Developing programmes for violent offenders (original) (raw)
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Rehabilitating serious violent adult offenders: an empirical and theoretical stocktake
Psychology Crime & Law, 2004
Extensive meta-analyses of the correctional programme evaluation literature have generated developments in the technology of programme design. However, the risk, need and responsivity principles do not constitute a rehabilitation theory and cannot answer specialist offender programme design questions. After more than a decade of involvement in programmes for seriously violent offenders, we decided to reassess the empirical evidence underpinning violence rehabilitation in adult men. We focused on both mixed and violent offender samples, reviewing the outcome data from nine evaluations of cognitive Á/behavioural interventions. Despite a plethora of methodological difficulties, it appears that most of the programmes had small to large effects on violent and non-violent recidivism. Little could be concluded from these evaluations about the most promising theoretical framework for future programme development. Most programmes contained only scant information on their underlying theory base. None referred to multivariate aggression or crime theories. We conclude that there is a pressing need for additional evaluative research, and theory development. To date, the case for specialist violent offending programmes has not been made.
Treatment of offenders : the delivery and sequencing of interventions
2015
This thesis investigates the issues of treatment programme effectiveness and issues surrounding programme implementation such as the sequencing of interventions. Chapter 1 presents a historical account of the issue of offender rehabilitation and provides a critique of studies into the effectiveness of treatment programmes delivered in the UK. Regression analyses are used in Chapter 2 to investigate the predictive value of criminogenic needs, and the impact on reconviction levels of having a need met through the completion of a relevant treatment programme. Results highlighted the predictive validity of static risk factors over dynamic factors and indicated a lack of effectiveness of treatment programmes. Findings are discussed with reference to methodological limitations and the potential impact of programme implementation issues. Chapter 3 provides a review of the literature on the programme implementation issue of the sequencing of interventions. Studies investigating the process ...
An Overview of Offender Rehabilitation: Something Old, Something Borrowed, Something New
Australian Psychologist, 2002
T he topic of offender rehabilitation, particularly offender treatment, has been greatly revived over the past decade. This paper opens with a brief consideration of the moral basis of rehabilitation, perhaps favouring a utilitarian stance in which rehabilitation should be a proven means by which to reduce crime. In this empirical light, a summary of the meta-analyses of offender treatment is presented. The meta-analyses have provided a major impetus for offender treatment over the past decade, helping define the principles of effective practice. One consequence of the meta-analyses has been the rise in popularity of offending behaviour programs. The desirability of behaviour change programs has been widely debated in the clinical psychology literature. Wilson's (1996) paper offers a thorough review of the issues associated with a programmatic delivery of services. Wilson's insights from the perspective of clinical psychology are borrowed and applied to work with offenders. This analysis is used to highlight the practical strengths and weakness of offender programs, raising concerns for the future. It is suggested that these concems can be used to develop the next generation of programs and an illustration is given from work in progress in County Durham, in the north of England. The paper concludes with the view that future program development is critical if offender rehabilitation is to remain in favour.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2005
Rehabilitation programs for adult violent offending are still novel, and few published studies examine the recidivism outcomes of those who complete such programs. This study describes a New Zealand prison program for high-risk violent men. The program is intensive and cognitive behavioral. Preliminary outcome data are presented for three indices during 2 or more years of follow-up: nonviolent reconviction, violent reconviction, and subsequent imprisonment. In comparison with untreated offenders, treated men were less likely to be reconvicted of a violent offense, and those who were took longer to fail. There was also a 12% difference in favor of the treated men on the two other indices, nonviolent reconviction and reimprisonment. The authors conclude that the program shows early promise and that further evaluation with a larger sample of treated men will be important in clarifying whether the program is having a differential impact on violent versus nonviolent offending.
Effective Interventions in the Lives of Criminal Offenders
2014
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Psychology in …, 2001
I n the history of criminal justice, rehabilitation philosophy has fluctuated in pendular form between periods in which rehabilitation of offenders was considered feasible and other periods in which it was not. Up to the 1970s, researchers and those working in the field of justice placed a great deal of confidence in the so-called "rehabilitation ideal" which held that offender recidivism could be reduced by means of treatment. However, the 1980s marked the beginning of a more pessimistic period in which the predominant belief was that "not-hing worked" as far as offender rehabilitation was concerned. Nonetheless, a certain optimism re-emerged in 1988/89 with respect to the treatment of offenders. The evaluative research published in the 1980s concluded that some programmes had been moderately effective in terms of reducing criminal recidivism (Palmer, 1995). This line of investigation has continued to develop in the 1990s. Throughout the decade, a number of metaanalytic studies both in North America and, later, in Europe, were carried out in order to assess the degree of effectiveness of treatment techniques applied to offenders (