Playing the game: A qualitative study of sex offenders in a prison-based treatment program.

摘要

This qualitative study gathered information about two issues. First, how did inmates who received sex offense specific treatment understand and experience this treatment in the prison context. Second, were there notable differences in the experience and understanding of treatment in a sample of inmates divided according to high and low psychopathy scores? Each inmate was interviewed several times during the course of a six-month treatment program about his experiences in prison and in treatment. Each interview was transcribed, coded and analyzed.; Descriptions of life in general population indicated that, as members of a stigmatized and oppressed sub-population, inmates were particularly motivated to deny or mitigate their status as sex offenders. Various strategies were employed to project a favorable image to other inmates and, at the same time, impress treatment staff that the inmate was sincere in his efforts to change his harmful behaviors. Inmates adjusted to multiple rules and expectations by which their lives were governed in prison. Playing the game was thus chosen as a major category for understanding all inmates' responses to treatment.; It was evident that all inmates in this study understood and applied the materials and experiences provided them by the Phase One program through the filter of their position in prison as members of a stigmatized sub-population, sex offenders. The two major implications of this study were, first, that the prison context precluded much of the Phase One curriculum from being utilized, as no real-life means of applying treatment existed and prison norms directly contradicted the practices and philosophy of the treatment program and thus limited the degree to which treatment experiences could be incorporated. The second major implication of this study was that high psychopathy inmates responded to specific aspects of the Phase One treatment program in ways substantially different from low psychopathy inmates. Most notable in this regard was the lack of response to the empathy-training module and the various ways in which high psychopathy inmates conceived of misapplications of treatment such that they might improve their criminal skills or find justification or excuse for further offenses.