Background

The overriding objective of criminal treatment is always reducing the risk of future offences in order to prevent potential harm to others and oneself. Out-patient psycho- and sociotherapy after imprisonment offers the possibility of reducing costs, as expensive in-patient stays can be shortened,while at the same time increasing safety for the population by reducing relapses. In these contexts there is often a suspended sentence or judicial therapy instruction with given time limits, but participation can also be voluntary. This results in a strong variance in the duration of outpatient care, which can range from a single contact to extreme periods of up to 20 years aftercare. What is still unexplored at this point is how the duration of aftercare is influenced. This study examines the role played by personal motivation, the criminal offence, the time imprisoned, possible recidivism and biographical data. In addition, the study examines how individual resources of violent and sex offenders develop in a longitudinal perspective.

Method

A mixed-methods design with cross-sectional and longitudinal; quantitative and qualitative analyses. It is an explanatory, non-experimental, retrospective group and case study. The sample consists of a treated group (n = 547) and an untreated group of violent and sexual offenders (n = 329).

Statistics

N = 876; LRI-A, KV-S, KV-SAS, STAXI, LSI-R, Static-99, DRP, GLM.

Results

The average duration of therapy at ISONA is about 2.5 years. Clients with long-term therapeutic care experience the greatest increase in psychosocial resources and the greatest reduction in the risk of relapse. No significant results in the hypothesis tests showed the scale motivation and offences with pedosexual reference. However, the length of imprisonment, recidivism and a broken home childhood influence the duration of aftercare significantly.

Conclusions

Anti-stigmatisation campaigns against special groups of offenders, individually adapted measures in transition management from prison to freedom and individualised treatment concepts are desirable for the further expansion of aftercare treatment. More exploratory research is needed to investigate new aspects left out here.