The process of change in offender rehabilitation programmes

Abstract

Whilst the overall effectiveness of offender rehabilitation programmes in reducing recidivism is now well established, there has been less discussion of the reasons why rehabilitation programmes may be unsuccessful for some offenders. In this paper we suggest that models of change developed in counselling and psychotherapy may have utility in explaining how offender rehabilitation programmes bring about change, and argue that the dominance of cognitive–behavioural treatments in the rehabilitation field means that those offenders who have particularly low levels of problem awareness may be at increased risk of treatment failure. Understanding more about the mechanisms by which programmes help offenders to desist from offending is likely to lead to the development of more responsive and, ultimately, more effective programmes. Some suggestions for those involved in the delivery of offender rehabilitation programmes include: being mindful of the sequence of components of programmes, the development of preparation (or readiness) programmes and offering a broad suite of programmes to cater for different stages of problem awareness and assimilation among offenders.     

Research note: The founders and survivors project

This paper describes the multidisciplinary project Founders and Survivors: Australian Life Courses in Historical Context. Individual life courses, families and generations through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are being reconstituted from a wide range of data including convict records; birth, death and marriage registrations; and World War I service records. The project will result in a longitudinal study of Australian settlement, the long-run effects of forced labour and emigration on health and survival, family formation, intergenerational morbidity and mortality, and social and geographic mobility.     

Using knowledge for control in fragmented policy arenas

Analysts and researchers typically value knowledge for its contributions to the wisdom of policy action. Policymakers, however, typically value knowledge for its contributions to the exercise of political control. Our research on flows of knowledge among federal, state, and local education agencies documents how knowledge may increase the effectiveness of various control strategies. In these cases, knowledge is not intended to enhance rationality; it may or may not. It is intended to enhance control, and it does. Knowledge for control is particularly useful to policymakers who seek to intervene in policy arenas characterized by fragmented authority and widely dispersed resources.     

Assessing problematic research: How can academic researchers help improve the quality of anti-crime program evaluations?

In this essay I examine some of the problems that prompted the National Research Council (NRC) report and consider how academic researchers might help resolve them. Many of the problems were found to be associated with research designed to assess program effects on child victimization and violence against women, areas in which research participation by subjects is particularly burdensome and difficult to obtain. Yet, program evaluations often assume that the process of subject participation is well understood and that outcome measures are reliable and valid across all subjects. A multidisciplinary, comprehensive and systematic review of victimization programs and past research is needed to advance the rigor of future evaluations. However, academics should not insist that all victim service programs warrant program evaluation as a condition of continued public support, because the decision to retain a program inevitably involves more than a scientific estimate of its effect.

By women for women: Caring for the frail elderly

The care of the frail elderly should be a subject of especial and growing importance to the women's movement. Two-thirds of the 75+ age group in England and Wales are women, who, when subject to the disabilities of advancing age, are usually assisted or cared for by other women. Current government policies emphasize care at home and assume the availability of unpaid female labour. Care in residential institutions depends largely upon the low paid labour of women. How can the dilemmas posed by different policy options be resolved? Can modes of care be devised which do not rely on exploiting women's labour and which offer choice to elderly women?     

There was never really any choice: The experience of mothers of disabled children in the United Kingdom

This article focuses on two main themes. First, it examines the impact that caring for severly disabled children has on the lives of their mothers: the exacting work they undertake, the restrictions they encounter and the choices they have to make. Second, it suggests that those very services which it is assumed will be helpful and relief-giving, are not only fragmented and thin on the ground, but are also often experienced as a mixed blessing, adding to the work load and inducing further stress in a number of ways. Some of the parents whose opinions have contributed to this article, are those who took part in a small-scale research project on the relationships between parents of disabled children and professionals. Others include those who participated, often in the role of teachers, in a series of open studies courses for service providers and consumers at Warwick University between 1980 and 1985.