Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA.
Law Hum Behav. 2012 Feb;36(1):37-50. doi: 10.1037/h0093964.
The purpose of this research synthesis was to examine treatment effects across studies of the service providers to offenders with mental illness. Meta-analytic techniques were applied to 26 empirical studies obtained from a review of 12,154 research documents. Outcomes of interest in this review included measures of both psychiatric and criminal functioning. Although meta-analytic results are based on a small sample of available studies, results suggest interventions with offenders with mental illness effectively reduced symptoms of distress, improving offender's ability to cope with their problems, and resulted in improved behavioral markers including institutional adjustment and behavioral functioning. Furthermore, interventions specifically designed to meet the psychiatric and criminal justice needs of offenders with mental illness have shown to produce significant reductions in psychiatric and criminal recidivism. Finally, this review highlighted admission policies and treatment strategies (e.g., use of homework), which produced the most positive benefits. Results of this research synthesis are directly relevant for service providers in both criminal justice and mental health systems (e.g., psychiatric hospitals) as well as community settings by informing treatment strategies for the first time, which are based on empirical evidence. In addition, the implications of these results to policy makers tasked with the responsibility of designating services for this special needs population are highlighted.
本研究综合的目的是考察对有精神疾病的罪犯提供服务的研究中的治疗效果。通过对 12154 份研究文献的综述，应用荟萃分析技术对 26 项实证研究进行了分析。本综述中关注的结果包括精神和犯罪功能的测量。尽管荟萃分析结果基于可用研究的小样本，但结果表明，干预措施对有精神疾病的罪犯有效降低了痛苦症状，提高了罪犯应对问题的能力，并改善了行为指标，包括机构适应和行为功能。此外，专门针对有精神疾病的罪犯的精神卫生和刑事司法需求设计的干预措施已显示出可显著降低精神和犯罪复发率。最后，本综述强调了准入政策和治疗策略（例如，家庭作业的使用），这些策略带来了最积极的效益。本次研究综合的结果直接适用于刑事司法和精神卫生系统（例如，精神病院）以及社区环境中的服务提供者，因为它首次根据实证证据提供了治疗策略。此外，还强调了这些结果对负责为这一特殊需求人群指定服务的政策制定者的意义。
