Attachment Theory and Ethics related to
Violent Offenders
Damian Abrahams
Concordia University College of Alberta
Abstract
Violence in society comes in many
forms: domestic violence, sexual assault, homicide, suicide, child abuse,
lateral violence, the list can go on. The perpetrators of violence impact the
lives of many, and, when caught, immediately surrender their normal rights as
human beings. This literature review will focus on two areas: 1. Attachment
theory, as I theorize that the foundations of violent behavior are built during
attachment development. 2. I will also focus on male, female, and Aboriginal
offenders housed in minimum, medium, and maximum-security institutions, the
rights they have or do not have, and the policies in place to interact with,
evaluate, and ultimately release them into society. It was very difficult to
find published, peer reviewed information on the ethics in dealing with violent
offenders, so for the purpose of finding accurate, up-to-date information,
psychologists working in the institutions were contacted and questioned.
Violent
Offenders in Canada
Perpetrators and
victims of violence represent a large cross section of people within society
and manifests in a variety of ways. Violence, as defined by Serin and Preston
(2001), is “the intentional and malevolent physical injuring of another without
adequate social justification”. This definition accounts for overt violence.
Psychological, emotional, lateral, sexual, and self-directed violence occurs
covertly as well. In my experience working with victims and offenders I have
been exposed to these covert forms of violence. Psychological violence occurs
when perpetrators influence how their victims think or what they believe about
themselves. Emotional violence occurs within families with children being the
victims. Children are told not to feel a certain emotion or are ridiculed for
expressing emotions. Lateral violence occurs largely in Aboriginal communities
and consists of gossip, spreading of rumours, nepotism, and bullying. Lateral
violence in Aboriginal communities typically occurs in the workplace. Sexual
violence involves any unwanted physical contact, verbal remarks, and explicit
preference for males or females. Self-directed violence includes self-injury,
suicide, and, I believe, self-defeating thoughts and beliefs.
In dealing with
the Aboriginal population, police officers, lawyers, and sheriffs often
overlook the reason why Aboriginal offenders commit their acts of violence and
attribute it to being morally impoverished. Though this is true, children’s
morals are instilled in them by their parents, and when a child has a
disorganized or avoidant attachment to the parent, the parent is often
neglectful, inconsistent, or instills fear in the child. (Ainsworth, 1960) There
is no transmission of morals taking place.
Attachment
Theory
Mary Ainsworth (1989) is a pioneer in attachment theory,
which she defines as a basic system of behavior that is biologically rooted
and, therefore, is universal in nature. Attachment is a two-tiered behavior
system that persists against genetics, culture, and individual experiences. The
first system consists of reproductive behavior, parental behavior, feeding, and
exploratory behaviors. The second system is an inner organization and is guided
by genetics and influenced by the child’s environment. An example of
environmental influence is object permanence where an infant fails to retain
memory of an object (Shaffer, Kipp, Wood, and Willoughby, 2010). Only through
games like peek-a-boo with a primary caregiver will the infant learn to build
an expectation of presence. These types of environmental influences also build
the infant’s inner expectations of his or her parents. For example, the infant
learns a cry will beckon a parent. Ainsworth’s research suggests that young
children are anchored in the motivations and plans of their caregiver and that
this ability serves the child well. The child eventually learns he or she can
ultimately influence those plans.
Components of attachment
John Bowlby first proposed the tenets of attachment theory
in 1969. A child who is under threat or fear returns to his or her Safe haven to be soothed by his or her
caregiver. The child feels safe enough to explore his or her surroundings from
his or her Secure Base. When
exploring the surroundings of the safe base, the child returns to caregiver
after a period of time, this is called Proximity
maintenance. Separation distress occurs when the child becomes distressed in
the absence of a caregiver.
