Can Completers, Non-Completers, and Non-Starters of Community-Based Offending Behavior Programs be Differentiated by Internal Treatment Readiness Factors? (original) (raw)
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This study presents the findings of an evaluation of the effect on reconviction of three general offending behavior programs involving adult male offenders in the English and Welsh Probation Service. Using a quasi-experimental design controlling for population factors, there was no difference in the reconviction rates of offenders allocated to programs and a comparison group. Offenders who completed a program had a lower rate of reconviction compared to the nonstarter, noncompleter, and comparison groups. A range of explanations for this "completion effect" is discussed, particularly with regard to the emerging literature on readiness to change.
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This paper reports the outcome of a 17-month follow-up of structured, community-based, offence-focused, intervention programmes designed to reduce rates of re-conviction amongst adjudicated offenders under probation supervision. Three separate programmes were examined, all derived from a cognitive social learning model of risk factors for repeated involvement in crime. Using a quasiexperimental design, the study compared male offenders who had completed programmes (n=215) with a non-completion group (n=181), a group allocated to programmes but who had not commenced them (n=339), and a control sample (n=194) not allocated to the programmes. Outcome data analysis employed (a) an “intent to treat” between-group comparison, (b) “treatment received” methodology. In order to take account of selection bias, data were further analysed using instrumental variables and propensity scores; results suggested a possible treatment effect for moderate and higher-risk cases. Factors influencing different interpretations of these findings were considered.
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Attrition from offender interventions presents methodological problems when the effectiveness of the intervention is under evaluation. This article proposes a treatmentreceived (TR) design, which incorporates one-to-one matching on criminogenic variables. This design permits the comparison of completer, noncompleter, and nonstarter groups with their paired comparisons and, hence, allows a more accurate evaluation of program completion and noncompletion effects. A sample of 173 offenders, referred to one of two general offending behavior cognitive skills programs within community settings, was matched one-to-one by criminogenic variables to offenders from an appropriate comparison group. Reconviction analyses were undertaken using intention to treat (ITT) analysis, TR analysis using the full comparison group, and TR analysis using matched comparison groups. The ITT design found no impact of group membership on reconviction. The TR designs, however, provided evidence of moderate effects of completion: For every three completers, five of the matched comparison group members were reconvicted. The analysis also suggested a noncompletion effect: Noncompleters were twice as likely as their matched comparison group to be reconvicted.
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The use of community correction programs as an alternative to incarceration is increasing in Australia, with the aim of maintaining and strengthening community safety and offering offenders with education and rehabilitation programs (State Government of Victoria 2018). This critical review will explore the success of community correction programs in reducing recidivism and offending behaviours of offenders engaged in the programs, analysing what has been successful in reducing recidivism, and what has not been successful.
Cognitive skills offending behaviour programmes in the community: A reconviction analysis
This study presents the findings of an evaluation of the effect on reconviction of three general offending behavior programs involving adult male offenders in the English and Welsh Probation Service. Using a quasi-experimental design controlling for population factors, there was no difference in the reconviction rates of offenders allocated to programs and a comparison group. Offenders who completed a program had a lower rate of reconviction compared to the nonstarter, noncompleter, and comparison groups. A range of explanations for this "completion effect" is discussed, particularly with regard to the emerging literature on readiness to change.
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