What's Not Working

Over the past 40 years, a number of therapeutic interventions have been used with offender populations in the hopes to reduce subsequent recidivism and antisocial behavior. Numerous studies have been published on the effects of various interventions and programs. Often, the results were disappointing. However, the studies do show that there are some specialized treatment interventions that are successful with offender populations. With drug and alcohol offenders the picture presented by decades of carefully controlled research is clear. No educational-based interventions, regardless of their depth or range, have ever worked to reduce recidivism in offenders nor has any 12-step-based programming reduced substance use or subsequent antisocial behavior of offenders as measured by outcome reports (Eliany & Rush, 1992; Gendreau & Ross, 1979, 1987; Lipton, Falking, & Wexler, 1990).

Recent National Institute of Drug Abuse publications ( Lipton, Falkin, & Wexler, 1990) reviewing correctional drug treatments conclude that psycho-educational treatments are insufficient and, at times, counterproductive in producing desired treatment outcomes.

From: "An Overview of Treatment Effectiveness: Research & Clinical Principles" by D.A. Andrews (1994) In: "What Works: Bridging the Gap Between Research and Correctional Practice", American Probation and Parole Association, reviewed thousands of controlled outcome studies. It stated that based on over 440 studies on punishment approaches "not a single reviewer of the controlled studies of the effects on recidivism of variation in official punishment was able to find studies reporting large or consistent reductions in recidivism of variation in official punishment was able to find studies reporting large or consistent reductions in recidivism through sanctions." The average effect of criminal punishment approaches on recidivism is an increase in recidivism by under 1%. The study concluded that ineffective treatment approaches include "Client-centered counseling, psycho-dynamic therapy, non-behavioral groups and punishment approaches."