2019/04/22 by Nina Papalia, Benjamin Spivak, Michael Daffern +1 · 125 citations
Medicine · Psychology · #Child Abuse and Trauma #Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development #Clinical psychology #Forensic psychiatry #Forensic science #Medicine #Mental health #Psychiatry #Psychology #Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending #Psychotherapist
paper · doi:10.1111/cpsp.12282
published in Clinical Psychology Science and Practice 26(2) (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2019/04/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
This meta-analysis examined whether psychological treatments with adult violent offenders in correctional and forensic mental health settings are effective in preventing community recidivism and institutional (hospital/prison) misconduct. A total of 27 controlled studies containing 7,062 violent offenders were obtained via a comprehensive search strategy that yielded more than 13,000 records. Overall, treatments with violent offenders significantly reduced violent and general/nonviolent recidivism. The average effect for violent and general/nonviolent institutional misconduct did not attain statistical significance. Moderator analyses indicated numerous trends; however, most effects were nonsignificant following alpha-level corrections. Findings regarding the impact of psychological treatments are promising and suggest that multimodal treatments are associated with the strongest treatment effects. However, the extant evidence base is limited by a small number of well-controlled outcome studies and inconsistent/incomplete reporting of the evaluations. More high-quality research is needed to investigate the effectiveness of violent offender treatment on outcomes and mechanisms of action, and to determine which treatment components are effective, in what combination, and for which offenders.