Ainsworth built on Bowlby’s work and introduced secure,
ambivalent and avoidant attachment types. Securely attached children are
distressed when separated from his or her primary caregiver but is confident of
the caregiver’s return. When under threat or fear, the child will seek out the
caregiver. Ambivalent attachment is defined by the extreme distress when the
primary caregiver leaves due to the uncertainty of return. The child ultimately
learns the caregiver cannot be depended on. Avoidant attachment style is
exhibited by the avoidance of caregivers and no preference between the primary
caregiver and a stranger. Main and Solomon (1986) added disorganized attachment
style that is characterized by a lack of clear attachment and mixed responses
to the caregiver (i.e. between avoidant and resistant). Children under this
attachment style appear to be dazed, confused, and/or apprehensive.
Attachment failure
Registered psychologist Sonya Vellet works for the Calgary
Urban Project Society in Calgary, Alberta and runs a vlog (Video Log) on
Youtube called What Happens when Attachment Doesn’t Happen? Vellet says that
children tend to have peer difficulties in school but are competent in dealing
with adults. This is due perhaps to having to be vigilant in their interactions
with adults who have predictable behavior. Children with failed attachment are also
competent when away from their primary giver. I attribute this learned behavior
to being necessary for survival. They also are unregulated emotionally and will
withdraw when upset rather than seek comfort. Vellet describes them as having
no strategy in place to deal with stress. I think is a grey area as teenagers
typically are not fully equipped with planning, organization, or problem
solving skills as they are still developing the areas of the brain responsible
for these executive functions (Pinel, 2000).
Attachment of female violent offenders
According to Rossegger et. al. (2009),
female offenders were found to have “absent and/or criminal parents” who were
often neglectful. This parenting style leads to what Vellet (2010) refers to as
an “irresolvable paradox”—the source of support becomes the source of fear.
Compared to their male counterparts, female offenders reported higher levels of
stressors such as sexual abuse, alcoholic parents, and family violence during
childhood (Lewis, 2010). Absent or neglectful parenting styles prevents the
child from forming loving and lasting relationships later in life (Lewis, 2010)
and lays a strong foundation for violent behaviors later in life.
Women offenders, alcohol, and personality
disorders
Alcohol has a stronger predictive factor
for violence in females than in males, as high as three times as much
(Weizmann-Henelius, Putkonen, Naukkarinen, & Eron, 2008). 60 women were
included in Weizmann-Henelius’s study; all were convicted of murder or
manslaughter. 81.7% were under the influence of alcohol at the time of their
crime, and 89.6% were found to have a personality disorder (Antisocial
Personality Disorder being the most prevalent) as determined by a Structured
Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders. Due to alcohol, female violent offenders
were found to be characteristically closer to male offenders in that they were
more violent, used more brutal methods of attack, and used more weapons as
compared to non-intoxicated female offenders. An alarming fact is that women
with substance abuse disorder are 55 times more likely to commit violent
crimes, and are 49 times more likely to take another person’s life (Eronen,
1995 as cited in Weizmann et. al., 2009). Victims of female offenders were not
as emotionally close to their attackers as I would have thought. Out of 83
victims, 58 were strangers, friends/acquaintances, and 17 were husbands or
common-law. Ex-husbands and parents were safest with three victims, while
children accounted for 5 of the total victims.
Aboriginal
violent offenders
Aboriginal people in Canada are over represented in the jail
system, some jails, like Stoney Mountain, report a 79% Aboriginal population.
Prisons in Edmonton, Alberta report the same numbers. It is not just Aboriginal
men who are over represented, women and youth also have higher numbers behind
bars than other ethnicities in Canada. Is it that Aboriginal people are more
likely to commit crimes? Or are there underlying factors that contribute to
these higher numbers of incarceration?
Residential Schools
In 1857 the Government of Canada passed
the Gradual Civilization Act that was meant to assimilate the First Nations
people into European society (Brezeau, 2007). Under this act missionaries and
government representatives, formally called “Indian agents”, asserted their
power over the First Nations people who were seen as an inferior race. At the
height of residential schools, there were 150 schools being operated by the
various church entities with over 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit
children attending the government-funded schools (Brezeau, 2007). The goal of residential
schools was to abolish the Aboriginal (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) way of
life, and to assimilate the Aboriginal people into the dominant race.
