This article describes how contemporary attachment theory can support accurate assessment and effective intervention in criminal justice contexts. I offer an introduction to Crittenden’s Dynamic-Maturational Model (DMM) of Attachment and Adaptation and explain why this well-evidenced model is especially relevant to criminal justice interventions. The DMM is a biopsychosocial model, informed by neurodevelopmental research, and as such it offers a developmental understanding of the wide range of adaptations used by people who are endangered or endangering to others. It is a strengths-based, non-labelling and non-pathologising model which conceptualises adaptations to danger as self-protective strategies that promote survival in their original context, but which may later lead to problematic, dangerous, or self-defeating behaviour.
AdsheadG (2002) Three degrees of security: attachment and forensic institutions. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health12: 31–45.
2.
AinsworthMDS (1985) Patterns of attachment. Clinical Psychologist38: 27–29.
3.
AinsworthMSBowlbyJ (1991) An ethological approach to personality development. American Psychologist41: 333–341.
4.
AinsworthMDSBleharMCWatersE, et al. (1978) Patterns of Attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
5.
AllamJBaimC (2017) Understanding attachment strategies in adult men who have committed sexual offences: applications of the dynamic-maturational model (DMM). In: WilcoxDDonathyRGrayRBaimC (eds) Working With Sex Offenders: A Guide for Practitioners. London: Routledge, pp. 74–85.
6.
AndrewsDDowdenC (2007) The risk-needs-responsivity model of assessment in human service and prevention and corrections: crime prevention jurisprudence. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice49(4): 439–464.
7.
AnsbroM (2008) Using attachment theory with offenders. Probation Journal55(3): 231–244.
8.
AnsbroM (2019) A qualitative examination of attachment-based concepts in probation supervision. Probation Journal66(2): 181–200.
9.
BaimCGuthrieL (2014) Changing Offending Behaviour: A Workbook of Practical Exercises. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
10.
BaimCMorrisonT (2011) Attachment-Based Practice With Adults: Understanding Strategies and Promoting Positive Change. Brighton: Pavilion.
11.
BowlbyJ (1969) Attachment and Loss, Volume 1: Attachment. New York: Basic Books.
12.
BowlbyJ (1973) Attachment and Loss, Volume II: Separation, Anxiety and Anger. London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis.
13.
BowlbyJ (1980) Chapter 4: an information processing approach to defense. In: Attachment and Loss Volume III: Loss. New York: Basic Books.
14.
BowlbyJ (1995 [1988]) A Secure Base: Clinical Applications of Attachment Theory. London: Routledge.
15.
CicchettiDValentinoK (2006) An ecological-transactional perspective on child maltreatment: failure of the average expectable environment and its influence upon child development. In: CicchettiDCohenDJ (eds) Developmental Psychopathology: Risk, Disorder, and Adaptation, 2nd ed., Vol. 3. New York: Wiley.
16.
CozolinoL (2002) The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy: Building and Rebuilding the Human Brain. New York: Norton.
17.
CrittendenPM (2002) If I knew then what I know now: integrity and fragmentation in the treatment of child abuse and neglect. In: BrowneKHanksHStrattonPHamiltonC (eds) Prediction and Prevention of Child Abuse: A Handbook. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.
18.
CrittendenPM (2015) Danger, Development, and Adaptation: Seminal Papers on the Dynamic-Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation, LandiniABaimCHartMLandaS (eds). Hampshire: Waterside Press.
CrittendenPMAinsworthMDS (1989) Child maltreatment and attachment theory. In: CicchettiDCarlsonV (eds) Handbook of Child Maltreatment. New York: Cambridge University Press.
21.
CrittendenPMBaimC (2017) Using assessment of attachment in child care proceedings to guide intervention. In: DixonLPerkinsDCraigLHamilton-Giachritsis (eds) What Works in Child Protection: An Evidenced-Based Approach to Assessment and Intervention in Care Proceedings. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 385–402.
22.
CrittendenPMClaussenA (eds) (2000) The Organization of Attachment Relationships: Maturation, Culture and Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
23.
CrittendenPMDallosR (2009) All in the Family: Integrating attachment and family systems theories. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry14: 389–409.
24.
CrittendenPMLandiniA (2011) Assessing Adult Attachment: A Dynamic-Maturational Approach to Discourse Analysis. New York: Norton.
25.
CrittendenPMDallosRLandiniA, et al. (2014) Attachment and Family Therapy. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
26.
CrittendenPMFarnfieldSSpiekerS. (in press). Individual Differences in Attachment Relationships: Comparison of Two Theoretical Approaches. Oxford: Oxford Bibliographies.
27.
DamasioA (1994) Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain. New York: Avon.
28.
De ZuluetaF (1993) From Pain to Violence: The Traumatic Roots of Destructiveness. London: Whurr Publishers.
29.
EaglemanD (2016) Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. London: Canongate.
30.
FarnfieldSHautamakiANorbechP, et al. (2010) DMM assessments of attachment and adaptation: procedures, validity and utility. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry15: 313–328.
31.
FelittiVJAndaRNordenbergD, et al. (1998) Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine14(4): 245–258.
32.
FonagyP (2001) Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis. New York: Other Press.
33.
