NCJ Number
225926
Date Published
2008
Length
35 pages
Annotation
In this chapter, the author argues that an understanding of the model for planned behavioral change is critical to what program designers and treatment staff must learn in order to change permanently the behavioral repertoires of female offenders.
Abstract
It is concluded that if the United States does not take the time to examine the record of over 200 years of past practices and what mistakes were actually made, rather than merely relying on misleading reports to determine what was learned over time, than the United States is likely to repeat the same mistakes again. The cost of not learning from the mistakes made in the past is not only high in terms of dollars, but it is high in terms of wasted human potential. Alternatively, by using the knowledge provided by the planned behavioral change model, program designers will have the requisite foundational details to create more effective programs for female offenders and program evaluators will have a more appropriate way of measuring success. In this chapter, a discussion of the issues and broad details of how contextual social forces induce criminality is presented. It is argued that mastering the details of how to induce transformations in the behavioral inventory of offenders is still central to what many criminologists and treatment providers must learn. The chapter begins with an overview of the context and past policies. It provides a useful perspective from which to view current practices to rehabilitate female offenders. Next, the origins of the long-standing argument “lock them up” versus rehabilitation are reviewed, with a presentation of the model of planned behavioral change. The chapter concludes that this model is essential and lacking in current designs of rehabilitative programs for female offenders. Figures and references