The 'IDEA' Approach To Groupwork With Violent Offenders
| Date | 01 September 1999 |
| Published date | 01 September 1999 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059904600306 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
192
PRACTICE
NOTE
The ’IDEA’
Approach
To
Groupwork
With
Violent
Offenders
Judy
Courtney
and
Ian
Hodgkinson
describe
a
tool
developed
from
their
work
with
violent
offenders,
which
they
believe
can
help
the
latter
to
manage
situations
of
high
offending
risk.
his
article
explains
each
of
the
elements
in
the
’IDEA’
(’7t
Depends
Evaluation,
Analysis)
model.
It
offers
a
tool
which
we
believe
effectively
helps
violent
offenders
to
identify
and
build
upon
existing
skills
which
can
in
turn
help
them
to
address
their
violence.
It
comprises
5
out
of
a
20
session
groupwork
programme.
The
other
15
sessions
focus
on
issues
such
as
power
and
control,
victim
work,
faulty
perceptions,
masculinity
and
domestic
violence.
This
piece
of
work
is
derived
from
practice;
from
listening
to
participants’
comments
and
coming
up
with
a
set
of
exercises
and
questions
which
helped
them
to
focus
on
their
particular
risks.
We
acknowledge
that
it
is
not
explained
in
theoretical
terms,
although
it
does
include
elements
of
cognitive
behavioural,
motivational
interviewing
and
brief
therapy
methods.
Origins
When
we
started
to
run
the
existing
violent
offenders
programme
at
the
North
Staffordshire
Probation
Centre,
we
recognised
a
common
perception
amongst
participants
of
the
impossibility
of
’making
sense’
of
a
violent
offence
because
’it
depended’
on
so
many
variables.
We
felt
a
strong
need
to
develop
some
structure
for
these
variables,
to
enable
participants
to
compartmentalise
the
important
factors
on
which
their
choices
hinged.
This
in
turn
offered
them
a
way
to
conceptualise
and
minimise
such
risky
elements
in
future.
In
doing
this,
we
coincidentally
found
a
structure
for
the
programme.
The
Model
Our
initial
starting
point
is
to
unpick
the
thought
processes
and
perceived
pressures
which
participants
consider
to
underpin
the
decision
to
use
violence.
The
stimulus
to
the
offence
is
often
a
relatively
small
thing
such
as
an
insult,
a
stare
or
a
knocked
pint.
Right
from
the
beginning,
the
participant
can
identify
that
in
different
circumstances
violence
would
not
have
resulted
from
the
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