Overview

This unit develops students’ awareness of the issues associated with working in correctional and youth justice settings, particularly the tension between custodial and therapeutic practices, which can interfere with role effectiveness and desired outcomes. The unit will assist students to understand the impact of the correctional environment when working with offenders and will enhance their skills to identify effective systemic and clinical responses to assessing, treating and managing mental health issues within coercive environments.

Requisites

Teaching Periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Semester 1
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
26-February-2024
26-May-2024
Last self-enrolment date
10-March-2024
Census date
31-March-2024
Last withdraw without fail date
12-April-2024
Results released date
02-July-2024

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Critique the purpose of correctional responses to crime in modern Western societies
  • Assess systemic factors in coercive environments that can contribute to different kinds of challenging behaviours
  • Discuss the shared and divergent goals of forensic mental health and offender rehabilitation services in correctional settings
  • Articulate advanced understanding of ethical dilemmas that arise when working clinically in a coercive environment
  • Appraise the utility of different approaches to managing and treating mental health concerns in correctional and youth detention settings

Teaching methods

Hawthorn Online

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
Face to Face Contact (Phasing out)
Workshop
12.00 1 week 12
Online
Directed Online Learning and Independent Learning
11.50 12 weeks 138
TOTAL150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
Case VignetteIndividual 25% 1,3 
Case VignetteIndividual 35% 
EssayIndividual 40% 4,5 

Content

  • Background to correctional responses to crime
  • Background to youth justice responses to crime
  • Understanding challenging behaviours Part 1: self-harm and suicide in custodial and youth detention settings
  • Understanding challenging behaviours Part 2: Institutional aggression
  • Mental illness in custodial and youth detention settings
  • Where does treatment of mental disorder fit in carceral settings?
  • Reducing reoffending rates

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.