Research on the Problems and Countermeasures of Psychological Correction in Urban and Rural Communities

: This study conducted a survey of urban and rural communities in 22 districts, cities, and counties in Chengdu to sort out and analyze the psychological correction problems of inmates in urban and rural communities. It was found that the main problems were: insufficient understanding, insufficient attention, shortage of funds, imperfect facilities, single implementation methods, low effectiveness, lack of professional personnel, and inadequate implementation of relevant policies. Through in-depth analysis of relevant issues, corresponding strategies have been proposed: 1. Strengthen the promotion and popularization of community psychological correction; 2. Mobilize and gather resources, improve relevant facilities and equipment; 3. Strengthen research and improve effectiveness; 4. Promote the implementation of relevant policies and train and attract professional personnel internally and externally.


The development status of psychological correction in urban and rural communities 1.1 Development started late and achieved significant results
The implementation of community correction in urban and rural areas in China started relatively late and has been greatly influenced by the development of community psychological correction in foreign countries.The pilot work of community correction began in 2003, and as of the end of 2019, China has received a total of 4.78 million community correction recipients and released a total of 4.11 million community correction recipients [2] .During the entire community correction period, the correction effect was outstanding, and the social recidivism rate was significantly reduced.
After long-term exploration and practice, the Supreme Procuratorate, Supreme Court, and others jointly formulated and promulgated the "Community Correction Law of the People's Republic of China" in 2019, which was passed at the 15th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress on December 28 and officially implemented on July 1, 2020.The introduction of this law is of milestone significance for community correction in China.This marks the beginning of a legal stage in the development of community correction.In order to promote and standardize community correction work, ensure the correct execution of criminal judgments, criminal rulings, and temporary execution decisions outside prison, improve the quality of educational correction, promote the smooth integration of community correction objects into society, and prevent and reduce crime, it has had an important impact.

Insufficient theoretical research and localization
In the research of community psychological correction, many scholars draw on foreign experiences and methods, such as Wu Zongxian's use of Freud's psychoanalytic theory, "systematic desensitization method," and cognitive "rational emotional therapy," and then conduct relevant research discussions on community psychological correction [3] .The famous psychologist He Youhui based his theory on Freudian psychoanalytic therapy and to a certain extent combined it with the traditional cultural background of China [5] .Xiang Wei also proposed to incorporate the psychological characteristics of Chinese people on the basis of social constructivist psychology research, which can make the entire research content more targeted and bring China's psychological research into a more professional field of research.He proposed psychological research theories with Chinese characteristics of culture, making the original theories more different due to the inclusion of Chinese cultural elements [5] .
Overall, previous studies have mostly relied on foreign experiences and methods, or based on Western psychological theories, incorporating some Chinese characteristics.However, there have been few localized studies, and targeted in-depth research on the characteristics of Chinese urban and rural communities and inmates is more limited.

Insufficient understanding and emphasis on community psychological correction
The relevant research in China mainly focuses on the fields of law and sociology, focusing on institutional construction, comparison with the West, and effectiveness of community correction [6] .There is insufficient attention to the mental health issues of correctional personnel, but in fact, the attitudes and concepts of correctors and correctional objects themselves are also important factors that affect the development of psychological correction work.
Firstly, the public's awareness and acceptance are not high, and they have failed to promptly correct their cognitive misconceptions about the treatment of individual psychological diseases.Specifically, they equate psychological problems with mental illnesses and believe that only individuals with mental disorders should pay attention to their mental health.They have no psychological problems and do not need to consider mental health issues.
Secondly, many community inmates also hold the same attitude, believing that psychological correction is optional and not necessary.Due to the unique nature of their identity, there is a general resistance and defensive mentality towards them in society, which can lead to negative emotions, pessimism and disappointment among the correctional subjects [7].They are psychologically sensitive, inferiority complex, unwilling to communicate with others, and may lose the motivation for reform, and even some correctional subjects may experience broken records, Affects social stability.
Finally, some community workers did not attach importance to community psychological correction work.According to relevant surveys, nearly 48.4% believe that psychological correction is just a form of walking and doing ideological work [8] .The relevant staff are limited to the current situation and only complete tasks assigned by superiors, neglecting self-improvement and development.Their service awareness is not strong, and their professional literacy needs to be improved.