Because of the sense of dominance, numerous
accounts of multiple forms of abuse have come to light across the country in
recent years. The main complaint of being in residential school is sexual abuse
at the hands of the priests and nuns who were trusted to “take the Indian out
of the child.” Students in the Residential Schools endured substandard
conditions; they were forced to eat the minimal requirements for sustenance,
while the school administrators dined on fine meals in a luxurious dining room
(Brezeau, 2007). The students were not allowed to live their previous life.
They were disconnected from their family, siblings who attended the same school
were forbidden to communicate with each other, and their spiritual beliefs were
met with punishment.
In the short term, the Residential School
system succeeded in its intent: segregate the Aboriginal community, minimize
Aboriginal culture, silence the fluent tongues, and remove the “Indian” from
the children of the community. That success, however, left many generations
crippled. The parents of the students no longer had purpose, they had no one to
pass knowledge onto, the children faded into an existence where they were not
accepted by their home community, nor were they sufficiently equipped to cope
with the stresses of their new society. These children grew up without
parenting skills, they grew up to disrespect authority because it was authority
that came to apprehend them, and they grew up in an alien society not knowing
how to function normally and effectively.
To give a clear idea of what occurred in
residential schools, here is an account from one of the survivors courtesy of
the research conducted by The Indian Residential School Survivors Society:
Psychological
and emotional abuses were constant: shaming by public beatings of naked
children, vilification of native culture, constant racism, public strip and
genital searches, withholding presents and letters from family, locking
children in closets and cages, segregation of sexes, separation of brothers and
sisters, proscription of native languages and spirituality. In addition, the
schools were places of profound physical and sexual violence: sexual assaults,
forced abortions of staff-impregnated girls, needles inserted into tongues for
speaking a native language, burning, scalding, beating until unconscious and/or
inflicting permanent injury.
Intergeneration Trauma
The Residential School experience was the
beginning of a major problem for Canada’s Aboriginal population. Effects of the
above-mentioned trauma resonate in Aboriginal youth in spite of the many
successes of recent years. Many young Aboriginals have those issues deeply
engrained into who they have become. Problems with authority figures remain.
Authority figures have been oversimplified and are not limited to police
officers. Security guards, teachers, principles, school counselors, even
parents and other members of the family are grouped in as an authority figure.
Many Aboriginal youth overlook the
simplicity of sexuality. Sexuality is life—it ensures the communal family
remains strong. Sexuality today has fallen under the influence of media, advertisements
portraying women and men in their underwear; pornography is easily accessible
on the Internet, and pressures from their peers to have sex all impinge on how
an Aboriginal youth views his or her sexuality. Young woman believe they have
to look like the woman in the advertisement, young men believe they have to
perform like the men in the videos they find on the Internet and, in addition
to that, they learn how to treat woman from those same videos. Everything has
come to the point where communication about sex has been reversed: allowing a
child to watch pornographic videos or images is easier than talking to them
about sex and sexuality. In First Nations societies, it has always been the
responsibility of the parents and even extended family members to teach their
children about sexuality, the purpose of sex, and to even celebrate milestones
in sexual maturity. The maladaptive ways of sexualizing Aboriginal youth that
is occurring today stems from the shame of sexual abuse experienced in
residential schools.
The children who suffered these abuses grew
up to become violent offenders, drug and alcohol abusers, and sexual abusers. The
biggest setback that young Aboriginals experience, however, is their lack of a
healthy identity. Aboriginal people have long struggled with their legal
identity. To be registered with the Canadian government as an “Indian”, which
entitles the registrant to all the treaty rights their band falls under, one
must be of First Nations descent (Brown, J., Higgit, N., Wingert, S., Miller,
C., Morrissette, L, 2005). While Métis and Inuit people have been neglected the
same rights. In the past, a First Nations person could lose their registration
with the Government through marrying a non-Aboriginal person, but only a First
Nations woman marrying a non-Aboriginal male would lose her status and all
their children would not be entitled to treaty rights. When a First Nations
male married a non-Aboriginal female, there were no consequences.
