Evaluating Interventions with Violent Offenders: A Guide for Practitioners and Policy Makers.

Source: (2004) In Peter C. Kratcoski, ed., Correctional Counseling and Treatment, 5th ed. Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. Pp. 30-48.

While “get toughâ€? policies toward violent offenders seem attractive and effective to many people, the realities are that most violent offenders serve sentences in community settings or, if incarcerated, return to their communities at the end of their sentences. The question, then, is what can be done to change violent tendencies and behaviors. According to the authors of this paper, a “knowledge gapâ€? exists with respect to answering this question. Little is known as to what prevention and treatment programs might be effective with violent offenders. In view of this, the authors examine the interrelationship between program design and program evaluations. They look at various program issues that hinder sound evaluations of correctional interventions, and they offer a number of suggestions about program directions and evaluations that promise better evaluation results.