Creativity and Rehabilitation: What Else Might Work in Changing Sex Offenders’ Behaviour?

Abstract

Sexual offenders’ behaviour is addressed and challenged within many criminal justice systems through the use of cognitive-behavioural treatment programmes. These interventions are primarily group-based, manualized programmes, aimed at encouraging offenders to understand the triggers for their behaviour and act to change it. These programmes sometimes require a reasonably high level of cognitive function and verbal sophistication of the participants. If we accept that offenders’ levels of educational attainment and emotional intelligence are lower than the general population, then might these programmes be demanding much of a population who find it difficult to engage in processes that require these skills in order to achieve? Enrichment activities, a term that covers projects including creative, artistic and spiritual elements, and focusing on these rather than educational or vocational outcomes, can be acknowledged as having a role in a strengths-based approach to rehabilitation. Notably, they may fit within the notions of the good lives model (GLM) (see e.g., Ward and Brown, 2004) as well as helping to explore journeys towards desist-ance from crime (Giordano et al., 2002; Maruna, 2001, 2007; McNeill, 2006; McNeill et al., 2012). However, for criminal justice researchers, policymakers and practitioners alike, there are problems when trying to evidence the positive changes that arts practitioners witness participants experiencing, and the whether these have a lasting impact on reducing reoffending (Bilby et al., 2013; Burrows et al., 2013a, 2013b; Sparks and Anderson, 2014). This chapter will consider the role that enrichment activities might play when trying to address the rehabilitative needs of sexual offenders.