Aboriginal youth today face many factors
that skew their identity further. Pressure to be accepted by their friends
causes them to make changes to their identity, often for the worse, in order to
be accepted. They end up behaving in ways they know is wrong, or joining gangs
when they know it is not the right thing to do. This often comes from the lack
of attention they receive from their family. The problem, then, is not a lack
of identity; rather, they identify with the wrong aspects of the world around
them. The shame their parents felt about being First Nations, Metis, or Inuit
in residential schools can be felt, leading to a rejection of identifying as
Aboriginal, claiming, instead, to be of Central American or Milado (Black and
White) descent.
In the long term, however, the
Residential School system failed. New generations of Aboriginal people understand
that the way they were living was not how they were meant to live. They are discovering
the culture they had lost, a culture that had come from the underground just as
strong as it was when it was outlawed. The language was preserved and is again
being transmitted to the younger generations, the children who suffered in
residential school are overcoming their trauma and are even returning to
academia to gather the skills needed to live in society rather than survive.
These new skills are being passed onto their children. For the cultural
elements that have been lost forever, new traditions and rituals are being
created and are now stronger than ever. It turns out that the Indian in the
child can never be removed.
Fire water
Alcohol is a factor that is a sensitive
issue among Aboriginal people. We must be careful to not oversimplify
alcoholism and Aboriginal people. In fact, the writer, who is First Nations,
has a large circle of Aboriginal friends where only a small percentage consume alcohol,
and an even smaller percentage who are problem drinkers. In the writer’s work
with Aboriginal violent offenders 100% of them were under the influence of
alcohol during their violent episode, that is not to say, though, that only
Aboriginal people get violent when they drink, nor is it safe to say that only
Aboriginal people are alcoholic, especially among those who are active in
Aboriginal culture (Currie, et. al., 2011).
Joseph Johnston did extensive research on
Aboriginal offenders in Canada in 1997, he reached approximately 50% of the
federally incarcerated Aboriginal offenders in all levels of security. Johnston
found 57.1% reported alcohol problems. 68% of those were violent offenders
while 14.7% reported being forced to attend residential school.
In terms of needs, Johnston (1997) noted
that, as determined by Case Management Officers, 88.2% of the offenders needed
help addressing substance abuse problems but only 5.7% thought they needed help
with addictions issues while 30% of them actually made the effort to address
these issues.
Case
Study-Gary Mattson
On the morning of 3 December 2009, Gary Mattson, who had no
change to pay the fare, boarded a bus in Northeast Edmonton and requested to
get on for free. Video footage, courtesy of the Edmonton Journal, of the
dialogue shows Mr. Mattson speaking with the driver, Tom Bregg, in an
appropriate manner. In what seemed like an unprovoked attack, Mr. Mattson
punched Mr. Bregg two times before pulling him out of his seat and into the
street. Mr. Mattson then stomped on Mr. Bregg’s head 15 times before leaving
the scene. The media covered the incident extensively and painted Mr. Mattson
as a mentally unstable, vicious, and remorseless maniac. One report by CBC News
Edmonton (2010) stated: “After refusing to pay his fare, Mattson punched Bregg
and pulled him out of his seat…then dragged Bregg on to the sidewalk and
stomped on his head 15 times”. The language in the article makes it seem like
Gary refused to pay his fare then attacked Bregg, but in reality some time
elapsed and there was an interaction between the two. Because of this assault,
Gary Mattson received the label of dangerous offender, ensuring that he will be
incarcerated indefinitely.
I have helped Mattson with his addiction
issues in 2009, and from what I know of Mr. Mattson he is not the mentally
unstable, vicious, remorseless maniac he is made out to be. His background does
include trouble with alcohol, but having watched the video I do not believe he
was intoxicated at the time of the assault. His past also includes assaults,
but each of them were not to the degree of the Bregg assault, nor were they
ever unprovoked. Mr. Mattson does not go around looking for a fight. Mattson
has a strong sense of protection when it comes to his family and being a First
Nations man. These are his two triggers for violence. I feel that Bregg
mentioned one of these two to Gary which set him off. This is not to justify
his actions, I believe that Bregg has a part in the story and is not the
innocent victim he is made out to be.