Shortage of funding for community correction and inadequate facilities and equipment
Research has found that the proportion of insufficient hardware facilities for psychological correction is as high as 65.5% [9] .Based on the current situation of psychological correction work in a certain city, there is a significant shortage of funds for psychological correction.Even if community correction workers want to organize a variety of psychological correction activities, they do not have enough funds, resulting in a single category and simple content of psychological correction [8] .This also affects the breadth and depth of psychological correction work to a certain extent.
Secondly, psychological correction work requires professional testing software, instruments and equipment, as well as a relatively quiet and warm environment, which is a very important condition for the smooth progress of the work.At present, there is a general lack of funding in most communities, and hardware equipment is difficult to effectively guarantee, leading to the suspension of psychological correction work.

The implementation methods of community correction are single and ineffective
A complete psychological correction should include psychological assessment and measurement, mental health education, psychological counseling, establishment of psychological archives, psychological correction, quality evaluation, etc.Among them, there is still great room for development in psychological assessment and measurement, psychological counseling, and quality evaluation.
Firstly, the use of localized psychological correction methods and measurement tools in psychological counseling is relatively limited.The West values individualism, while China advocates collectivism.If blindly copying it, it may lead to a lack of conformity with the local conditions.Taking Shanghai as an example, the two commonly used psychological measurement scales for community correction, SCL-90 and MMPI, have an accuracy rate of only 75%, far inferior to Western countries [1] .So it is necessary to study the psychological characteristics of Chinese prisoners, develop suitable measurement tools, and develop corrective techniques that are in line with the psychological phenomena and problems of Chinese people.
Secondly, in terms of quality evaluation, only 7.4% of community workers believe that the current community psychological correction effect has achieved the expected goal, while 64.4% of community workers believe that the goal has not been achieved or the effect is average or minimal [8] .At present, there is no comprehensive evaluation mechanism in China for the effectiveness of correction to evaluate the overall quality of correction, in order to adjust and improve the overall correction results.

Lack of professional personnel and inadequate implementation of relevant policies
Chen Xuefeng emphasized that psychology professionals play an important role in the social psychological correction system, and the main factor currently restricting the cultivation of psychology professionals in China is the lack of a complete academic education and on-the-job training system [10] .According to the survey, there are roughly three types of community correction practitioners, including main staff, social workers, and volunteers.Their professional qualities vary.Taking Shanghai as an example, a survey was conducted on the professionalism of community psychological correction workers in Shanghai, and only 8% of them have a complete grasp of subject knowledge [1] .In the survey, it was found that the majority of community workers do not have a professional background in psychology, do not have a national psychological counselor level certificate, and lack theoretical and practical professional literacy [11].In this position, it will be difficult to complete difficult and highly specialized tasks without accumulating sufficient experience to deal with various conflicts.

Strengthen the publicity and popularization of community psychological correction
The community popularize more relevant professional knowledge, improve levels, promote professional development, establish the concept of continuously improving oneself and enriching correction skills, and ensure that staff carry out various community psychological correction work smoothly through methods such as "lectures on psychological correction" and "skill training".
Avoiding the extremes of two concepts and overcoming inherent stereotypes.The first is to view psychological correction as the surveillance of a "special prison", and to view community correction workers as the "executors of punishment" in the prison.This means that community correction equates prison sentences and excessively exaggerates the mandatory and coercive nature.The correction object should pay attention to autonomy and enhance the awareness of self-management and self-development.The second is to equate community psychological correction directly with "ideological and political education", overemphasizing the role of community psychological correction, believing that it can replace all correction work, thus failing to comply with strict rules and requirements, confusing the boundary between correction workers and correction objects, and loose management of correctors can lead to scattered behavior of correction objects.

Mobilize and pool resources, improve relevant facilities and equipment
The government should attach importance to community psychological correction from a conceptual perspective, and ensure the implementation of funding from a policy perspective.Firstly, it is necessary to effectively improve the construction of relevant infrastructure and equipment.A professional psychological counseling venue is a top priority in the infrastructure construction project of psychological correction.The construction of psychological counseling venues can be scaled up based on the number of local correction objects, providing a comfortable and stable environment for correction objects.In addition to the necessary group counseling room, individual counseling room, reference room, and reception room in psychological counseling, there should also be a large number of modern hardware facilities, such as sand tables, music therapy equipment, catharsis rooms, etc; To ensure the smooth and orderly progress of psychological correction work, it is necessary to have professional psychological evaluation software.The evaluation software should combine the psychological characteristics of various criminals, have a scientific and efficient evaluation mode, and use professional psychological evaluation software as support for judging serious psychological problems and assessing the risk of criminals.In addition, special funds are set up to ensure the implementation of community psychological correction activities.

