Powerlessness or Empowerment? Special Issues in Treating Women Offenders Who Abuse Substances (3 hours)
- Credit Hours: 3 Hours
- Author: Robert Shearer
- Price: $39.00
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Describe the powerlessness-empowerment continuum and explain how institutional and program characteristics affect empowerment for women offenders who abuse substances.
- Identify the differential treatment needs of female offenders compared to male offenders, including parenting skills, family therapy, and mental health considerations.
- Analyze the role of interpersonal violence, sexual abuse, and victimization in the development and maintenance of substance use disorders among women offenders.
- Explain how low self-esteem, gender discrimination, and cultural factors influence substance abuse treatment engagement and outcomes for women offenders.
- Describe co-occurring issues that must be addressed alongside substance abuse in women offenders, including eating disorders, grief, unhealthy relationships, and health risk behaviors.
- Apply the Powerlessness-Empowerment Scale (P-E Scale) to assess program and institutional characteristics that support or hinder women offenders' recovery.
Package Contents
Course Details
Course Description: Powerlessness or Empowerment Special Issues in Treating Women Offenders Who Abuse Substances covers the primary treatment issues facing women offenders who abuse substances, including empowerment, self-esteem, sexual and physical abuse, victimization, and high-risk behaviors. It is designed for counselors, criminal justice professionals, and others who work with this population in institutional or program settings. Topics also include addiction causes, interpersonal violence, eating disorders, coexisting psychiatric disorders, criminogenic characteristics, race and cultural issues, and life plan development. The course concludes with guidance on assessing the program needs of women offenders who abuse substances.
Date: Ongoing
Distance Learning Method: Asynchronous Reading
Target Audience: Social Workers, Substance Abuse Counselors, Criminal Justice Professionals
Refund Policy: If you request a refund within 30 days of placing your order (and prior to submitting any exams / completing any courses) we will gladly issue a refund of your money, less the processing fee and handling charge.
Course Interactivity: None
Posttest Requirements: Must score 80% or better to pass. Tests can be taken multiple times to obtain passing score.
Course Completion Requirements: Passing score on posttest. Submission of course evaluation. Course date of completion is recorded at this point.
Certificate of Completion: Issued when course is completed, available for download in Student Center
System Requirements: Internet access
About the Instructor
Robert A. Shearer
Dr. Robert A. Shearer is a retired professor of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University. He received his Ph.D. in Counseling and Psychology from Texas A & M University, Commerce. Prior to teaching Criminal Justice, he taught Educational Psychology at Mississippi State University on campus and in the extension program across rural Mississippi during the civil rights era.
He has been teaching, training, consulting and conducting research in the fields of Criminal Justice, human behavior, and addictions for over thirty-six years. He is the author of over sixty professional and refereed articles in Criminal Justice and behavior. He is also the author of Interviewing: Theories, techniques, and practices, 5th edition published by Prentice Hall. Dr. Shearer has also created over a dozen measurement, research, and assessment instruments in Criminal Justice and addictions.
He has been a psychotherapist in private practice and served as a consultant to dozens of local, state, and national agencies. His interests continue to be substance abuse program assessment and evaluation. He has taught courses in interviewing, human behavior, substance abuse counseling, drugs-crime-social policy, assessment and treatment planning, and educational psychology. He has also taught several university level psychology courses in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division, led group therapy in prison, trained group therapists, and served as an expert witness in various courts of law.
He has been the president of the International Association of Addictions and Offender Counseling and the editor of the Journal of Addictions and Offender Counseling as well as a member of many Criminal Justice, criminology, and counseling professional organizations prior to retirement.
Approved and Widely Recognized
CEU Matrix is approved by the following national and state accreditation boards:
CEU Matrix is approved with the following state boards:
Arkansas (ASACB), California (CCAPP #OS-07-394-0222), California (CADTP #250), Connecticut (#0115-5202), Delaware (DCB #37), Florida (FCB #5141-A), Georgia (ADACBGA #2026-4-003), Illinois (IAODAPCA #19345), Kentucky, Louisiana (LA ADRA #E026), Michigan (MCBAP), Missouri (Missouri CB #183), New Mexico (NMCBBHP #2046), North Carolina (NCSAPPB), Ohio (OCDP #50-19236), Oklahoma (OBLADS #20260153), Texas (TCB #1758-07)
Provider Statement:
CEU Matrix, provider #2726, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 07/23/2026-07/23/2027.