Friedrich Lösel

Effects of child skills training in preventing antisocial behavior: A systematic review of randomized evaluations.

This article reports a meta-analysis on social skills training as a measure for preventing antisocial behavior in children and youth. From 851 documents, 84 reports containing 135 comparisons between treated and untreated youngsters (N = 16,723) fulfilled stepwise eligibility criteria (e.g., randomized control-group design, focus on prevention). Despite a wide range of positive and negative effect sizes, the majority confirmed the benefits of treatment. The best estimated mean effects were d = .38 (postintervention) and .28 (follow-up). Effects were smaller on antisocial behavior than on related social and cognitive measures. Studies with large samples produced lower effect sizes than those with smaller samples. Programs targeting at-risk groups had better effects than universal programs. Modes of treatment did not differ significantly; however, cognitive-behavioral programs had the strongest impact on antisocial behavior. More well-controlled studies with large samples, hard outcome criteria, and long follow-up periods are needed, particularly outside the United States.

Direct Protective and Buffering Protective Factors in the Development of Youth Violence

This article discusses conceptual issues and reviews knowledge about direct and buffering protective factors in the development of youth violence. Direct protective factors predict a low probability of violence, whereas buffering protective factors predict a low probability of violence in the presence of risk (and often interact with risk factors). Individual, family, school, peer, and neighborhood factors are reviewed. Heterogeneity of variables, measurement, contexts, study design, sample, and other characteristics limit generalizations. However, there were various evidence-based candidates for having a direct protective or buffering protective effect such as above-average intelligence, low impulsivity/easy temperament, enhanced anxiety, prosocial attitudes, high heart rate, close relationship to at least one parent, intensive parental supervision, medium SES of the family, sound academic achievement, strong school bonding, a positive school/class climate, nondeviant peers, and living in a nondeprived and nonviolent neighborhood. The probability of violence decreases as the number of protective factors increases (a dose-response relationship). Implications for future research and practice concern adequate research designs to detect nonlinear relationships; conceptually and methodologically homogeneous studies; differentiated analyses with regard to age, gender, and other characteristics; and greater integration of longitudinal correlational research with (quasi-)experimental intervention studies.

The predictive efficiency of school bullying versus later offending: a systematic/meta-analytic review of longitudinal studies.

BACKGROUND Although bullying and delinquency share similar risk factors, no previous systematic review has ever been conducted to examine possible links between school bullying and criminal offending later in life. AIMS To investigate the extent to which bullying perpetration at school predicts offending later in life, and whether this relation holds after controlling for other major childhood risk factors. METHOD Results are based on a thorough systematic review and meta-analysis of studies measuring school bullying and later offending. Effect sizes are based on both published and unpublished studies; longitudinal investigators of 28 studies have conducted specific analyses for our review. RESULTS The probability of offending up to 11 years later was much higher for school bullies than for non-involved students [odds ratio (OR) = 2.50; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.03-3.08]. Bullying perpetration was a significant risk factor for later offending, even after controlling for major childhood risk factors (OR = 1.82, 95% CI: 1.55-2.14). Effect sizes were smaller when the follow-up period was longer and larger when bullying was assessed in older children. The age of participants when outcome measures were taken was negatively related with effect sizes. Finally, the summary effect size did not decrease much as the number of controlled risk factors increased. CONCLUSIONS School bullying is a strong and specific risk factor for later offending. Effective anti-bullying programmes should be promoted, and could be viewed as a form of early crime prevention. Such programmes would have a high benefit : cost ratio.

Bullying at school as a predictor of delinquency, violence and other anti-social behaviour in adulthood

BACKGROUND Although bullying at school is an important topic, its long-term relation to anti-social development is rarely investigated. AIM To study the relation between bullying in youth and anti-social outcomes in adulthood. METHODS A group of 63 males (bullies and victims over-sampled) from the Erlangen-Nuremberg Bullying Study were investigated at ages 15 and 25. Bullying was assessed with the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire. Outcome measures included self-reported delinquency, violence, aggressiveness, drug use, impulsivity and psychopathy. In addition to bivariate correlations, hierarchical regressions were used to control for family and individual risk factors. RESULTS Bullying was a strong predictor of nearly all anti-social outcomes. Physical bullying was more predictive than verbal/indirect bullying. Controlling for family risks and externalising/internalising problems reduced effect sizes, but bullying remained a sound predictor. Victimisation was not related to anti-social outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Bullying seems to be a key risk marker for anti-social development. Therefore, studies on whole-school anti-bullying programmes and child-oriented or family-oriented strategies of crime prevention should be more integrated.

