NCJ Number
195106
Date Published
2002
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This study measured the effectiveness of a prison-based cognitive behavioral treatment program in England and Wales based on reconviction rates.
Abstract
The program involved the enhancement of thinking skills for the purposes of self-control (thinking before acting), interpersonal problem-solving skills, analysis of social situation, critical reasoning skills, cognitive style of living, and understanding the values that govern behavior. The treatment group consisted of 670 adult male offenders serving a custodial sentence of 2 years or more. They were voluntary participants in one of two Cognitive Skills programs. Their reconviction rates after treatment were compared with a group of 1,801 adult male offenders serving 2 years or more who had not participated in a program. Two-year reconviction rates were determined for the two samples. Reconviction rates were obtained from criminal conviction history data derived from the Offenders Index. To ensure that the differences between treatment and comparison group reconviction rates were due to the effect of treatment and not the effects of selection, logistic regression analysis was used to assess the respective influence of treatment and other variables empirically related to reconviction in this study. The findings showed that reconviction declined considerably after cognitive skills treatment; 2-year reconviction rates for treatment groups were up to 14 percentage points lower than for matched comparison groups. Future outcome research could improve on this retrospective design by prospective matching. Further analysis of the data for this study could provide more detail on the factors that are associated with a positive treatment outcome and which type of offenders benefit most from this type of intervention. 2 tables and 6 references