GerhardtS (2004) Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain. Hove: Routledge.
34.
GranqvistPSroufeLADozierM, et al. (2017). Disorganised attachment in infancy: a review of the phenomenon and its implications for clinicians and policy-makers. Attachment and Human Development19(6): 534–558.
35.
GrubinD (1998) Sexual offending against children: understanding the risk. Police Research Series, Paper 99. London: Policing and Reducing Crime Unit – Research, Development and Statistics Directorate.
36.
HolmesJ (2001) The Search for the Secure Base: Attachment Theory and Psychotherapy. Hove: Brunner Routledge.
37.
HoweD (2011) Attachment Across the Lifecourse: A Brief Introduction. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
38.
IASA (2019) DMM Publications (a Bibliography). Miami, FL and Reggio Emilia, Italy: The International Association for the Study of Attachment (IASA). Available at: www.iasa-dmm.org (accessed 5 January 2020).
JohnstoneLBoyleM (2018) The Power Threat Meaning Framework: Overview. Leicester: British Psychological Society.
41.
KünsterAKFegertJMZiegenhainU (2010) Assessing parent–child interaction in the preschool years: a pilot study on the psychometric properties of the toddler CARE-index. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry15: 379–390.
42.
LandaSDuschinskyR (2013) Crittendens Dynamic-Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation. Review of General Psychology17: 326–338.
43.
LewinK (1964 [1951]) Chapter 7: Problems of research in social psychology (1943–1944). In: CartwrightD (ed.) Field Theory in Social Science: Selected Theoretical Papers by Kurt Lewin. New York: Harper & Row.
44.
MainMSolomonJ (1986) Discovery of a new, insecure-disorganized/disoriented attachment pattern. In: YogmanMBrazeltonTB (eds) Affective Development in Infancy. Norwood: Ablex, pp. 95–124.
45.
MarshallWBarbareeH (1990) An integrated theory of the etiology of sexual offending. In: MarshallWLawsDRBarbareeH (eds) Handbook of Sexual Assault: Issues, Theories and Treatment of the Offender. New York: Plenum.
46.
MarshallWMarshallLSerranG, et al. (2006) Treating Sexual Offenders. London: Routledge.
47.
MarunaSPorterLCarvalhoI (2004) The liverpool desistance study and probation practice: opening the dialogue. Probation Journal51(3): 221–232.
48.
PankseppJ (2005) Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions (Series in Affective Science). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
49.
PerryB (2008) Child maltreatment: a neurodevelopmental perspective on the role of abuse in psychopathology. In: BeauchainePHinshawSP (eds) Textbook of Child and Adolescent Psychopathology. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
50.
PfäfflinFAdsheadG (eds) (2004) A Matter of Security: The Application of Attachment Theory in Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. London: Jessica Kingsley.
51.
PocockD (2010) The DMM – wow! but how to handle its potential strength?Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry15: 303–311.
52.
ReadJMosherLBentallR (eds) (2004) Models of Madness: Psychological, Social and Biological Approaches to Schizophrenia. Hove: Brunner-Routledge.
53.
RennP (2004) The link between childhood trauma and later violent offending: the application of attachment theory in a probation setting. In: PfäfflinFAdsheadG (eds) A Matter of Security: The Application of Attachment Theory in Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. London: Jessica Kingsley.
54.
RichP (2006a) From theory to practice: the application of attachment theory to assessment and treatment in forensic mental health services. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health16: 211–216.
55.
RichP (2006b) Attachment and Sexual Offending. Chichester: Wiley.
56.
SchacterDLTulvingE (1994) What are the memory systems of 1994? In: SchacterDLTulvingE (eds) Memory Systems. Cambridge, MA: Bradford.
57.
SchoreAN (2003) Affect Dysregulation and the Disorders of the Self. New York: W.W. Norton.
58.
SchwartzMFGalperinLDMastersWH (1995) Sexual trauma within the context of traumatic and inescapable stress, neglect, and poisonous pedagogy. In: HunterM (ed.) Adult Survivors of Sexual Abuse. London: Sage.
59.
SengeP (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation. New York: Doubleday.
60.
SmallboneSW (2006) An attachment-theoretical revision of Marshall and Barbaree’s integrated theory of the etiology of sexual offending. In:MarshallWLFernandezYMMarshallLESerranGA (eds) Wiley Series in Forensic Clinical Psychology. Sexual Offender Treatment: Controversial Issues. Washington: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, pp. 93–107.
61.
SternD (1977) The First Relationship: Mother and Infant. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
62.
SvanbergPOMennetLSpiekerSJ (2010) Promoting a secure attachment: a primary prevention practice model. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry15: 363–378.
63.
ThompsonARaikesH (2003) Towards the next quarter-century: conceptual and methodological challenges for attachment theory. Development and Psychopathology15: 691–718.
64.
van der KolkB (2014) The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. New York: Viking.
65.
WardTGannonTA (2006) Rehabilitation, etiology and self-regulation: the comprehensive good lives model of treatment for sexual offenders. Aggression and Violent Behaviour11(1): 77–94.
66.
WardTHudsonSMarshallWL (1996) Attachment style in sex offenders: a preliminary study. Journal of Sex Research33(1): 17–26.
