This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Wolf, Y. Articles by Walters, J. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Wolf, Y. Articles by Walters, J. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Moral Judgment among Incarcerated Offenders from a Psychotherapeutic Background

Department of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, ISRAEL

Miriam Friedlander

Israel Prison Authority

Moshe Addad

Department of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, ISRAEL

Peter Silfen

Be'er Yaakov Mental Hospital, Beer Yaakov, and; Department of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, ISRAEL

Joel Walters

Department of English Language, Linguistics and Literature, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, ISRAEL

The present work is a preliminary attempt to examine whether the theory of information integration is applicable as aframework for the study of moral judgment by incarcerated offenders who underwent formal psychotherapy in prison (psychotherapeutic background). The hypothesis, derived from the theory, was that judgment would be based on more than a single source of information. This hypothesis was tested against an alternative, unidimensional prediction derived from the theory of object relations. Nineteen subjects, 14 of them hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of an Israeli prison, participated in a study based on a single subject experimental design, where every subject participated in all experimental conditions. Seven of them were diagnosed as borderline and seven as anti-social. Each subject responded to an experimental questionnaire which included hypothetical episodes about property crimes committed by two offenders. The subject was instructed to identify with one of the offenders. Three pieces of information were included in each episode: the intent of each of the two offenders and the size of the job.' All episodes derived from a complete factorial design were presented to each subject. In one replication the subject assigned blame to the offender with whom he identified, and in the other he assigned blame to the accomplice. Meaningful differences were found between the groups of prisoners, as reflected in the importance assigned to the three sources of information.

International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol. 39, No. 3, 242-257 (1995)
DOI: 10.1177/0306624X9503900305


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. Korn Rates of incarceration and main trends in Israeli prisons JCriminology and Criminal Justice, February 1, 2003; 3(1): 29 - 55. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. Glicksohn, H. Golan, and E. Krasner Do Coping Styles Influence the Way We Judge Criminal Offenses? A Preliminary Investigation Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol, June 1, 1998; 42(2): 133 - 140. [Abstract]