It is welcome that a subject such as this is now covered in a teaching aid in a visual medium alongside the vast amount of written teaching material that is already available. This DVD serves as a ‘safe’ introduction to this subject by simulating the experience of ‘sitting in’ on assessment interviews with offenders and watching professional discussion groups covering important issues.
The DVD packaging itself does not include any written material other than a menu for the DVD. The DVD was easy to navigate and included extras such as specialist biographies and suggestions for further reading.
The first introductory scenes in the DVD gave a useful perspective of how offenders themselves may feel prior to an assessment by professionals. Following this, the DVD focused on the assessment interviews of two separate sex offenders who had committed very different sexual offences. One offender presented as very sensitive and guarded, compared with the other, who was far more assertive and confrontational in manner. Despite the fact that actors play the parts of the offenders, they were highly credible and leave the viewer convinced of their authenticity until they read the credits.
During the interviews, the two different therapists adopted different interview styles that made them receptive to the individual needs of the two interviewees. These sessions were highly informative, leaving you feeling as if you are ‘sitting in’ and providing an insight into the dynamics of such interviews. In addition to the dialogue, the camera focused a great deal on the body language of both parties, particularly eye contact and hand gestures.
The material covered in the assessment interviews included: explanations about confidentiality, obtaining a life history, exploration of grooming behaviour, offence history and identification of cognitive distortions.
As well as filming the interview sessions, the DVD also contains feedback from the two interviewers on the sessions that were filmed. In addition, the DVD showed discussion groups involving eminent workers in the field exploring important areas such as: confidentiality, professionalism, therapist gender issues, purpose of assessment, management of derogatory language, as well as questioning styles and the avoidance of a confrontational approach.
Overall, this is a highly useful tool for professionals working with sex offenders or within the criminal justice system. However, the DVD did not provide the viewer with a specific structure for conducting interviews, nor did it provide any information on risk assessment tools, details of sex offender treatment programmes and their modalities. Disappointingly, there was no literature with the DVD to cover these areas, although the further reading section did provide pertinent references. This DVD is useful but the viewer would benefit from other educational material and programmes to ensure that they gain the necessary knowledge. Clearly the assessment process is complex and, as one of the discussion group members highlighted, assessment falls into several areas including: risk, treatment need and treatability. The DVD only partly covers this area but does so via a medium that is both useful and unique.
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