In 2015, the Norwegian Directorate of Health
allocated money for a three year pilot project offering treatment to high-risk,
sex-convicted persons. The project, BASIS (an acronym derived from the
Norwegian name, Behandling Av
Seksuallovbruddsdømte I Sør-øst)
was carried out in the period 2016-2019 in the South-Eastern
region of Norway. The project collaborated closely with international experts
to implement a Good Lives Model-derived individualized sex offence treatment
approach in Norway. Up until then, individual treatment aiming to reduce
recidivism was rarely offered to this group while in prison, and the
Correctional Service called for better and more systematic treatment options.
Norway’s structural
policies are closely aligned with what Braithwaite called reintegrative shaming. (Reintegrative shaming, which
focuses on the individual’s behavior and is related to the trend towards
positive criminology, is not to be confused with traditional shame, in which
the person feels bad about who they are.)
Sentences are relatively short in length, and persons convicted of
sexual offences live side by side with other prisoners. Rehabilitation is considered
a corner-stone in the Norwegian Correctional Service, and there are no
registries after release.
However, there has
been a substantial increase in the proportion of prisoners serving sentences
for sex offences for the past 20 years, and the increase is seen as a challenge
for the Norwegian Correctional Services. Persons convicted of sexual offences
now make up about 19 % of the total prison population, compared to about only 6
% in 2000. The main reason for this increase is not a higher number of persons
convicted of sexual offences (although we have seen a small increase in
convictions as well), but a new Penal Code leading to more severe punishment
for serious crimes, including longer prison sentences for sexual offences.
Current court practice witness of an extensive increase in lengths of
sentencing for some types of sexual offences for the past ten years, and it has
been argued that Norway’s penal state has moved in a more punitive direction
(Shammas, 2016). Several Continental European countries have in fact for the
past years enacted more restrictive laws on sexual offending (McAlinden, 2012).
In addition to longer sentences for sexual offences, other less severe crimes
are more often than before subject of other forms of punishment than
imprisonment, leading to a larger proportion of persons convicted of sexual
offences in Norwegian prisons (Shammas, 2016).
Through the BASIS
project, the health sector has collaborated with the Correctional Service to
identify and locate high-risk individuals. All sex-convicted persons in the
chosen region have been subject to a systematic risk screen using the
STATIC-99R. Persons with a risk score of 4 and higher have been offered further
assessment and individual treatment with trained psychologists. The STATIC-99R
has not yet been validated in Norway, but the project group is working on
results from a retrospective follow-up study to confirm validity.
Individual treatment
using the Good Lives Model has been successful among patients (n=21) in the
BASIS project. The future- and strengths-based approach seems to fit with the
Norwegian values and the focus on rehabilitation and re-inclusion after
release. Patients have stayed motivated and most have wanted to continue
treatment after conditional release from prison. The collaboration between
treatment providers and Corrections staff has been a key factor to succeed in
implementing this new method for patient inclusion and treatment in Norway.
Furthermore, the BASIS psychologists have had the opportunity to participate at
international conferences like ATSA, and quality of treatment has been secured
through regular supervision sessions with outside consultants.
A final conference
marking the end of the BASIS project was held in Oslo June 4, 2019, with
attendees participating from around Norway. The BASIS project’s final report,
launched at the conference, recommended that systematic risk screening and
individual treatment of the high-risk group is implemented nationally to reduce
sexual recidivism among sex-convicted persons. As a result of the systematic
work through these three years, authorities have allocated money to offer
similar treatment in all health regions in Norway, based on the BASIS model. This
is great news, and an important step in the direction of ending sexual abuse.
Systematic risk-screening will be continued as a first step in including
patients, and The Good Lives Model is the chosen treatment approach.
References
McAlinden, A.-M.
(2012). The governance of sexual offending across Europe: Penal policies,
political economies and the institutionalization of risk. Punishment &
Society, 14(2), 166-192. doi:10.1177/146247451143557
Shammas, V. L. (2016).
The Rise of a More Punitive State: On the Attenuation of Norwegian Penal
Exceptionalism in an Era of Welfare State Transformation. Critical
Criminology, 24(1), 57-74. doi:10.1007/s10612-015-9296-1
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