D. A. Andrews

The Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) Model Does Adding the Good Lives Model Contribute to Effective Crime Prevention?

The risk-need-responsivity (RNR) model has been widely regarded as the premier model for guiding offender assessment and treatment. The RNR model underlies some of the most widely used risk-needs offender assessment instruments, and it is the only theoretical model that has been used to interpret the offender treatment literature. Recently, the good lives model (GLM) has been promoted as an alternative and enhancement to RNR. GLM sets itself apart from RNR by its positive, strengths-based, and restorative model of rehabilitation. In addition, GLM hypothesizes that enhancing personal fulfillment will lead naturally to reductions in criminogenic needs, whereas RNR posits the reverse direction. In this article the authors respond to GLM’s criticisms of RNR and conclude that little substance is added by GLM that is not already included in RNR, although proponents of RNR may learn from the popular appeal that GLM, with its positive, strength-based focus, has garnered from clinicians over the past decade.

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.

General Risk and Need, Gender Specificity, and the Recidivism of Female Offenders

The study examined the predictive performance of social cognitive variables derived from a gender-neutral theory of criminal behavior in relation to several variables suggested as relevant by feminist perspectives. Multivariate analyses revealed that eight gender-neutral risk factors—assessed via the Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (LS/CMI)—performed very well in the prediction of the general and violent recidivism of more than 400 adult female offenders. None of the gender-specific factors, including parenting responsibility and stress, victimization history, and self-harm, had incremental validity over the gender-neutral risk and need variables. However, financial problems and a measure of personal misfortune did predict reoffending among low-risk/low-need women. The findings suggest that risk factors derived from a gender-neutral social cognitive theory of crime are relevant for adult females and that perhaps gender-specific concerns may be best viewed as specific responsivity factors.

Classification in Correctional Halfway Houses The Relative and Incremental Predictive Criterion Validities of the Megargee-MMPI and LSI Systems

There were two offender classification systems, the Megargee MMPI-based Typology and Level of Supervision Inventory (LSI), examined in order to determine their relative efficacy in identifying incarcerated offenders from a maximum-security setting for correctional halfway houses. Classifications by the two systems were compared with respect to incremental validity and predictive accuracy for (1) halfway house outcome and (2) postprogram incarceration. Analyses revealed no significant differences with respect to halfway house outcome and reincarceration between low- and high-risk offenders classified by the MMPI. Significant differences, however, were found between low- and high-risk offenders classified by the LSI system. Additional analyses revealed that only a small proportion of the variance in halfway house outcome could be accounted for by the Megargee MMPI-based system when delineating “predator” and “nonpredator” offender types.

Sources of Variability in Estimates of Predictive Validity A Specification With Level of Service General Risk and Need

Level of Service (LS) is one of the most widely used general risk and need assessment tools in criminal justice agencies across North America. However, there is significant interstudy variability in the magnitude of the validity estimates. This study was conducted to examine possible sources of this variability. The predictive validity of LS risk and need increased with length of follow-up period and with investigator allegiance to LS. The combination of these two variables reveals consistent increases in mean predictive validity estimates from modest (in the .20s) through large (in the mid .30s) to very large (in the .40s) in samples of both male and female offenders. We hypothesized that the “allegiance effect” reflects the integrity of LS implementation and support provided by the agency for risk assessment. This is akin to the difference between “demonstration projects” and “practical” rehabilitation programming in the offender treatment research. Moreover, controls for Canadian versus non-Canadian evaluations reduced the effect of allegiance and length of follow-up to nonsignificant levels. Possible explanations for these findings include the degree of integrity in conducting risk and need assessments, the accuracy of recidivism as the criterion measure, and generalizability across international boundaries.

The family relationship index: validity data

The Family Relationship Index (FRI) is a self-report measure that provides an overall index of the quality of the family environment, as well as subscores that reflect family cohesion, expressiveness, and conflict. The current study is based on 53 families who had approached a family service agency for counseling and who had completed an FRI measure prior to intake. The construct validity of the FRI scores was evaluated by comparing them to measures of family functioning provided by experienced family therapists as part of the intake process. Support for the construct validity of the composite index and two of the subscores, Family Cohesion and Family Conflict, was obtained.

Tests of three hypotheses regarding the predictors of delinquency.

Three hypotheses regarding the predictors of criminal activity in children and adolescents were assessed. These dealt with family, peer, and attitudinal variables, and they were explored in relation to indices based on seriousness of criminal activity and reoffending. The data were based on a sample of 338 youths who had been convicted of crimes and received probation or custody dispositions. The results provided general support for a model implicating family, peer, and attitudinal variables in youthful criminal activity. They did not, however, provide support for hypothesized interactions between family relationship and family structuring dimensions or between family relationship and peer association variables. The results did support an hypothesis regarding the independent contribution of an antisocial attitudes variable to the prediction of criminal activity.

Assessments of Anticriminal Plans and the Prediction of Criminal Futures A Research Note

These notes place an important limitation on the conclusions drawn by Friesen and Andrews (1982) regarding the predictive validity of a measure of the inprogram self-regulation efforts of 42 young-adult probationers. In the earlier report, assessments of self-regulation were found to be reliable (interrater r(20) = .96) and they correlated with intake socialization scores (r(42) = .38), and with reconvictions monitored from the start of probation to the end of three postprobation years (r(42) = -.38). The present note shows that the predictive validity of the self-regulation scores was only evident among high-risk cases: The correlation was -.70 with the recidivism of 19 low-socialization cases compared with -.02 among 23 high-socialization probationers. The results are discussed in relation to the risk principle of case classification.

Some Psychometrics of Judicial Decision Making Toward a Sentencing Factors Inventory

The number, variety, and complexity of factors that govern judicial discretion have made it difficult for legal practitioners, social science researchers, convicted offenders and their victims, and the general public to understand sentencing practices. The development of a standardized and quantitative summary of high-consensus aggravating and mitigating circumstances is an explicitly psychometric approach to this general problem in discretionary law. A Sentencing Factors Inventory (SFI) was scored with high levels of interrater agreement from probation files and, in a separate sample, from court observations. Systematic evaluations and extensions of the SFI approach to judicial discretion are indicated with particular attention to matters of social validity.