Eine vollständige Liste seiner wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten befindet sich unter
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas-Ross-4
Dies ist eine Auswahl deutsch- und englischsprachiger Arbeiten:
Fontao, M., Schorer, L., & Ross, T. (2021). Therapeutische Wirkfaktoren in der Behandlung von Straftätern: ein systematisches Literaturreview. Fortschritte der Neurologie· Psychiatrie, 89(10), 483-495.
Anhand eines systematischen Literaturreviews nach den PRISMA-Kriterien wurden therapeutische Wirkfaktoren für die Behandlung von Straftätern untersucht. Recherchiert wurde in den Datenbanken PsycINFO und PSYNDEX, weitere relevante Studien wurden den Literaturverzeichnissen von Studien, die die Selektionskriterien erfüllten, entnommen. Es wurden nur quantitative empirische Studien für den Zeitraum 1990–2018 eingeschlossen. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden Befunde aus 19 Papers zu allgemeinen Wirkfaktoren (therapeutische Allianz, soziales Klima, Feedback) und Therapeutenfaktoren (zwischenmenschliche Fähigkeiten/Eigenschaften, Persönlichkeit, Therapieerwartung) referiert. Die Evidenz für das Vorliegen allgemeiner Wirk- und Therapeutenfaktoren ist nicht einheitlich, aber es zeigen sich Tendenzen. Diese Schwierigkeit der Evidenzbestimmung liegt insbesondere an methodischen Mängeln der Primärstudien, an heterogenen Outcomevariablen und an der geringen Zahl von Studien, die diese Faktoren untersuchten. Ein bedeutender Zusammenhang zwischen allgemeinen Wirk- und Therapeutenfaktoren und einem (positiven) Therapieergebnis in der Therapie von Straftätern ist wahrscheinlich, aber noch liegen zu wenige kontrollierte Studien vor, um ihn zweifelsfrei zu untermauern.
https://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/a-1432-1634
Ross, T., & Fontao, M. I. (2011). Lüge, Täuschung und Narzissmus bei Straftätern und Rechtsbrechern. PTT-Persönlichkeitsstörungen: Theorie und Therapie, 15(2), 121-129.
In diesem Beitrag beleuchten wir die Rolle von Lüge und Täuschung vor dem Hintergrund narzisstischer Persönlichkeitsmerkmale bei Straftätern und Rechtsbrechern. Herausgearbeitet werden wesentliche konzeptuelle Unterschiede zwischen den umgangssprachlich oft nahezu synonym verwendeten Begriffen Lüge, Täuschung und Betrug sowie die Bedeutung der Selbsttäuschung im Rahmen der psychotherapeutischen Arbeit mit (forensischen) Patienten und Straftätern. Schließlich geht es auch um die Frage, an welchem Punkt bei den genannten Personengruppen, die, sofern die Schwere der Delikte forensisch relevant werden, häufig narzisstische Persönlichkeitszüge aufweisen, eine unwahre Aussage zur Lüge wird, und unter welchen Bedingungen die Problematik durch psychopathologische Phänomene auch anderweitig erklärt werden kann.
Ross, T., Bulla, J., & Fontao, M. I. (2022). Space and well-being in high security environments. Frontiers in psychiatry, 13.
Research into the spatial dimensions of deprivation of liberty and psychiatric hospitalization has a long and complex tradition. In this context, the increasing numbers of prisoners and patients in forensic hospitals have impressively shown how difficult it is to ensure security, therapy and rehabilitation when space is scarce or not well-suited. In this narrative review, we present the main findings of recent lines of research on spaces in prisons and forensic psychiatric wards, with particular attention to the links between overcrowding in prisons and secure forensic psychiatric hospitals and violence, the foundations of prison and hospital architecture, and on how the design of spaces in prisons and hospitals can influence well-being. We assess and discuss these findings in the context of the current debate on how well-being in secure spaces can support the achievement of rehabilitation goals even in overcrowded institutions.
Pusch, S. A., Ross, T., & Fontao, M. I. (2021). The Environment of Intrafamilial Offenders–A Systematic Review of Dynamics in Incestuous Families. Sexual Offending: Theory, Research, and Prevention, 16, 1-20.
The aim of this study was to identify family characteristics and dynamics relevant to the initiation and maintenance of intrafamilial child sexual abuse. An understanding of essential characteristics of the affected families could help to prevent such crimes. In order to provide an overview of the current state of research, a literature review based on the PRISMA criteria was conducted. For the research in the databases PsycInfo and PSYNDEX, predetermined criteria and search terms were used. Fifteen relevant articles from 1991 to 2020 were identified. The studies examined perpetrator-victim relationships, the role of the mother, the relationship between the parents and characteristics of the families in which child sexual abuse took place. Relevant core characteristics of incestuous families are dysfunctional, violent, and conflictual relationships between the parents, and between parents and children. However, these factors are often not specific to intrafamilial abuse. Only six articles published after 2000 were identified. Little evidence for each individual construct was found, so the effects should not be overestimated. Further research on intrafamilial child sexual abuse is necessary.
https://sotrap.psychopen.eu/index.php/sotrap/article/view/5461/5461.pdf
Fontao, M. I., & Ross, T. (2021). External locus of control and cognitive ability independently distinguish men in prison from community living non‐offending men. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 31(5), 297-309.
