Treatment of Offender Populations Implications for Risk Management and Community Reintegration

However, there has been a great debate in the literature about the efficacy of different treatment interventions for offenders and the ability of these treatments to decrease recidivism rates. In the 1950s and 1960s there was some evidence that treating offenders worked (Bailey, 1966; Logan, 1972). However in 1974, Martinson conducted a review of 230 treatment studies and concluded that nothing works in the treatment of offenders (Martinson, 1974). These findings supported the growing movement in the criminal justice system from a rehabilitative approach to a punitive one. While the field moved away from rehabilitation, criminal justice researchers became interested in developing a theory to explain why some treatments worked and others did not (Andrews et al., 1990). This resulted in the development of the risk–need–responsivity (RNR) model for evaluating program effectiveness (Andrews, Bonta, & Hoge, 1990). The RNR model has been empirically supported as a means of effectively evaluating offender treatment programs (Andrews & Bonta, 1998). The basic principles of RNR are that correctional interventions must be structured on three core rehabilitation principles: risk, need, and responsivity. The risk principle addresses the fact that CHAPTER 3