What Works
| Published date | 11 September 2017 |
| Pages | 101-103 |
| Date | 11 September 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JIDOB-09-2017-0021 |
| Author | John L. Taylor |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Learning & intellectual disabilities,Offending behaviour,Sociology,Sociology of crime & law,Deviant behaviour,Education,Special education/gifted education,Emotional/behavioural disorders |
John L. Taylor
What Works
In 2004, Bill Lindsay and I –in collaboration with Peter Sturmey in the USA –edited and
published what was at the time considered to be a comprehensive compendium of the evidence
supporting clinical work with people with intellectual disabilities (ID) who offend
(Lindsay et al., 2004). Since that time, there has been a huge amount of research in every
area of this field. There have been developments in the assessment, treatment and management
of various types of offenders with ID including violent offenders, sexual offenders and firesetters.
There have been significant developments in research on risk assessment and management of
offenders with ID. There have also been interesting, and to some extent, unforeseen
developments in research into the epidemiology of offending in this population, pathways into
services and the trajectories of the criminal careers of those who will later go on to offend. Bill and
I have recently pulled together this work, mainly by established researchers and groups, into a
handbook that describes the state-of-the-art in this field (Lindsay and Taylor, 2018).
This special issue had a different purpose however. It was to encourage colleagues working in
routine care settings with people with ID who offend (or are at risk of offending behaviour) to
describe and disseminate novel assessment and interventions for this population that had
been evaluated in their clinical practice. It is encouraging to see that a number of clinicians and
practitioners in the field have risen to this challenge. Especially so given that the biggest
policy initiative in ID services in England in more than a generation, “Transforming Care”
(NHS England, 2015), which is having a disproportionate effect on the care and safety of
offenders with ID, is atheoretical and lacks any credible evidence or analysis to support its
primary aim of slashing specialist services for this population (Taylor et al., 2016).
As an antidote to this lack of empiricism, in this special issue we have a range of papers
describing work that relates to the conceptual, assessment, treatment and service
development issu es that confront pra ctitioners in the re al world, all conduct ed within an
evaluative and critical framework. Many of the projects reported on here are relatively small
scale compared to studies conducted in large well-funded research centres in other areas of
mental health care. It is, nonetheless, heartening to see that colleagues in our field continue to
collect data over a number of years, in a range of community and inpatient settings, and are
also looking to innov ate in order to help our cli ent group develop and achieve better live s that
do not involve furt her offending and r isk of harm to themsel ves. The contributors to this issue
are to be congratulated for their efforts –particularly those who are early-career clinical
researchers. Their entrepreneurial spirit is to be applauded and encouraged. Hopefully more
people in our field c an be inspired to take up the scient ist-practitioner cudgels in the face of the
non-evidence-based approach of policy makers.
Finally, many people will be aware that sadly Bill Lindsay died suddenly in March of this year.
An obituary for Bill written for this journal can be found in Issue Number 2 of this year’s volume:
www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/JIDOB-05-2017-0005
In this issue
Bill Lindsay of the University of the West of Scotland and Danshell Health; Anne van Logten and
Robert Didden of Radboud University, the Netherlands; Lesley Steptoe of NHS Tayside;
John Taylor of Northumbria University; and Todd Hogue of the Lincoln University consider the
validity of two diagnostic systems for personality disorder (PD) in people with ID.
John L. Taylor is based at the
Northumbria University,
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK and
at Northumberland, Tyne and
Wear NHS Foundation Trust,
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
DOI 10.1108/JIDOB-09-2017-0021 VOL. 8 NO. 3 2017, pp.101-103, © EmeraldPublishing Limited, ISSN 2050-8824
j
JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES AND OFFENDING BEHAVIOUR
j
PAGE101
Guest editorial
To continue reading
Request your trial