Treatment and Management of Psychopaths

About 20 years ago, Hare and Schalling (1978) edited a book on the results of the first NATO Advanced Study Institute on psychopathy. This volume contained a chapter on “Approaches to Treatment” from Suedfeld and Landon (1978) that began as follows: “Even a quick review of the literature suggests that a chapter on effective treatment should be the shortest in any book concerned with psychopathy. In fact, it has been suggested that one sentence would suffice:’ No demonstrably effective treatment has been found. ” (p. 347). In a review from the 1990s, Blackburn (1993, p. 202) drew two main conclusions: “First, while classical psychopaths have been shown to respond poorly to some traditional therapeutic interventions, it has yet to be established that “nothing works” with this group. Second, some offenders with personality disorders do appear to change with psychological treatment. ”

Some High-risk Adolescents do not Develop Conduct Problems: A Study of Protective Factors

Research on the origins of conduct problems such as disruptive, aggressive, and delinquent behaviour has focused mainly on deficits and risk factors. Protective factors have received more attention only recently in the context of resilience research. In the present study cross-sectional and longitudinal (2-year interval) comparisons were made of two groups of 14 to 17-year-olds from residential homes. Both groups have grown up under accumulated stressful life events and circumstances (multiproblem milieu). One group (N=66) has so far shown no serious behavioral and emotional problems (Resilients); the other (N= 80) has developed manifest disorders, particularly in the externalising syndrome. Potential protective factors (intelligence, temperament, self-related cognitions, coping styles, experience with reference persons, social support, social climate, etc.) were recorded with tests, questionnaires, and interviews. Protective factors functioned additively, subtypes could not be differentiated. Findings from the longitudinal survey showed somewhat lower effects in personal resources and were only partially consistent with the cross-sectional comparison. Possible reasons for these discrepancies are discussed, and it is suggested that the construct of resiliency in multi-problem milieus requires a dynamic, development and context-related interpretation.

Evaluation Research on Correctional Treatment in West Germany: A Meta-analysis

Compared with the United States and several West European countries, the institutionalization of treatment for criminals is only a relatively recent development in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). In 1969 § 65 StGB (Strafgesetzbuch; Penal Law) on placement in a sociotherapeutic prison was introduced as a major legal basis and one of the major advances in penal reform. The goal of this legislation was that the courts would order placement in a sociotherapeutic prison for the following groups of prisoners: 1. Recidivists with serious personality disorders 2. Dangerous sexual offenders 3. Young adult criminals who have been assessed as especially crime-prone 4. Criminally nonresponsible or reduced responsibility offenders, if placement in a sociotherapeutic prison would appear to provide a better opportunity for resocialization than treatment in a psychiatric clinic

Increasing consensus in the evaluation of offender rehabilitation? lessons from recent research syntheses

Abstract Recent years have seen a revivification of correctional treatment. Meta-analysis has played an important role in this trend. However, the discussion on these results has been just as controversial as the reviews on the “nothing works” debate 20 years ago. This controversy is due to a mixing up of facts and values. The present paper should contribute to the consensus on facts. First, it reports on an update of a meta-analysis on the treatment of adult offenders in German social-therapeutic prisons. This is followed by an overview of North American meta-analyses that have concentrated mostly on programs with juveniles. The outcomes show fairly consistent but low overall effects. Most meta-analyses also tend to agree on differential effects (e.g., modes of treatment, design characteristics, settings). Nonetheless, there are still major deficits in evaluation research. Finally, future perspectives of the revived discussion on offender rehabilitation are discussed.

Psychopathy, risk taking, and attention: a differentiated test of the somatic marker hypothesis

A. R. Damasios (1994) somatic marker hypothesis relates psychopathy to deficits in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Using the gambling task (A. Bechara, A. R. Damasio, H. Damasio, & S. Anderson, 1994), the authors tested this premise and the role of attention as a moderator. Forty-nine male prison inmates were assessed with the Psychopathy Checklist--Revised (R. D. Hare, 1991), the gambling task, and standardized tests on attention-concentration, and intelligence. Results revealed no general relation between psychopathy and gambling task performance. However, psychopathic inmates with low attention scores gambled worse than did the attentive ones. They also had more previous convictions. In nonpsychopathic individuals, attention had no impact. Different processing strategies for psychopathic and nonpsychopathic individuals are proposed to explain these findings.

Psychology and law : international perspectives

Selected contributions to the Second European Conference on Law and Psychology, held in Nuremberg, Germany in 1990. The volume is divided into nine parts: general perspectives, explanation of offending and assessment of offenders, treatment and prevention of offending, psychological research on the