Dr Ryan Botha1
1Department Of Corrections, New Zealand
Biography:
Dr Ryan Botha is a registered neuropsychologist and correctional psychology researcher. His primary areas of speciality include clinical neuropsychological assessment, personality assessment (psychopathy) and quantitative/qualitative research. Ryan worked as a Senior Psychologist at Auckland South Correctional Facility (ASCF) before taking up a research role in the Office of the Chief Psychologist at Ara Poutama Aotearoa. Ryan currently leads the psychology research programme at Ara Poutama Aotearoa where his primary focus is on the validation of clinical risk assessment tools, enhancing approaches to bi-cultural psychology and programme evaluation.
Abstract:
This study sought to examine whether participation in violent offending programmes was associated with measurable changes in a range of dynamic risk and clinical psychological factors that were the targets of intervention. The sample included men under correctional care who had participated in a Special Treatment Unit for Violent Offending (STU:VO) and were administered a battery of psychometric tests before and after completion of the programme (N = 265). Within-treatment change was calculated at the group level using average sample differences and at the individual level using clinically significant change analysis. On average, the participants showed significant within-group change in the expected direction of improvement on almost all the measures. Clinically significant change analysis showed that most participants (75%) who met statistical definitions for having dysfunctional scores on the Violence Risk Scale (VRS) at pre-treatment were classified as improved post-treatment. This study provides preliminary evidence that participation in STU:VO is associated with improvements in dynamic risk and clinical psychological factors.