the lives of offenders (risk), the desistance approach looks at the process by which those who now lead a crime free life attained that status. Interestingly, the research shows that desistance is not merely the absence of established risk factors. Although many view the established R-N-R model and the emerging desistance model as two competing schools of thought, this presentation will focus on and posit that they are in fact complimentary. They are not so much opposing approaches as much as they are different points on a continuum e.g. crime acquisition vs. crime cessation.
Trainer Biography
Mr. Joseph Arvidson is the Executive Director of The Paragon Group LLC. Their scope of services includes speaking engagements, training, and consulting in the arena of Corrections, including the emerging desistance-based theories of change. He has extensive experiencing training and facilitating a variety of evidence-based practices, ranging from cognitive skills programs, motivational interviewing, risk assessment and case planning. The Paragon Group has the capacity to train staff in a variety of client assessments, ranging from the Level of Service Case Management Inventory (LS/CMI) to various desistance-based change scales, such as the Dynamic Risk Assessment for Offender Reentry (DRAOR) or the Structured Dynamic Assessment Case Management (SDAC-21) tools. Their team has expertise in the use of mixed method research, offering utilization-focused evaluation to ensure program fidelity. He is currently host of The Criminologist podcast.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to…
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- Describe the Risk-Needs-Responsivity model.
- Discuss various theories of Desistance from Crime.
- Discuss how to identify and promote desistance correlates in the populations you work with.