Aboriginal offenders and attachment
In terms of attachment theory, Johnston (1997)
also found that 41.1% of the prisoners reported having absent or neglectful
parents, 32.2% reported growing up in a single parent family, and 28.6% grew up
in the foster care system. Other abuses such as physical (45.2%), sexual
(21.2%) and severe poverty (35.3%) were also reported which I feel are
important to note but are not within the scope of this paper.
Personality
Disorders
Personality disorders have been found to be more associated
with violent offenders than with non-violent offenders. Symptoms of personality
disorders, such as compulsiveness, high emotional outbreaks, paranoia, and
unstable relationships contribute highly to violent episodes.
Personality disorders correlated with
violence
Tikkanen, Holi, Lindberg, and Virkkunen (2007) found that
39% of the 114 violent offenders they interviewed had Borderline Personality
Disorder, 5% were diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, 14% had
Paranoid Personality Disorder, and 44% had two or more personality disorders.
Ross and Fontao (2007) found that among the violent offenders they included in
their research, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality
Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Histrionic Personality Disorder,
and Schizotypal Personality Disorders were predominant. Both studies employed
the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders to gather their
information.
Ethics
in working with violent offenders
Dealing with violent offenders is not typically something
that psychologists do in a private practice setting. As such, the College for
Alberta Psychologists does not have guidelines for interacting with them posted
on their website. I theorized that the guidelines psychologists followed were
set by the institutions in which the convicted violent offenders were housed. I
spoke with two registered psychologists, one in a medium security jail and the
other in a minimum security jail, and a psychological testing assistant who
works in a maximum security jail.
Minimum security
Gregor Cotfas is a registered psychologist at Grierson
Institution, a minimum security jail in Edmonton, Alberta. As well, Mr. Cotfas
works at Edmonton Area Parole. Mr. Cotfas confirmed my theory: “ethical codes
and guidelines within the institution must be followed. Inmates must be behind
glass or shackled. Because psychologists are hands-off for those inmates who
aren’t as violent, guards are often in the room when I’m interviewing them”.
When an inmate is up for release psychologists are included
in the determination of level of risk. Mr. Cotfas says that there are several
methods in doing so: the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, a Balanced Risk
Assessment, the HCL-20 and more. Three of these evaluation instruments must be
used but Mr. Cotfas says that most psychologists use more.
The Parole Board of Canada, Mr. Cotfas says, requires a
mental health assessment to be completed before any prisoner is released. If
they are found to be of significant risk recommendations are provided by the
mental health team to bring their risk level down and the inmate will not be
released until the inmates are found to be of no risk to the safety of society.
Mr. Cotfas validates, to an extent, my theory that poor
attachment is a forecast for later violent behavior: “It’s a rule [they] have
little or no attachment. As kids the inmates are often abused, neglected, or
jump from foster home to foster home”. I think that with little to no primary
caregiver present to attach to, many children, such as the ones Mr. Cotfas is
referring to growing up in the foster care system, are nourished by
disorganized/disoriented attachment, they never are given the chance to attach
in the first place.
Medium security
Dr. Richard Howes works at Stoney Mountain Institution, a
medium security jail in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Dr. Howes states that in a medium
security jail the institution regulates all interactions with the inmates. The
institution dictates his interactions; contact with inmates depends on their
level of offence. If an inmate is an extreme offender the inmate is shackled
and in their cell. Even for those inmates who are not extreme offenders there
must be guard present.
In regards to release into society, Dr. Howes says there are
a variety of criteria considered in his evaluation. In assessing their risk the
main test they use is the HCR-20 where higher scores reflect higher risk. The
criteria on the HCR-20 are found in Appendix 1 and are courtesy of Dr. Howes.
