Counseling Criminal Justice Offenders

"Excellent book, the best I have read."
―John McCullogh, South Hills Business School

Counseling Criminal Justice Offenders, Second Edition takes a practical view of offenders, their problems, and the difficulties counselors face working with them in criminal justice settings. Author Ruth E. Masters examines criminal justice counseling on an individual and group basis and in a variety of settings such as prisons, probation and parole agencies, diversion programs, group homes, halfway houses, prerelease facilities, and U.S. jails. The book also explores the many faces of offenders ― young, old, male, female, and across many cultures.

The Second Edition of Counseling Criminal Justice Offenders recognizes that individuals who counsel offenders in the criminal justice system often have not had the extensive training of a licensed psychologist and this text is designed to provide readers with an understanding of the counseling process. The book explores practical knowledge of legal principles, appropriate and effective counselor attitudes, and the past and present protocols of American corrections.

Features and Benefits:

• Each chapter begins with Chapter Highlights and Key Terms and ends with corresponding exercises and discussion questions.
• A section at the end of each chapter lists relevant Internet sites and suggested readings.
• The book includes Counselor/Offender role-play scenarios that prepare students for situations such as how to restore order over a group counseling session, handle their own personal feelings about an offender, and much more.
• An Instructor’s Manual including test items and skill-building exercises is available.

New to the Second Edition:

• Chapters have been reorganized to emphasize the importance of counselors creating an alliance with offenders.
• Discussions have been updated on topics such as multicultural counseling, counseling victims, counseling paraprofessionals, cognitive-behavioral counseling, multimodal counseling, brief counseling, and counseling outcome effectiveness.
• New chapters have been added on counseling criminal psychopaths, the role of emotions in the counseling process, counseling male and female offenders, and the relationship between trauma, addiction, and human behavior.

Primarily designed for criminal justice students taking correctional counseling courses, Counseling Criminal Justice Offenders, Second Edition is also a vital resource for any Criminal Justice, Social Work, Psychology, or Counseling practitioner interfacing with offenders.

Professor Ruth Masters has been teaching criminal justice counseling courses at California State University, Fresno since 1970. In addition, she has had hands-on, practical counseling experience in both adult and juvenile criminal justice systems. She has worked as a parole agent for the California Department of Corrections and the California Youth Authority. Her research can be described as a unique blending of theoretical and practical, which includes work in both corrections and law enforcement. Her textbook, Counseling Criminal Justice Offenders (1994), is published by Sage Publications.

Dr. Masters is a member of American Society of Criminology; Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences; Western Society of Criminology; Women′s Criminal Justice Association; California Probation, Parole and Correctional Association; and California State Juvenile Officers′ Association. She received her master′s degree in criminology from California State University, Fresno; and her bachelor′s degree in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.