Department of Criminology organised a session on the topic “Psychotherapy” on 29th June 2022 from 2.30 P.M. to 3.30 P.M for the students of 3rd BA Criminiology. The guest lecturer for the session was Dr. Rosa Nimmy Mathew, Assistant Professor in Counselling, School of Social Work, Mangaluru. The session was taken in the AV room of the Social Work block.
She began her session by narrating a case study of a teenage boy who had been convicted of murder of an eight year old boy.
She explained that in rehabilitation, the motive behind crime is considered very important. It deals with why individual or gang and the different personality characteristics that lead to crime.
According to government of India, the main objectives of counselling are to educate the offenders and to provide them with vocational guidance. According to psychological point of view, the two main important things are Reformation and Retraining of offenders from a holistic perspective as there is a sequence of events that lead to the offender offending. Rehabilitation is important in order to decrease rate of recidivism. Reformation includes process of preparing the offenders to integrate them into society. Retraining is required to help offenders integrate into society, psychologically clean.
The goals of rehabilitation were also explained. Ma’am spoke about mental health issues that are criminogenic and non-criminogenic. Criminogenic issues are difficult to handle, such as conduct disorders, antisocial personality disorders, oppositional defiant disorder, sexual Deviation/dysfunction. Non-criminogenic issue is anxiety. She then went on to Psychotherapy which uses different psychological methods used to remove psychological disturbances. Psychological aids, assessments, interventions are employed for long-term solution.
Ma'am even mentioned that Humanistic approach, non-directive counselling will not work in Correctional Institutes. Cognitive behavioural therapy is widely used in Correctional setups. CBT is popular and has 95% proven success, based on efficiency in rehabilitation of offenders.
A total of 70 students benefited from this session.