Offence Paralleling Behaviour: A Case Formulation Approach to Offender Assessment and Intervention

Assessing an offender's risk is an important aspect of the forensic clinical psychologist's work. A large number of well-designed studies have been conducted into which features of offenders and offences predict reconviction. This book describes an emergent framework that targets signs of persistent pathology within offenders, or Offence Paralleling Behaviour (OPB). The book describes how these OPBs can be identified and used in risk assessment and treatment planning. The OPB framework is an individualised assessment framework; it presents a useful addition to structured risk assessment methods and formal treatment programming, both of which dominate contemporary forensic psychological practice.

The editors have drawn together leading academics engaged in individualised case formulation with offenders, and frontline clinicians from a range of disciplines and theoretical orientations. Combined, they present methods which allow staff to identify and use OPB in clinical practice. The result is a book which presents clinicians and clinical academics with both a practical and theoretical understanding of OPB. In addition, it provides stimulus for empirical research and further conceptual and theoretical refinement of the OPB framework.