NCJ Number
181876
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 46 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2000 Pages: 214-232
Date Published
April 2000
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Studies of the effectiveness of correctional treatment in prison often attempt to achieve a high internal validity but neglect aspects of substantiation of content; this study attempted to reach high internal validity and address the issue of the degree of success that can be expected from social-therapeutic treatment in prison.
Abstract
This second German study of the effectiveness of social therapy in prison based on an experimental design sought to answer three questions: (1) What is the extent of success of social therapy in an experimental investigation? (2) Is it possible to estimate the success of social therapy in prison in a theoretical ideal case? and (3) Is the influence of incarceration as an unfavorable socialization process lower, equally effective, or more effective than the favorable influence of social-therapeutic programs administered during the course of imprisonment? At the time of the random assignment, there were 228 random respondents: 114 belonged to the experimental group, and 114 were in the control group. The official recidivism as recorded by the Federal Central Register as the main criterion of the study was available for 223 of all 228 respondents. Of random respondents, 225 participated in the first sweep (outset of social therapy), 217 in the second sweep (1 year after social therapy), 190 in the third sweep (shortly before release), and 150 in the fourth sweep (2 years after release). Findings show that the success of social therapy in prisons is low to very low in a randomized study. The relatively low success of social therapy cannot be explained by a lack of effort by the social therapists. Overall, the study shows that prison is not a favorable setting for achieving positive behavioral changes in offenders. 8 tables, 6 notes, and 18 references