ABSTRACT

It is those core psychological features that enable offenders to function in a therapeutic context that have attracted most of the attention of researchers and clinicians. These are referred to in the MORM as internal readiness conditions and may be either cognitive (beliefs, cognitive strategies), affective (emotions), volitional (goals, wants or desires), or behavioural (skills and competencies). In this chapter we consider each of these factors in turn. In many ways, it is these characteristics of individual offenders that have attracted the most interest and discussion in relation to both treatment readiness and responsivity. Ways of measuring these readiness factors are discussed later in this book (see Chapter 5), although they are also discussed in relation to violent offenders, sexual offenders, offenders with personality disorders, and those with substance abuse disorders. It is also these internal readiness factors that are most relevant to the

clinical and therapeutic approaches to working with low levels of readiness discussed in Part Three.