Korrektiewe institusionalisering : 'n profiel van die Suid Afrikaanse gevangene

Abstract

Crime is as old as mankind. It started with an incident of theft inside Paradise and a murder outside. In order to understand the phenomenon of crime several theories were formulated over time. One fact should be recognized: All forms of trauma can be reduced to a single common factor: Control – or better said: a lack of control. A lack of personal control causes tension; tension leads to desperation; desperation leads to irresponsibility. Then the door to crime is unlocked. Fortunately all irresponsibilities doesn’t lead to crime. In order to understand the offender it is imperative to understand his background. The relationship between childhood trauma and crime cannot be denied. It is a fact that childhood traumas can lead to abnormal brain development in early childhood. For this reason special attention is paid to the processes involved in brain development, both in normal children and in maltreated ones. If not identified and intervened in time, it can lead to a situation where the cycle of frustration and desperation, and eventually crime, cannot be interrupted - not even by prisonization. Management of change (rehabilitation) must reckon with the influence of said traumas on the brain development of children. Efforts to rehabilitate the offender becomes senseless if applied for an hour once a week. Such efforts cannot repair the damage done by negative influences repeated thousands of times over many years. In the same vein it is fruitless to aim therapeutic interventions on the reason of man hoping to repair the emotional damage of his childhood. For this reason the Neurosequential Method of Therapeutics holds promise in the quest for the rehabilitation of the offender and in the fight against crime.