H1: CONCEPTUALISATION
INTRODUCTION
1. What do you understand by (offender) reintegration?
= Offender reintegration is the process of helping individuals who have been incarcerated or involved in the
criminal justice system to successfully return to society, reducing their likelihood of reoffending.
• Reintegration involves various forms of support (aimed at addressing issues like employment, housing,
mental health, substance abuse, and social connections) which can all affect an individual’s ability to lead
a stable and productive life outside of prison.
• Reintegration emphasizes the importance of transforming former offenders into positive community
members by equipping them with the necessary tools, resources, and support to handle life’s challenges
in a constructive way.
• The ultimate goal is to reduce recidivism (the tendency to relapse into criminal behavior) and to promote
community safety and harmony.
2. What are the aims of reintegration?
= to prevent reoffending by addressing underlying causes, promote public safety by supporting law-abiding
behavior, and enhance well-being through education and counseling. It helps individuals achieve economic
independence by securing stable employment, rebuild social connections with family and community, and
reduce stigma surrounding former offenders.
3. Which parties are involved in reintegration?
= Correctional and Probation Services, Community-Based Organizations, Government Agency, family, friends,
…
Many similar yet different ‘re-terms’: rehabilitation, resettlement, reintegration, recidivism, resocialization, release,
reentry
Narrow vs broad perspective: outcome and process
• Narrow: the outcome of an individual whose behaviour is conformed to the standards and rules of the
society after being imprisoned.
• Broad: The process of failing and successfully re-enter society by searching for a job, find housing, stop
offending, finding good peers and surroundings, quitting drug addiction, finding help, …
Tertiary crime prevention = “deals with actual offenders and involves an intervention in their lives in such a way that
they will not commit further offences” (Brantingham, 1976)
• Example: rehabilitation programs.
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, • Secondary crime prevention = focuses on intervening with individuals or groups who are at a higher risk
of becoming involved in criminal activity, but who have not yet committed a crime.
REHABILITATION
• The forensic-psychological concept of rehabilitation is based on the medical model encompassing assessment,
management, and treatment.
• It focuses on the individual and the risks of offenders.
o It situates the problem within the offender and the solution in the treatment room.
• Rehabilitation refers to changing how offenders think, feel, or behave.
• Its aim of reducing recidivism is an individualized one: focus on the intrinsic aspects of the individual without
considering or addressing the wider context.
Risk-need-responsivity (RNR model – Andrews & Bonta) = focus on safety (recidivism), individual-centred and risk-
based.
1. Risk (who) = treatment intensity should be matched to the risk level of offenders
o Focus on individuals who are more likely to commit crime and have the largest impact on recidivism
(low-medium-high risk)
2. Need (what) = interventions should target dynamic risk factors (criminogenic needs)
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, 3. Responsivity (how)
o General: cognitive-behavioral and social learning interventions
o Specific: tailored to motivation, intelligence, gender, ethnicity
o Effectiveness based on studies:
§ Effectiveness of psychological interventions in prison to reduce recidivism:
• No significant reduction in recidivism
• Therapeutic communities: decreased rates of recidivism
§ CBT: no clear effectiveness because it is not linked with psychological support upon release.
• They do not address the accommodation, employment and financial difficulties after
release.
Good Lives Model (GLM- Ward) = focus on well-being, strengths-based, holistic-approach
= general model of healthy human functioning (not a treatment model nor a theory of offending)
• General assumptions in a nutshell:
1. Offenders like all other people, strive to lead ‘good live’ characterized by happiness, good education,
a decent job, friendship and a sense of belonging.
2. Offending occurs when the individual lacks the capabilities to attain these ‘primary human goods’ in a
prosocial manner. It is the means (middelen) by which these legitimate goals are achieved that is
problematic (instrumental goods)
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, 3. Rehabilitations focuses on the enhancement of offenders’ capabilities to effectively secure their
primary human goods, without harming others à equipping them with necessary knowledge, skills,
opportunities and resources to lead prosocial and meaningful lives.
