Treatment of an Habitual Gambler by Operant Techniques in a Penal Setting
| Author | Susan M. Fitchett,Donald A. Sandford |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587200500207 |
| Published date | 01 June 1972 |
| Date | 01 June 1972 |
114 AUST. &N.Z. JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (June, 1972): 5, 2
Treatment
of
an Habitual Gambler
by Operant Techniques
In
a Penal Setting
DONALD A. SANDFORD* and SUSAN M.
FITCHETT··
INTRODUCTION
A GAMBLER
has
been defined as one who plays games of
chance
for money
and
various sorts of gambling behaviour have long been socially acceptable
and
popular
recreations, witness horse racing being
the
"Sport of Kings",
and
the
Gallup poll finding
that
in
the
United
States
at
least 57
per
cent
of
the
adult
population indulges in various forms of gambling (Fink, 1961).
Agambler
can
come to
treatment
because he
has
broken
the
mores, or
informal
rules, regarding
what
society considers is acceptable gambling
behaviour, or because his gambling behaviour
has
led to conflict
with
society's laws, or formal rules.
One
sort
of gambling
that
can
and
sometimes does bring
the
enthusiast
into
conflict
with
the
law is
betting
on horses. Aconviction is
often
the
result
of
the
gambler "borrowing" money from
his
employer's accounts
to place bets, or pay back gambling debts.
Within
New Zealand
amounts
up to
$50,000
have
been
taken
for
this
purpose
within
a
six-month
period.
Such
offenders
are
usually
charged
with
fraud, or
theft
as a servant,
and
have
a
higher
recidivism
rate
(29
per
cent)
than
most
other
adult
first
o:ffender groups (Justice
Department,
1970).
An effective method of
treatment
for
at
least some of
this
group would
obviously be of benefit
both
to
the
person concerned
and
society as a whole.
Compulsive gambling
has
traditionally
been
regarded
as a psychological
problem.
There
have been a
large
number
of different theories
put
forward
as to
its
causes
and
inferentially
its
treatment.
Most fall
into
one or
other
of two
broad
groups;
the
psychoanalytic
and
the
behaviouristic.
In
Doestoevsky
and
Parrtclde,
Freud
(1961) implied
that
gambling
is a
masturbatory
equivalent;
activating
and
masochistically cancelling
the
guilt derived from
masturbation
and
parricidal fantasies. Bolen
and
Boyd,
(1968) in a review of psychoanalytic
interpretations
of gambling, conclude
that
individual
and
group
therapy,
or preferably extensive psychoanalysis,
are
the
only effective
treatment
methods. At
the
risk of simplifying
the
process of psychoanalysis
out
of existence
the
idea is to allow
carthasis
or
redistribution of psychic
energy
to bring
about
amore
mature
psychic
·B.A. (Hans).
··B.A. (Hons).
Both Assistant Psychologists, Psychological Services, Head Office, Justice Department,
Wellington, New Zealand.
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