Developmental pathways of offender treatment: outlined routes and evaluation of goal attainment

Abstract

This article provides an overview of concepts and empirical evaluation results of offender treatment since the 1960s. Many meta-analyses showed on average positive effects. Cognitive behavioral treatment programs and the risk-need-responsivity (RNR) model have the most solid evidence base but various other approaches are also promising. For sexual offenders the results are less uniform, in particular for treatment in prisons. The transfer from model projects into routine practice shows that many influences on effectiveness need to be considered, e.g. with respect to program content, context, participants, and evaluation method. The good lives model and desistance model do not need alternative paradigms but are well compatible with the extended RNR model and the what works approach. Within this framework, the article contains 12 proposals for empirically founded further development of offender treatment.