4. GLM advocates for a dual emphasis on both goods promotion and risk reduction
• Instrumental goods provide means of achieving primary goods: criminal behavior represents a maladaptive
way to secure primary goods.
o Inner peace à abusing drugs or alcohol to relieve internal stress.
o Relatedness à intimate relationship with children to achieve bonds.
o Agency à manipulation or coercion to feel in control.
o Spirituality à extremist or terrorist affiliations to have a meaning in life.
o Work à illegal professions of drug dealing or fraud to feel accomplished.
• Enhancing people’s capabilities (knowledge, skills, opportunities, resources) to secure primary goods in a pro-
social manner.
o The Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model focuses on reducing recidivism by assessing and addressing
an individual's risk level, criminogenic needs (factors that contribute to criminal behavior), and
tailoring interventions to their specific learning styles and motivations.
o The Good Lives Model (GLM), on the other hand, emphasizes helping offenders achieve a fulfilling and
meaningful life by focusing on their strengths, personal goals, and well-being. It views rehabilitation
as not just reducing risks but promoting positive outcomes and life satisfaction.
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, REENTRY
• Comes on the day one is released from prison.
• Physical relocation with all its social and psychological demands that most released prisoners must confront
and manage.
• Denotes a distinct period (the early stages after release)
• Precursor to successful community reintegration
• The offender ‘re-enters’ society
• Event rather than a process
REINTEGRATION
• More broadly, reintegration is a long-term process, one that starts prior to release and continues well
afterwards.
• Reintegration is concerned with issues such as income, employment, housing, social capital and stigma.
• Denotes social inclusion or membership of the community.
• Contrary to rehabilitation, reintegration is usually followed by the word ‘within’ or ‘into’ which indicates a
belonging to something bigger and more structural than the individual
Four forms of reintegrative process (McNeill) = an individual’s ongoing journey towards successful (re)integration in
the community
1. Personal = personal aspects that equip the traveller for the journey towards reintegration.
o Promoting positive individual level change.
o Any rehabilitative effort that seeks to somehow change, improve, or develop the person who has
offended.
o Commonly pursued through ‘offending behavior programmes’ also includes a much wider range of
broadly educational work.
o It involves interventions to develop new attitudes, skills, or abilities, or to address and resolve personal
limitations or problems.
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, o Personal > correctional rehabilitation
• Personal rehabilitation might involve working through a variety of offending behavior
programmes, but they may not always be a necessary component of it, and they are
never sufficient for it.
• In this wider sense, personal rehabilitation is concerned with any aspect of the
normative development of the individual that is associated with movement away
from offending.
• It may come about without any formal intervention at all.
• Persoonlijke revalidatie kan het doorlopen van verschillende programma's voor crimineel
gedrag inhouden, maar ze zijn niet altijd een noodzakelijk onderdeel ervan en ze zijn er nooit
voldoende voor. In deze bredere zin heeft persoonlijke revalidatie betrekking op elk aspect
van de normatieve ontwikkeling van het individu dat geassocieerd wordt met het weggaan van
crimineel gedrag. Het kan plaatsvinden zonder enige formele interventie.
2. Legal = passport control
o Formal and legal processes of requalification and de-labeling in which the status of the (once-
degraded) citizen is restored.
o Signifies and requires the end of the punishment.
o Full and equal citizenship.
o Addresses the issues of formal stigma and exclusionary effects of having a criminal record and being
an ‘ex-offender’.
3. Moral = a dialogue between the parties that looks back to the offence, that explores harm and repair, and that
looks forward to the destination of reintegration
o Conflict between the offender, victim, and community.
o Neither personal nor legal rehabilitation offer morel redress.
o Moral debts needs to be ‘paid back’ to society.
o Restorative justice.
4. Social = on the journey to reintegration, social rehabilitation is about the company that the traveller finds and
the climate through which they travel. It is about their connection and resources, their social capital; the help
and welcome that the traveller requires along the long and winding road.
o Even where personal development is secured, where legal requalification is confirmed, and where
more debts are settled, the question of social rehabilitation remains.
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