Remaking Relapse Prevention

Relapse Rates for Addictions

First 12 months after cessation

80%

First 3 months

66%
(Hunt et al., 1971)
 Negative emotional states
Interpersonal conflict
Social pressure

71% of all relapses

(drinkers, smokers, heroin addicts,

compulsive gamblers, and over eaters)
(Cummings et al, 1980)
 Deviant Cycle
Life Event
Remorse,
Guilt, or Fear Negative Affect

Seemingly
Offense Unimportant
Thinking Errors
Decisions (SUDS)

Grooming
or Force High Risk
Situations
Planning
Passive/Active Target Selection
 Developed for
 Offenders motivated to change

 Already ceased offending

 Offended through “seemingly unimportant

decisions”
“An important precondition for applying RP
interventions is that the offender be
motivated to stop offending.”
(George & Marlatt, 1980, p. 16)
Updated Relapse Prevention
 Deviant Cycle
Life Event
Remorse,
Guilt, or Fear Negative Affect

Seemingly
Unimportant
Decisions (SUDS)
Offense
Thinking Errors

Grooming High Risk

or Force Situations

Planning Target Selection

Passive/Active
Self Regulation Model of Relapse Prevention

Life Event
Sometimes

Desire for
Offensive Sex

(Ward & Hudson, 1998)

Self Regulation Model of Relapse Prevention

Desire for
Offensive Sex

Avoidance Approach
Goals Goals

(Ward & Hudson, 1998)

Self Regulation Model of Relapse Prevention

Avoidant Approach

Passive Active Automatic Explicit

(Ward & Hudson, 1998)

 Deviant Cycle
Remorse, Life Event
(Or Not) Negative affect or
Guilt, Fear Sexual Interest
or Satisfaction

SUDS, Intent
or Automatic
Offense Thinking Errors
Pilot

Grooming High Risk

or Force Situations

Planning Target Selection

Passive/Active
Good Lives Model
 RP Avoidant

 Good lives model Approach

 Primary Goods

People seek primary goods

 Primary Goods
Experiences, states of mind, activities

Sought for their own sake

Increase psychological well-being

 Sexual Offending

Attempts to pursue primary human goods

Socially unacceptable

Personally frustrating
What Are Primary Goods
 Relatedness

 Health

 Autonomy

 Creativity

 Knowledge
 Tender Minded Theory
People are good

Bad acts are an attempt to meet same

needs as everybody else
 Theoretical Position
“It is true that we did not cite any study
applying the ideas of Deci and Ryan
[human needs and self-determination] to
an offender population – to our knowledge
there are no such studies yet.”
(Ward & Stewart, 2003, p. 222)
 Theoretical Position
“. . .there is little or no evidence for the
assessment and treatment aspects of the
theory other than the rationally based
reasons outlined above. This weakness
reveals that the theory lacks empirical
adequacy.”
(Ward et al., 2006, p. 311)
 Deci & Ryan (2000)
Nonoffenders
Autonomy, competence & relatedness

Correlated with

Indices of well-being
(Negatively correlated with anxiety and
depression; positively correlated with self-
esteem)
 Innate needs

Correlated with

Noncriminogenic needs
( Bonta and Andrews, 2003)
“I plain and simple needed to get some
good, hot, kinky sex but resented having
to rely on the generosity of women to hit
on their pussies. . . My days of
begging . . . Were over.”
(Athens, 1997, p. 10)
Applying the Good Lives Model
What goods are associated with offending?

Pursuit of emotional equilibrium

Intimacy
Personal control
Grievance
Sexual pleasure (goods of health & body)
Play (to get a thrill)
What Prevents Meeting These
Appropriately?

Socially isolated
Lack skills for relationships
Overly aggressive when mood low
Identifying Overarching Primary
Goods
Mechanically Inclined

“In this example, he might enroll in a night

course on practical mechanics
(knowledge), join a car club (relatedness),
and eventually train as a car mechanic
(mastery at work).”
(Ward et al., 2006, p. 308)
Identify Environment Needed
 Info about opportunities for work
 Social supports

 Living arrangements

 Culture of the community

 People are What They Do

To forge a more adaptive personal identity

Must live a better life

 Rehabilitation Involves
 Looking at past life

 Developing a new good lives plan

 Must Take into Account
 Offenders’ strengths

 Primary Goods

 Relevant Environments

 What competencies & resources?

“The problem does not reside in the primary
human goods that underlie offending, but
in the way individuals seek these goods.”
(Ward et. Al, 2006, p. 307)
 Secondary Goods
Ways primary goods are translated into
action

Primary goods: work

Secondary goods: Training in computers

 At Its Best
 Loneliness: Risk factor

 How to build a life with social connection

 At Its Worse
 Takes sex out of sexual offending

 Exercise, eat well, get a job – you’ll be fine

 Assumptions
Lost Souls or Predators

Lost Souls Only Need Apply

Is All Offending from Frustration?
Psychopathic

Predators

Sadists
 “I like to live on the edge. I like being
wanted by the police. I like being chased
by the police. When you live that kind of
life you really can’t stop to think. You
never think. You just do, do, do. If you
stop you won’t do it. I never stop to
analyze it.”
“I’d have to say I did get a high out of violent
behavior. I got – I got a high out of any
controlling and dominating situation. Any, any
situation that I was able to control – right? – I
got a high out of. I had like an adrenaline rush.
I felt powerful, in charge, where in a
consensual sexual relationship, sure orgasm
was achieved, ejaculation was achieved, and
then it’s over. But the feeling of power and
control lasts, it would last a lot longer. And it’s
something I knew that I could achieve at any
given point in time. All I, I knew what I had to
do. All I had to do was control somebody or
dominate, and that high was there.”