Psychologists believe one way to stop the cycle of committing offences is to break down the faulty thinking patterns which they believe underlie criminal behaviour. If the pattern is broken progress can be made towards a non-criminal lifestyle CBT - cognitive behavioural therapy, this has shown most success in treating USA prisoners.
Aim; To find out if cognitive skills programmes were effective in terms of lower re-offending rates for a sample of women prisoners.
Sample & Procedure; 180 offenders who had started enhanced thinking skills (ETS) or reasoning and rehabilitation (R&R). between '96 - 2000. 14 non-completers against a control group of 540 ofeenders who did not take part. REVIEW. 2 year re-conviction rates were calculated for all women who were matched through high, medium, low risk of re-conviction. actual re-conviction rates done for 1/2 years after release each ETS/R&R was examined for effectiveness.
Results; no significant differences between the 2 groups on actual re-conviction. R&R group fared worse.
Conclusion; mixed picture of effectiveness of treatment programmes are better for women.
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