1st Edition
The Future of Correctional Rehabilitation Moving Beyond the RNR Model and Good Lives Model Debate
In the aftermath of Martinson’s 1974 "nothing works" doctrine, scholars have made a concerted effort to develop an evidence-based corrections theory and practice to show "what works" to change offenders. Perhaps the most important contribution to this effort was made by a group of Canadian psychologists, most notably Donald Andrews, James Bonta, and Paul Gendreau, who developed a treatment paradigm called the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model, which became the dominant theory of correctional treatment. This approach was more recently challenged by a perspective developed by Tony Ward, Shadd Maruna, and others, called the Good Lives Model (GLM). Based in part on desistance research and positive psychology, this model proposes to rehabilitate offenders by building on the strengths offenders possess. GLM proponents see the RNR model as a deficit model that fixes dynamic risk factors rather than identifying what offenders value most, and using these positive factors to pull them out of crime.
Through a detailed examination of both models’ theoretical and correctional frameworks, The Future of Correctional Rehabilitation: Moving Beyond the RNR Model and Good Lives Model Debate probes the extent to which the models offer incompatible or compatible approaches to offender treatment, and suggests how to integrate the RNR and GLM approaches to build a new and hopefully more effective vision for offender treatment. A foreword by renowned criminologist Francis T. Cullen helps put the material into context. This book will be of much interest to scholars and students studying correctional rehabilitation as well as practitioners working with offenders.
CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES
FOREWORD: Francis T. Cullen
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
PART I. BEYOND NOTHING WORKS
CHAPTER 1: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE REHABILITATIVE IDEAL
The Discovery of the Rehabilitative Ideal
The Dominance of the Rehabilitative Ideal
The Decline of the Rehabilitative Ideal
Conservative and Liberal Attacks
Martinson and the Nothing Works Doctrine
Conclusion
CHAPTER 2: REAFFIRMING REHABILITATION
Narrative Reviews
Palmer’s Reanalysis
Gendreau and Ross’s Two Reviews
Meta-Analyses
Overall Effect Size
Heterogeneity in Effect Size
Two Approaches to Knowing What Works
Lipsey’s Inductive Approach
The Canadians’ Theoretical Approach
Drawing Conclusions on What Works
Conclusion
PART II. THE RISK-NEED-RESPONSIVITY MODEL
CHAPTER 3: THE THEORETICAL FOUNDATION OF THE RNR MODEL
The Psychology of Criminal Conduct (PCC)
Understanding Human Behavior: The GPCSL Perspective
Bringing in Criminology to the GPCSL Perspective
Differential Association Theory
Psychodynamic Theory
Social Bond Theory
General Strain Theory (GST)
The PIC-R Perspective: Criminality in the Immediate Situation
Basic Operations of Behavior
The Directions and Magnitude of Effects on Behavior
Other General Issues Suggested by the PIC-R
PIC-R and Offender Assessment
PIC-R and Crime Prevention
Introduction to the Risk-Need-Responsivity Principles
Beyond Mainstream Criminology
Searching for Factors That Matter in Offender Rehabilitation1
Preservice Characteristics of Offenders
Characteristics of Correctional Workers
Practice Factors
Program Factors
Setting Factors
Intermediate Outcomes
Conclusion
CHAPTER 4: THE PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE CORRECTIONAL
TREATMENT: THEORY AND TECHNOLOGY
The RNR Model of Correctional Assessment and Treatment
Principle 1: Respect for the Person and the Normative Context
Principle 2: Psychological Theory
Principle 3: General Enhancement of Crime Prevention Services
Principle 4: Introduce Human Service
Principle 5: Risk
Principle 6: Need
Principle 7: General Responsivity
Principle 8: Specific Responsivity
Principle 9: Breadth (or Multimodal)
Principle 10: Strength
Principle 11: Structured Assessment
Principle 12: Professional Discretion
Principle 13: Community-Based
Principle 14: Core Correctional Staff Practice
Principle 15: Management
RNR-Based Technology of Treatment
RNR-Based Assessment Tools to Predict Criminal Behavior and Classify Offenders
The Importance of Assessment
The Level of Service-Revised (LSI-R)
RNR-Based Assessment Tools to Predict the Quality of Correctional Programs
The Development of Assessment Tools
The Ideal Capacity of Correctional Programs
The Ideal Content of Correctional Program
Conclusion
PART III. THE GOOD LIVES MODEL
CHAPTER 5: THE THEORETICAL FOUNDATION OF THE GOOD
LIVES MODEL
Beyond Deficits: Building on the Positive
Humanistic Psychology
Positive Psychology
Strength-Based Approach
The General Assumptions of the Good Lives Model
Assumption 1: As human beings, "offenders share the same inclinations and
basic needs as other people and are naturally predisposed to seek certain
goals, or primary human goods"
Assumption 2: "rehabilitation is a value-laden process and involves a variety of
different types of value."