Drawing on relevant foreign theories and experiences to promote localization research
Firstly, it is necessary to learn and draw on the essence of relevant foreign theories and experiences.Due to the late start and short development time of community correction psychological correction work in China, relatively mature Western psychological theories and methods can provide valuable experience for community psychological correction.Relaxation therapy, aversion therapy, and systemic desensitization therapy advocated by behaviorism theory can all be applied to community psychological counseling work.With the continuous development of community correction and psychological correction work in our country, the requirements of new situations and tasks are constantly increasing.When dealing with various counseling theory schools in Western psychology, we should adopt a materialistic attitude towards obtaining evidence; The second is to advocate for the integration of Confucianism into the content of correction.For example, we can use Confucian classic sayings in mental health correction courses to promote socialist core values.At the same time, we can also use positive energy cases in the Confucian school to enable correction objects to improve their loyalty, faith, etiquette, and righteousness through self-reflection and inner understanding, and enhance their self-awareness and self-development ability.
Thirdly, based on the actual situation of community psychological correction work in China, localize Western psychological correction theories and methods.Localized psychological correction methods and measurement tools are still scarce.The West emphasizes individualism, while China advocates collectivism.Due to the huge cultural differences between China and the West, blindly copying them may lead to "acclimatization", and the reliability and validity cannot be guaranteed.

Standardization of psychological quality assessment
Firstly, the specialized personnel of community correction institutions should conduct a preliminary assessment of the psychological quality, criminal background, family background, historical trauma, mental illness, mental health level, pre correction performance, and living environment of the correction subjects.
Secondly, the community should establish a self-evaluation mechanism for corrective personnel, conduct self-evaluation surveys on individuals with good corrective effects, and self report on the entire corrective stage, including: psychological journey, frustration handling methods, growth and gains at each stage, etc., recorded through recording, writing, and other means, providing reference and positive demonstration for other individuals undergoing corrective actions without infringing on personal privacy, and help those who have the same psychological and behavioral issues to correct as soon as possible.
Once again, specialized personnel conduct a comprehensive evaluation, that is, psychological evaluation of the effectiveness of psychological correction.Attention should be paid to the scientificity and standardization of the evaluation process, and objective and effective analysis should not be based solely on the subjective consciousness of the corrector, combined with observation, interview, measurement methods, etc., to comprehensively compare the psychological state and behavioral changes of the corrector before and after correction.This evaluation also becomes a psychological prediction for re committing a crime.It also provides a basis for whether to continue monitoring or resettlement.
It is worth noting that the correction content should also include exercising the survival ability of the correction object to return to society, including providing work skills guidance, family relationship adjustment, providing social security such as medical insurance, etc., to solve as many difficulties and inconveniences caused by the correction object's initial return to society as possible, strengthen daily care for community correction objects, and enhance happiness.And Staff conduct regular follow-up visits to observe changes in their behavior when returning to society, and predict the likelihood of their committing another crime.

Internal training and external recruitment of professionals, promoting the implementation of relevant policies
Firstly, to achieve a professional team for psychological correction, the fundamental issue of personnel allocation needs to be addressed.Only by promoting reasonable personnel allocation can psychological correction work proceed smoothly.The Judicial Bureau needs to establish specialized staff for management, and at the same time, attract more social professionals who meet the admission criteria, such as high-level talents with psychology, medicine, and education backgrounds, to participate in psychological correction work to cooperate, improve work quality and pay, and gradually establish a professional team with proficient skills.
Secondly, The community conduct pre employment training, on-the-job training, and promotion training.Through training, improve the professional quality of correctional personnel, so that they not only master knowledge of criminal law and sociology, but more importantly, master relevant knowledge of psychology and education, especially the techniques and methods of psychological counseling and psychotherapy.
Finally, in the process of community correction, it is necessary to have a psychological correction support platform, which is convenient for full-time and professional personnel to integrate psychological correction into all aspects of community correction and refine the division of labor for each task, establish a normalized correction method for the community, and avoid the phenomenon of management confusion and uneven division of labor.