Contentious Area
It has been difficult to illustrate a clear link between psychological interventions that successfully reduce the incidence of offending and those that do not and clearly nothing has led to the elimination of crime. At times this has contributed to a profound pessimism about the effectiveness of any treatment. This was particularly so in the United states of America but the influence spread to the United Kingdom and arguably adversely affected the provision of rehabilitative treatments. The development of cognitive behavioural therapy which made it possible to demonstrate an effect upon some attitudes and offending behaviours and for this to be measured in controlled research studies led to the introduction of structured treatment programmes in prisons across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and more recently, mainland Europe. For a period there have been positive benefits in the provision of resources particularly in prison settings. However there has been serious conflict as professionals compete for limited resources and one model claimed superiority over another.
It has remained difficult to establish with great certainty which methods, if any, are effective over a significant period of time. However psychodynamic forensic psychotherapy has been shown to have some effect as have Therapeutic Communities
Read more about this topic: Forensic Psychotherapy
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