Background:The ability to cope with failure and subsequent feedback is crucial for prisoner rehabilitation. Impaired executive function in prisoners, high trait aggression and external locus of control can undermine the capacity to react to feedback in socially adaptive ways.
Aim: To investigate the relationships between aggression, locus of control, and attribution in an experimental task involving feedback about failure and success.
Methods: Two groups were compared: 1. Imprisoned men, 2. Community living men without a history of incarceration. Aggression, locus of control and reasoning ability were assessed by means of psychometric instruments. An experimental task building on cognitive ability and providing performance-related feedback was carried out. Attributions of failure and success were measured using an ad hoc rating scale.
Results: Prisoners reported higher levels of aggression and generalised externality, but poorer reasoning ability than the comparison group. Aggression was associated with external locus of control. In the experimental task, the community group showed higher success rates; higher scores on the task were correlated with less external attribution of own performance. Higher external locus of control and lower reasoning ability were independently associated with being a prisoner in a logistic regression model.
Conclusions and Implications: Men in prison were characterised by greater social and fatalistic externality paired with lower reasoning ability than never incarcerated community men. In-prison rehabilitation strategies should pay early attention to improving reasoning ability and enabling men to recognise likely overuse of externally attributing their difficulties to fate, then helping them to become more realistic in their attributions and make use of realistic feedback.
Ross, T., Fontao, M. I., & Bulla, J. (2020). Rising inpatient numbers in forensic security hospitals of German federal state of Baden‐Württemberg: Background and explanatory approaches. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 38(5), 522-536.
In this article, we describe critical epidemiological trends in forensic psychiatric care in the German federal state of Baden‐Württemberg. For some years, there has been a marked increase in the number of patients with psychoses and with a migration background in the high‐security hospitals of Baden‐Württemberg. We present a number of studies exploring hypotheses as to why this is the case. Taking into account a set of person‐related and non‐person (forensic system)‐related variables, we suggest that rising treatment figures may be understood in terms of system variables rather than individual patient characteristics. Findings regarding predictors of treatment length and legal outcome, as well as characteristics of migrant patients and patients assigned to forensic aftercare, are discussed.
Ross, T. & Fontao, M.I. (2014). Young Offenders : Principles of Effective Treatment. In J. Merrick et al. (eds.). School, adolescence, and health issues. New York: Nova Science Publishers, pp. 165-180. ISBN 978-1-62948-707-6
Correctional research has shown that young offenders have different treatment and programming needs than adult offenders. A large number of specific treatment and violence prevention programs for young offenders have been developed and applied in many countries. The majority of these programs are of the „cognitive skills type“, i.e., they aim at enhancing cognitive and social skills, which are often deficient in young offenders. Modern treatment programs attend to the criminogenic needs of offenders, such as impulsivity or poor affect control, empathy deficits, low levels of socio-moral reasoning, substance use and poor problem-solving skills; a style of delivery that young offenders will find interesting and engaging; and flexibility in its administration in order to take into account potentially small custodial sentences. Programs of this type teach young offenders cognitive-behavioral skills that enable them to take their time, i.e., to stop and think before they act, in order to resolve socially complex and potentially „dangerous“ situations. Focussing on treatment programs, this review provides a brief overview of the history of (young) offender treatment and some of the most common treatment and violence prevention models for young offenders.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/295391064_Young_offenders_Principles_of_effective_treatment
Ross, T., Querengässer, J., Fontao, M. I., & Hoffmann, K. (2012). Predicting discharge in forensic psychiatry: The legal and psychosocial factors associated with long and short stays in forensic psychiatric hospitals. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 35(3), 213-221.
In Germany, both the number of patients treated in forensic psychiatric hospitals and the average inpatient treatment period have been increasing for over thirty years. Biographical and clinical factors, e.g., the number of prior offences, type of offence, and psychiatric diagnosis, count among the factors that influence the treatment duration and the likelihood of discharge. The aims of the current study were threefold: (1) to provide an estimate of the German forensic psychiatric patient population with a low likelihood of discharge, (2) to replicate a set of personal variables that predict a relatively high, as opposed to a low, likelihood of discharge from forensic psychiatric hospitals, and (3) to describe a group of other factors that are likely to add to the existing body of knowledge. Based on a sample of 899 patients, we applied a battery of primarily biographical and other personal variables to two subgroups of patients. The first subgroup of patients had been treated in a forensic psychiatric hospital according to section 63 of the German legal code for at least ten years (long-stay patients, n=137), whereas the second subgroup had been released after a maximum treatment period of four years (short-stay patients, n=67). The resulting logistic regression model had a high goodness of fit, with more than 85% of the patients correctly classified into the groups. In accordance with earlier studies, we found a series of personal variables, including age at first admission and type of offence, to be predictive of a short or long-stay. Other findings, such as the high number of immigrants among the short-stay patients and the significance of a patient’s work time before admission to a forensic psychiatric hospital, are more clearly represented than has been observed in previous research.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S016025271200026X?via%3Dihub