NCJ Number
209460
Journal
Criminology Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2005 Pages: 1-42
Date Published
February 2005
Length
42 pages
Annotation
This 2004 presidential address to the American Society of Criminology explores the transformation from the professional rhetoric of “nothing works” to rehabilitate criminal offenders to the current reaffirmation of rehabilitation.
Abstract
Three decades ago, criminologists, policymakers, and criminal justice professionals widely decried the failure of rehabilitative efforts to reduce recidivism among criminal offenders. This “nothing works” attitude permeated the field and ideology of criminal justice and a period of punitive justice grounded in the desire for retribution was ushered in. The author describes how the efforts of a small and loosely bound group of criminological researchers proved through empirical research that treatment programs grounded within solid criminological research could indeed reduce recidivism among criminal offenders. The author reviews the specific contribution of each researcher considered. This group of researchers agreed that the popular punitive interventions were ineffective at rehabilitating offenders and pointed out that rehabilitation programs based on scientific evidence could make a difference in terms of altering criminal behavior patterns. Thus the importance of criminological research in making valuable contributions to the correctional industry and beyond has been solidly illustrated. Footnotes, references