NCJ Number
106134
Date Published
1987
Length
238 pages
Annotation
This practical guide to correctional counseling covers traditional medical approaches to treating offenders, contemporary psychological methods ranging from transactional analysis to family counseling, and job stresses.
Abstract
An overview of correctional counseling explores its purposes, communication skills, and counseling in a community-based setting versus an institution. The book surveys physiological, psychological, and sociological theories of criminality. An indepth discussion about the diagnosis and classification of offenders focuses on specific caseworker and counselor concerns. Medical/psychiatric approaches to offender treatment which continue to be the model of choice in correctional facilities are examined. After discussing psychoanalysis and personal-centered therapy as the framework for contemporary psychological treatment, individual chapters address well-known treatment models used with offenders: transactional analysis, cognitive therapies, behavior therapy, group and milieu therapy, and family therapy. The final chapter explores the working world of the correctional counselor, with attention to hiring standards, the treatment team, a counselor's typical responsibilities, and problems unique to the correctional setting. Discussion questions accompany each chapter. References and indexes.