Advancing Corrections Journal - Edition #18 - What Is Working With Women: Correctional Practice in the Post Bangkok Rules Era (ACJ18-A006)

Article 6: Introducing the Probation Service Assessment Planner-25 (Psap-25) for Women on Probation in Punjab, Pakistan: Development and Pilot Results (ACJ18-A006)

Abstract

In 2019, the Punjab Probation and Parole Service Act mandated the use of risk/need assessment tools in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. We describe the development history and pilot results of the latest iteration of an assessment protocol-the Probation Service Assessment Planner-25 (PSAP- 25, Brown & Bhutta, 2023a), developed to identify the needs and strengths of women (and men) on probation in Punjab, Pakistan in a gender and culturally informed manner. The PSAP-25 is a structured professional judgement (SPJ) measure designed to capture the presence of both strengths and needs for 25 items organized within four domains: (1) life necessities, (2) relationships, (3) economic capital, and (4) personal factors. Trained student researchers administered the PSAP-25 to 42 women on probation in Punjab, Pakistan. Preliminary results indicate that across multiple items, women on probation in Punjab evidence moderate-high needs (69.0% to 100.0%) whilst experiencing very few item-level strengths (2.4% to 38.1%). Further research is required before the PSAP-25 should be considered for use in practice including an operational field test with probation officers that assesses predictive validity in a larger sample.

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Authors

Dr Shelley Brown

Professor, Carleton University, Canada

Dr. Shelley Brown is a professor of forensic psychology within the Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Shelley’s program of research aims to improve rehabilitative services including assessment, custodial, and probation practices for justice impacted people with a special focus on girls and women in conflict with the law. Shelley studies complex trauma, violence, strengths, risk assessment and desistance among justice-impacted girls and women, and more recently, among under-represented genders and sexual minorities. She enjoys working with various collaborators from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto Canada, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, Canada, Orbis Partners, Ottawa, Canada, the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General, the Department of Sociology, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Pakistan and the Centre for Effective Public Policy, United States. Shelley has published various articles, reports, book chapters and books about criminal conduct in general, as well as works specific to justice-impacted girls and women. One of her more recent publications includes the edited book: The Wiley Handbook on What Works with Girls and Women in Conflict with the Law: A Critical Review of Theory, Practice, and Policy (Brown & Gelsthorpe, 2022). Shelley teaches courses in criminal behaviour, gender and crime, and supervises an active team of undergraduate and graduate students engaged in gender responsive corrections-based research. Shelley is committed to advancing gender responsive evidence-based practices.

Ellen Coady

Student, Carleton University, Canada

Ellen M.N. Coady is a PhD student in Psychology at Carleton University. Her primary research interests are how socially constructed identities (e.g., gender and race) impact individuals' pathways through the justice system. Her thesis will identify developmental trajectories of criminal conduct and psychiatric service use and how membership in these trajectories is shaped by gender, race, and experiences of psychiatric illness.

Mazhar Hussain Bhutta

Chair, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology/PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Pakistan

Mazhar Hussain Bhutta Ph.D. is presently working as an Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology/PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Research interests: Religion and crime, probation/parole system, offenders' risk/needs/strength assessment. Offender classification and rehabilitation programming.

Advancing Corrections Journal - Edition #18 - What Is Working With Women: Correctional Practice in the Post Bangkok Rules Era (ACJ18-A006)

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