eBusiness Center to Help Fight Crime | November 2005

The eBusiness Center has recently been involved in helping create a web site to help with a multi-disciplinary project called Real Victory. This project is under the direction of David Cherrington, professor of organizational behavior and Steve Liddle, director of the Rollins Center for eBusiness, Stephen Bahr, and Bert Burraston, of the BYU Sociology Department.

They are working with several people in the juvenile courts and adult parole and probation to determine whether the Reality Model (a cognitive behavior course), Victory Seeker (a cell phone based, behavior change tool), and personal mentoring can create positive change in a criminal offender’s attitudes and behaviors. The study is designed to follow parolees for two years and monitor their behaviors and attitudes, including recidivism rates.

The Victory Seeker program is designed so each parolee receives phone calls at pre-determined times. These calls may be as often as every two or three hours depending on the background and history of each person. The questions asked in the phone calls are adapted to each person’s challenges and personal situation. The responses of the parolees can be monitored for accuracy regarding their location, associates, and activities, which allows for immediate intervention when needed. Pre-recorded messages of support and encouragement by friends, mentors, or even the parolee are played to strengthen good behavior.

At the end of each month the participant and their parole officer review a record of the answers to the phone calls and measure changes in attitudes and behaviors. Some of the attitudes that will be examined include feelings of self worth, personal efficacy, and personal responsibility, general satisfaction, and attitudes about their associates. The behaviors that are evaluated include alcohol and drug use, associations with friends and family members, employment, participation in counseling and treatment programs, financial independence, anger management, and personal development.

Along with the phone calls, participants attend a program called the Reality Model. This program is centered on the idea that beliefs drive behavior. This model was proposed by Senator Robert Bennett in his book Gaining Control and is designed to help individuals examine their principles and beliefs more clearly, understand how their beliefs are driving their behaviors, and make certain that the results of their behavior are aligned with their basic needs. The program claims that human behavior is motivated by a desire to satisfy one of four basic needs: to survive, to love and be loved, to feel important, or to find variety. This model is intended to provide a nonjudgmental framework for examining one’s beliefs and adjusting one’s behaviors to achieve desired results.

These two programs, along with personal mentoring are being used to help participants meet their parole requirements, improve their lives and not continue with a self-defeating behavior. To learn more about the Real Victory program or how you can help, e-mail realvictory@gmail.com.

*View original article here.