Inmates who are deemed to be of low risk to society are
recommended to outside sessions and Corrections is obliged to abide at no cost
“to the person”. What is interesting
is Dr. Howes’s use of words. Only now, when referring to the inmates leaving
jail, are they referred to as a person. Their rights as people are not
considered when decisions are being made about their life while they are
incarcerated. Only after they are released do they become people again, but
even then their rights are restricted. I do not believe their full rights as
people are ever restored. Dr. Howes says, in regards to error in calculating
risk, his team would rather make a type one error, predicting risk when there
is none, than a type two error, detecting no risk when actually there is risk:
“We would rather lock up someone innocent than release a prisoner who will
reoffend”.
Maximum security
Shawn works at Edmonton Institution, colloquially known as
The Max, the maximum-security prison in Edmonton, Alberta. Shawn is a
psychological testing assistant. I was unable to speak with a registered psychologist,
as they were all busy. Shawn works directly with both inmates and the
registered psychologists and felt he was best able to answer my questions. When
the psychologist works with inmates at Edmonton Institution their standards of
best practice are set out by the institution while the ethics in dealing with
them from a psychological aspect are guided by psychology. When an inmate is in
a psychologist’s office, it is a clinical setting.
When considering release, protection of society and public
safety are considered first and foremost. A balanced risk assessment is
primarily used in the maximum security setting, a balanced risk assessment
consists of a panel of experts, usually a forensic psychologist, a social
worker, members from the parole board, and anyone else the Parole Board of
Canada deems necessary. The goal of the assessment is always to get the inmates
down to a medium security level before release into the community is
considered.
Outside referrals are started one year in advance of their
release, mental health assessments are completed in that same time period and
are required as part of their parole. Paperwork to get identification is put into
place, relocation planning is put into practice if the inmate does not want to
stay in the city they were arrested, and vocational training is provided to get
them ready for employment.
Conclusion
The two components covered of this paper, attachment theory
applied to violent offenders, and ethics in working with violent offenders, has
laid down strong groundwork for additional research in both areas. I did find
indirect evidence that violent offenders have poor attachment styles. This
conclusion, however, is deduced from the interview responses of having absent
or criminal parents, being in an array of foster homes, and having a
stress-filled childhood. These reports coupled with the description and
implications of attachment lead me to believe that poor attachment does lead to
violent behavior. None of the sources reviewed actually set out to associate
attachment with violent offenses. This weakness implies that further research
is needed to better understand and more effectively treat violent offenders.
Through my interviews with psychologists who work directly
with violent offenders, my suspicions of institutional guidelines being imposed
on psychologists, and that violent offenders have little to no rights were
confirmed. Because of the history and nature of their “clients”, psychologist’s
who work with violent offenders must closely follow protocol set out by the
institution in which they work. Given that prisoners have very little rights,
it would be interesting to find out what the consequence for not following
protocol would be.
Prisoners do have rights, but those rights are need based;
as in they need to eat, they need to have a place to sleep, and they need
exercise. Releasing a violent offender, however, the rights and protection of
society is considered ahead of the inmate’s. I hypothesize that inmates never
regain their full rights even when released back into society. Why there is
little documentation on the ethics in dealing with violent offenders remains to
be seen. Even if the guidelines are set out by non-psychological entities, this
knowledge would be valuable to all who hope to work with this population.
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Appendix
HCR-20 variables
Historical variables
Previous violence (and offending), young
age at first violent incident, relationship instability, employment problems,
substance use problems, major mental illness, psychopathy, early maladjustment,
personality disorder, and prior supervision failure.
Clinical variables:
Lack of insight, negative attitudes,
active symptoms of major mental illness, impulsivity, and unresponsiveness to
treatment.
Risk variables
Plans lack feasibility, exposure to destabilizers (i.e.
conditions/factors which may trigger violent episodes including lack of
professional support, difficulty in handling basic social and life skills,
alcohol), lack of personal support, non-compliance with remediation attempts
(i.e. rules, medication regime), and stress.