Assumption 3: correctional interventions that address both goods promotion and
risk reduction will produce better outcomes than intervention that neglect either
of these aims
Assumption 4: the process of rehabilitation requires a construction of adaptive
narrative (or personal) identity
Assumption 5: "Human beings are multifaceted beings comprised of a variety of interconnected biological, social, cultural and psychological systems, and are interdependent to a significant degree"
Assumption 6: Risk is a multifaceted and contextualized concept
Assumption 7: "A treatment plan should be explicitly constructed in a form…[that]
take into account individuals’ strengths, primary goods and relevant environments,
and specify exactly what competencies and resources are required to achieve these goods"
Assumption 8: Rehabilitative efforts that secure the offenders’ human dignity are protected and promoted by offenders’ human rights
The Etiological Assumptions of the Good Lives Model
Etiological Assumption 1: "individuals seek a number of primary goods in their offending"
Etiological Assumption 2: criminogenic needs are "internal or external obstacles that frustrate and block the acquisition of primary human goods"
Etiological Assumption 3: "there are different routes to offending, direct and
indirect"
Conclusion
CHAPTER 6: BUILDING GOOD LIVES THROUGH CORRECTIONAL
INTERVENTION
Domain 1: Program Aims and Orientation
Principle 1: "The aims of the treatment program include both risk reduction and well-being enhancement"
Domain 2: Offender Assessment
Principle 2: Treatment programs should assess the offender’s level of risk, therapeutic needs (i.e., treatment targets), and responsivity factors
Principle 3: GLM-informed assessment should identify offender’s heavily weighted primary goods
Principle 4: Correctional interventions should assess the full aspects of primary
Goods
Domain 3: Intervention Planning
Principle 5: Correctional interventions should construct individualized
intervention plans
Domain 4: Intervention Content
Principle 6: All program components/modules/assignments should "attend to goods promotion alongside risk reduction." The end product of the therapeutic process should be a future-oriented Good Lives Plan
Principle 7: Program content should "attend to the full range of primary goods"
Principle 8: Programs should promote offenders’ "social capital through attending to [their] social ecology"
Domain 5: Program Delivery
Principle 9: Therapists should "approach clients in a manner that acknowledges their status as fellow human beings, of equal intrinsic value"
Principle 10: Therapists should deliver programs with a "collaborative and transparent approach to assessment, intervention planning, and intervention
content"
Principle 11: The "intensity, content, and process of intervention [should be] individually tailored"
The Empirical Status of the GLM
Evaluations Without Any Comparison Group
Evaluations With a Comparison Group
Conclusion
PART IV. THE FUTURE OF REHABILITATION
CHAPTER 7: THE RNR-GLM DABATE
The Chronicle of the RNR-GLM Debate
The Incremental Value of the GLM’s Theoretical Framework
Controversial Issue 1: The Role of Offender Motivation in Rehabilitation
Controversial Issue 2: The Role of Values in Offender Rehabilitation
Controversial Issue 3: The Role of Needs in Offender Rehabilitation
Controversial Issue 4: The Role of Risk in Offender Rehabilitation
Controversial Issue 5: The Role of Contextual Factors in Offender Rehabilitation
Controversial Issue 6: The Role of Personality in Offender Rehabilitation
Controversial Issue 7: The Role of Human Agency in Offender Rehabilitation
The Correctional Framework of the RNR-GLM Debate
The Psychological Theories within the RNR-GLM Debate
Domain 1: The RNR-GLM Debate and the RNR’s Core Principles
The Provision of Human Service within the RNR-GLM Debate
The Adherence to the Risk Principle within the RNR-GLM Debate
The Adherence to the Need Principle within the RNR-GLM Debate
The Adherence to the General Responsivity Principle within the RNR-GLM
Debate
The Specific Responsivity Principle within the RNR-GLM Debate
Domain 2: The RNR-GLM Debate and the RNR’s Key Clinical Issue
The Breadth Principle within the RNR-GLM Debate
The Strength Principle within the RNR-GLM Debate
The Structured Assessment Principle within the RNR-GLM Debate
The Professional Discretion Principle within the RNR-GLM Debate
Domain 3: The RNR-GLM Debate and the RNR’s Organizational Principles
The Community-Based Principle within the RNR-GLM Debate
The Core Correctional Staff Practice within the RNR-GLM Debate
The Management Principle within the RNR-GLM Debate
Conclusion
CHAPTER 8: BEYOND THE RNR-GLM DEBATE: TWO FUTURES FOR OFFENDER REHABILITATION
The First Future: Independent Models
When the Theoretical Frameworks of the RNR Model and GLM Hold Opposed
View of Offender Rehabilitation
When the Correctional Frameworks of the RNR Model and GLM Hold Opposed
View of Offender Rehabilitation
The Second Future: The RNRM Integrated Model
Overarching Principles
Principle 1: Respect for the Person and the Normative Context
Principle 2: The Major Goal of Correctional Rehabilitation Is to Improve
Offenders first by Reducing Their Recidivism and, second, by Enhancing Their
Well-Being
Principle 3: Psychological Perspective and Theories
Principle 4: General Enhancement of Crime Prevention Services
Core RNRM Principles and Key Clinical Issues
Principle 5: Introduce Human Service
Principle 6: Risk
Principle 7: Need
Principle 8: General Responsivity
Principle 9: Specific Responsivity
Principle 10: Breadth (or Multimodal)
Principle 11: Offenders’ Personal Strengths
Principle 12: Structured Assessment
Principle 13: Release Process and Continuity of Care
Principle 14: Professional Discretion
Organizational Principles: Settings, Staffing, and Management
Principle 15: Community-Based
Principle 16: Core Correctional Staff Practices
Principle 17: Management
Conclusion
REFERENCES
SUBJECT INDEX
NAME INDEX
Biography
Ronen Ziv, PhD, is a research fellow of the University of Cincinnati Corrections Institute and a teaching fellow in the Department of Social Sciences, School of Criminology, at the University of Haifa, Israel. He received his MS (2012) and PhD (2016) in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati. Previously, he received his LLB (2005) and LLM (2006) in Law from Tel-Aviv University and worked as a criminal defense lawyer. His current research interests are in developing and testing the evidence-based approach to correctional rehabilitation, the integration of motivational theories in correctional intervention, and the capacity of correctional agencies to implement a promising correctional framework that aims to rehabilitate offenders.