Citation

Serin RC, Gobeil R, Preston DL. Int. J. Offender Ther. Comp. Criminol. 2009; 53(1): 57-73.

Affiliation

Carleton University, Department of Psychology, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. ralph_serin@carleton.ca

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0306624X07313985

PMID

18281440

Abstract

The treatment of violent offenders has evolved in recent years, shifting from interventions focused on anger management to those incorporating social information processing skills. The present study was a multimethod evaluation of one such program, the Persistently Violent Offender program. A total of 256 Canadian male violent offenders participated in the study; 70 Persistently Violent Offender program completers were compared to two control groups (n(1) = 33, n(2) = 105) who completed an alternate program and to 48 offenders who failed to complete either program. Results demonstrate few differences among groups in terms of changes on measures of treatment targets, involvement in institutional misconducts, and postrelease returns to custody, thus demonstrating that the Persistently Violent Offender program was superior to neither the alternate program nor program noncompletion. These results are discussed in light of the findings from two more promising recent evaluations of similar programs.

Language: en