Can Completers, Non-Completers, and Non-Starters of Community-Based Offending Behavior Programs be Differentiated by Internal Treatment Readiness Factors?

Abstract

This research aimed to determine whether completers, non-completers, and non-starters of community-based offending behavior programs could be differentiated by their levels of internal "treatment readiness." The Corrections Victoria Treatment Readiness Questionnaire (CVTRQ) measures offenders' Attitudes and Motivation, Emotional Reactions, Offending Beliefs, and Efficacy which, according to the Multifactor Offender Readiness Model (MORM), are internal dimensions of an offender's readiness to engage with treatment. Participants were offenders who had been court-mandated to attend a community-based cognitive skills offending behavior program. There were no significant differences between groups in respect of the CVTRQ total score. After controlling for risk of reconviction, however, the Self Efficacy construct differentiated program non-starters from program completers, while the Emotional Reactions construct differentiated program non-completers from program completers. In conclusion, the CVTRQ failed to differentiate program completion groups with the same success as elsewhere.