Using Mobile Technologies to Improve Offender Motivation and Success on Probation: A Pilot Study

• In Event: Motivation for Change in Correctional Populations

Abstract

Mobile technology is a fast-growing platform for researchers and clinicians to deliver interventions. Mobile applications are used to change health behaviors including physical activity level, healthy dieting, disease control and monitoring, and drinking/smoking/drug cessation. The frameworks used to develop apps that change health behaviors are useful when developing an app for people in the criminal justice system because they both have a similar goal in mind – encouraging behavior change. In this study we utilize two commonly used behavior change theories (Goal-Setting theory and the Transtheoretical Theory of Change) to encourage probationers to select goals that are pertinent to their most pressing needs and that build upon each other in small incremental steps that encourage successful completion. Goals are also designed to vary in difficulty and focus to accommodate people who are in different stages of change. This study aims to improve probationer outcomes such as obtaining employment and housing, lowering recidivism rates, and successful completion of probation requirements, by utilizing a mobile application that encourages goal creation and completion through gameplay. Participants were randomly selected to either receive the app, a similar paper workbook, or no treatment. This presentation focuses on the development and pilot data of the mobile application.

Authors

• Victoria L. Goldberg, George Mason University

• Jill Viglione, George Mason University

• Danielle Rudes, George Mason University

• Faye Taxman, George Mason University