Effectiveness of Using Multimodal or Multi-systemic Treatment Methods in Forensic Populations

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to enlighten and explore the use of multi-systematic treatment methods and its application in forensic populations. The core objective of the paper is to analyze the multi-systematic treatment approaches and their significance in the field of forensic psychology. Nonetheless, the paper enlightens the influence of multi-systematic treatment approaches while treating forensic population concerns. This paper analyzes several research studies and scholarly journals of both quantitative and qualitative research methodology in order to analyze the significance of multi-systematic treatment. In addition, this paper uses secondary research analysis in order to validate the findings of this study.

Table of Contents

Introduction4

Literature Review5

Methodology7

Research Design7

Data Collection Technique8

Data Collection Sources9

Results and Findings9

Conclusion12

References14

Effectiveness of Using Multimodal or Multi-systemic Treatment Methods in Forensic Populations

Introduction

Forensic psychology is a varied discipline that covers a range of areas of research, consultancy and advice relevant to the criminal and civil justice system. The American Psychology-Law Society defines forensic psychology as 'the professional practice by psychologists within the areas of clinical psychology, counseling psychology, neuropsychology, and school psychology, when they are engaged regularly as experts and represent themselves as such, in an activity primarily intended to provide professional psychological expertise to the judicial system.' Although no obvious equivalent defining statement has been set by the Division of Forensic Psychology, the majority of forensic psychologists in the US tend to be employed in the Prison Service and they focus on assessment, intervention and through care.

From the 1970s to present, the United States has experienced a “prison boom”. The funding for state psychiatric services and hospitals declined, while the funding for building and operating prisons increased. The United States now has the largest population of incarcerated individuals in the world and the incarceration rate has more than doubled since the mid 1980s. According to the most recently published Bureau of Justice Statistics, the 2008 midyear prison population totals in the United States were 1,610,446 inmates incarcerated in state, federal, and private prisons. The 2008 midyear jail population, where individuals were either awaiting trial or serving a sentence, was 785,556.

Multisystemic therapy (MST), developed and refined by Scott Henggeler and his colleagues over the past 25 years, is an intensive family-and community-based treatment for youth presenting with serious clinical problems that focuses on changing the empirically derived determinants of these problems within a broad-based, social ecological framework (Rowland, et al. 2005, 67-74). MST uses evidence-based interventions designed to attenuate known risk factors and to enhance protective factors at multiple levels of the youth's social ecology. These levels include characteristics of individuals, salient features of encapsulating social environments (Stambaugh, et al. 91-103).

Literature Review

MST therapists have low caseloads, provide treatment in natural environments, schedule sessions at convenient times for families, and maintain availability for interventions 24 hours per day and 7 days per week. Treatment involves approximately 60 hours of direct service extending over 3 to 6 months. These practices likely contribute to the high treatment completion rates evidenced across MST studies (Derezotes, Richardson, King, ...