Criminality, thinking patterns and treatment effects – evaluation of the Swedish cognitive intervention programme ‘new challenges’ targeting adult men with a criminal lifestyle

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive data on the therapy and participants in the study, N = 43.

	Multi-week therapy	Multi-week control group
Therapy form	Cognitive group therapy combined with individual therapy in residential care	No cognitive therapy
Therapy weeks (M ± SD)	6.22 ± 2.60	7.0 ± 2.24
Range of variation	3–11 weeks	3–11 weeks
Number of group therapy hours	80.0 ± 0.0	-
Number of individual therapy hours	20 ± 2.60	-
Range of variation	5–45	-
Total number of hours in group and individual therapy (Md)	100 hrs	-
Current 12-step counselling	31/32	5/11
Previous 12-step counselling	14/32	6/11
Age (M ± SD)	30.56 ± 9.14	28.36 ± 2.2
Range of variation	19–60 years	21–54 years
Education Special needs comprehensive school Compulsory school, completed Upper secondary school, interrupted Upper secondary school, completed University, initiated University, completed	1 9 12 7 2 1	0 2 4 4 1 0
Religion None Christian Catholic Muslim Jewish Mixed Missing	14 11 3 2 0 1 1	6 3 0 0 1 1 0
Ethnicity (frequency) Scandinavian Latino Middle Eastern Asian Mixed	27 1 0 2 2	10 0 1 0 0
Number of participants	32	11

Figure 1. Flow charts depicting the recruitment process of the two groups. a) Flowchart of treatment subjects and b) Flowchart of control subjects.

Table 2. Mean (M), standard deviation (SD) and 95% CI of mean regarding criminal thinking patterns for each group before and after..

				95% confidence interval
Participant group	Time	M	SD	Lower bound	Upper bound
Therapy group	Before	78.77	1.38	76.00	81.55
	After	54.42	2.14	50.10	58.74
Control group (no treatment)	Before	69.17	2.94	62.86	75.47
	After	64.17	4.81	54.31	74.03
Control group (12-step counselling)	Before	74.20	3.22	67.29	81.11
	After	70.40	5.27	59.60	81.20
Control group (total)	Before	71.46	2.31	66.79	76.12
	After	67.00	3.59	59.75	74.25

Figure 2. Mean score of the psychological inventory of criminal thinking styles (PICTS) before and after for the therapy group and the control group. Each mean with ±SE.

Table 3. Mean (M), standard deviation (SD) and 95% CI of mean regarding sense of coherence for each group before and after..

Participant group	Time	M	SD	95% confidence interval
				Lower bound	Upper bound
Therapy group	Before	43.80	1.61	40.55	47.06
	After	56.53	2.00	52.48	60.58
Control group (no treatment)	Before	51.17	8.68	43.81	58.53
	After	57.00	15.07	48.30	65.70
Control group (12-step counselling)	Before	48.80	10.66	40.74	56.86
	After	43.80	12.87	34.27	53.33
Control group (total)	Before	50.09	2.66	44.72	55.47
	After	51.00	3.31	44.31	57.69

Figure 3. Mean score of the brief version of the sense of coherence scale (SOC-13) before and after for the therapy group and the control group. Each mean with ±SE.

Table 4. Mean (M), standard deviation (SD) and 95% CI of mean regarding positive and negative affect for each group before and after.

Participant group	Time	M	SD	95% confidence interval
				Lower bound	Upper bound
Therapy group (positive affect)	Before	31.83	1.42	28.97	34.70
	After	35.53	1.25	33.00	38.07
(negative affect)	Before	24.60	1.33	21.91	27.29
	After	23.10	1.41	20.25	25.95
Control group (positive affect)	Before	34.55	2.34	29.82	39.27
	After	32.64	2.07	28.45	36.83
(negative affect)	Before	21.73	2.20	17.28	26.17
	After	23.36	2.33	18.65	28.08

Figure 4. Mean score of the PANAS positive affect before and after for the therapy group and the control group. Each mean with ±SE.

Table 5. Correlation matrix for quality of programme delivery, PICTS, SOC and positive affect after treatment, N = 31.

	QPD	PICTS	SOC	Positive affect
QPD	–	−.22	.39*	.64**
PICTS	−.22	–	−.53**	.10
SOC	.39*	−.53**	–	.37*
Positive affect	.64**	.10	.37*	–

* p < .05. ** p < .01.