Forensic Psychology For Dummies (152 page)

Of particular importance in wise parenting is helping the family as well as their children to make effective use of schooling, including:

Minimising criticism of school work and increasing the children’s confidence in what they’re doing at school.

Setting in motion good homework habits around a regular, co-operative routine.

Setting clear limits on what’s acceptable, which are agreed within the family.

Communicating effectively with teachers.

To illustrate, here’s an example that demonstrates family therapy in practice in the case of delinquent behaviour.

Sixteen-year-old Laurence was referred for family therapy by the juvenile court after being convicted of theft for the third time. He was known to be active in a gang and getting involved in fights after school. But the court thought that a greater chance of his rehabilitation existed outside of an institution. His stepfather was disabled and looked after the house and his mother had a full-time job in a nearby factory. His sister, Louise, was 14-years-old and seemed to avoid getting into any trouble.

Over three weekly meetings, family therapists established that little listening was taking place within the family, and a readiness existed to blame each other. Small problems weren’t resolved so that they blew up into major rows. Laurence dealt with this situation by running out of the house. Louise kept in her stepfather’s good books, being obviously his favourite, by reporting on Laurence’s misdemeanours. No effective monitoring was undertaken of either child’s behaviour even though the parents complained about this problem.

Over the following five weeks, the therapists dealt with the family’s resistance to talking and listening to each other. They pointed out that the parent’s lack of consistent support for appropriate behaviour in the children reflected their own experiences when they were growing up. The parents were told that Laurence obtained feelings of significance and respect from his friends that he didn’t get at home. Each of these debilitating actions identified within the family was examined to show that a positive side existed if they were used only to encourage good behaviour rather than punish bad. For example, Louise reporting on Laurence was presented as wanting parental approval, but she could also achieve that approval by reporting any good things Laurence did.

After the family began to accept the re-examination of what was going on they were trained in various skills to help them communicate and deal with anger and conflict. They were encouraged to rehearse these skills in the presence of the therapist and then to try them out as ‘homework’ before the next therapy session. Follow-up sessions a couple of months later showed that far less conflict was occurring in the family and that they had the capability to resolve future difficulties.

Bringing all the groups together: Multisystemic therapy

Working with the family is central to any treatment programme, but psychologists can’t focus on the family in isolation.
Multisystemic
is a technical term for an approach to helping juvenile delinquents that works with all the groups of relevance – friends and associates, family, school and broader aspects of the society with which the individual has contact. Multisystemic therapy has a number of key principles:

Understanding the context:
This is the need to assess how the identified problems relate to the family, friends, school and community of which the child is a part. Determining the ways in which any successes with the child interact with these contexts is also important.

Concentrating on strengths and other positive aspects of the people and their circumstances:
Effective and capable aspects of the child and what he has access to can set in motion important changes. The strengths in the family provide opportunities that the family already knows how to use – building feelings of hope, identifying protective factors (see the earlier section ‘Recognising Protective Factors: The Good News’ for more), decreasing frustration by emphasising problem solving, and enhancing caregivers’ confidence.

Taking responsibility by all those involved:
Interventions are designed to promote responsible behaviour and decrease irresponsible actions, not only by the child at the core of concerns, but also by all family members.

Focusing on the here and now and what can be done about it:
Actions are sought that can be taken immediately, targeting specific and well-defined problems. Such interventions enable participants to track the progress of the treatment and provide clear criteria to measure success. Family members are encouraged to work actively towards clearly defined goals. This focus contrasts with traditional approaches that spend a lot of time looking into the past and assessing its impact. Examining what can be done now with a view to future implications is a different strategy.