수형자들을 위한 교정 프로그램과 심리검사의 타당성

Punishment has changed across time and cultures. It is likely that some of the current trends in punishment will be rejected in a few years time. Punishment is a constantly evolving aspect of society and is linked to thoughts about safety, the effectiveness of the criminal justice system and emotional responses to victimization. The unique physical and social environment in prison does seem particularly prone to causing stress. And prisoners are individuals, and vary in the stressors they experience and how they try to cope with these. The prison environment also seems to limit the means by which prisoners can cope with stress. We have to heed on some populations of prisoners who suffer particular stressors: life-sentence prisoners and prisoners who are mothers. The questions of rehabilitation of offenders, so called 'What Works' debate, is whether treatment is effective. A couple of examples of the programmes were suggested with the related evidence. And the results are the rehabilitation of offenders may be successful for certain individuals and under certain conditions as “Think First” or “ART”(Aggression Replacement Training). PCL-R test for determining whether a offender poses a risk of further violence if released. “Lifer” like Robert Dixon took a test to determine whether he was a psychopath for a parole hearing. This test has incredible power in the American criminal justice system. Many psychologists believe that psychopaths are so devoid of normal human emotion, so cold and remorseless and impulsive, that they are bound, almost by their very nature, to do harm and violence. But this assumptions could lead error prone decision like Robert Dixons case. Predictive power of psychological test is assumed on the determination of nature rather than nurture. Recently, more studies support of environmental power compared to biological characteristics. Hence more studies are needed to answer for the right individuals targeted for the right programmes and tests.