Craig Dowden

The Effectiveness of Restorative Justice Practices: A Meta-Analysis

This article provides an empirical synthesis of the existing literature on the effectiveness of restorative justice practices using meta-analytic techniques. The data were aggregated from studies that compared restorative justice programs to traditional nonrestorative approaches to criminal behavior. Victim and offender satisfaction, restitution compliance, and recidivism were selected as appropriate outcomes to adequately measure effectiveness. Although restorative programs were found to be significantly more effective, these positive findings are tempered by an important self-selection bias inherent in restorative justice research. A possible method of addressing this problem, as well as directions for future research, are provided.

What Works for Female Offenders: A Meta-Analytic Review

Although the question of what works for general offender populations has received considerable attention within the rehabilitation literature, very little research has examined female offenders. The present investigation examined the principles of effective correctional treatment for female offenders through a meta-analytic review. The results indicated that the clinically relevant and psychologically informed principles of human service, risk, need, and responsivity identified in past meta-analytic reviews were associated with enhanced reductions in reoffending.

The Importance of Staff Practice in Delivering Effective Correctional Treatment: A Meta-Analytic Review of Core Correctional Practice

Several meta-analyses have rendered strong support for the clinically relevant and psychologically informed principles of human service, risk, need, and general responsivity. However, each of these reviews has focused on specific program components and not on the characteristics of the staff or the specific techniques used to deliver the program. This meta-analytic review examines the role of core correctional practices in reducing recidivism and provides strong preliminary evidence regarding their effectiveness. Staff characteristics and training in core skills must be addressed to ensure the maximum therapeutic impact of correctional treatment programs.

Risk Principle of Case Classification in Correctional Treatment A Meta-Analytic Investigation

Recent meta-analyses have documented considerable evidence demonstrating that correctional treatment programs are indeed effective for reducing recidivism in offender populations. The effect of client risk, an issue that has received extensive coverage in the extant literature from an assessment perspective, has been relatively ignored in these efforts. The present study marks the first exhaustive meta-analytic investigation of the risk principle and its effects on correctional treatment program effectiveness. The results reveal moderate support for its utility, although the magnitude of the findings are affected by the reporting practices used in the primary studies. Finally, the evidence supporting the risk principle is much stronger for female offenders and young offenders and within programs that are deemed appropriate according to the principles of need and responsivity. It should be noted that justice interventions that did not include elements of human service (e.g., increased sanctions) yielded negative results regardless of level of client risk.

Managing correctional treatment for reduced recidivism: A meta‐analytic review of programme integrity

Purpose. Although issues surrounding programme integrity and implementation seem intuitively appealing as important contributors to effective correctional programming, they have been relatively ignored within the extant literature. The present meta-analysis provided the first systematic examination of these issues by exploring their impact on recidivism reduction in correctional treatment programmes.Methods. A meta-analysis was conducted on 273 tests of the effectiveness of correctional treatment programmes that were extracted from various human service programmes. Indicators of programme integrity reviewed included several management variables (i.e. selection, training and clinical supervision of service deliverers), evaluator involvement, presence of training manuals, monitoring of treatment delivery, and using a small sample of clients.Results. Overall, the meta-analyses revealed that programme integrity provided an independent source of enhanced programme effectiveness, even when controls were introduced for other variables (e.g. involved evaluator and sample size).Conclusions. Consistent with previous research, the present study demonstrated that the positive contributions of programme integrity were limited to the enhancement of the effects of human service programmes consistent with the principles of risk, need, and general responsivity. However, the relatively poor reporting of programme integrity indicators within primary studies necessitates that evaluators and programme deliverers alike ensure that this information is included in future evaluations to provide an even greater understanding of the influences of integrity. Language: en

The Effectiveness of Relapse Prevention with Offenders: A Meta-Analysis

Although relapse prevention models have been applied within offender treatment, there has been little controlled outcome research evaluating their effectiveness. This meta-analysis of 40 tests of relapse prevention treatment revealed moderate mean reductions in recidivism (0.15), and certain elements of the relapse prevention model (i.e., training significant others in the program model and identifying the offense chain) yielded stronger effects than others (i.e., provision of booster/aftercare sessions and developing coping skills). Further analyses revealed that the clinically relevant and psychologically informed principles of risk, need, and general responsivity yielded the strongest reductions in recidivism. The implications for future research and treatment are discussed.

Research on multiple murder: Where are we in the state of the art?

Despite considerable public and academic attention to the phenomenon of serial homicide and mass murder, researchers have generally lamented the lack of progress that has been made, especially in the area of theoretical advances. As has been found in other areas that have embarked on similar developmental paths, taking stock of the historical development of the field in terms of the type and quality of research being conducted is an important step in moving forward. To address this concern, the present study provides a review of the current “state of the art” in multiple homicide research. Although academic articles exploring this phenomenon have steadily increased, the statistical and methodological sophistication of these studies is sorely lacking. Furthermore, researchers investigating this phenomenon rarely publish multiple articles in the area and these are generally spread through many different journals and fields. Suggestions for future research and recommendations to streamline the efforts in this field are provided based on the study results.