Clinical Sociology and Correctional Counseling

Abstract

Criticisms of the efficacy of psychotherapy and the failure of criminal rehabilitation call for continued attempts to develop successful intervention modalities. During the past decade, the clinical sociology of the 1930s has been revived and may be effectively applied to correctional counseling. Since theorizing concerning criminal etiology is primarily sociological in nature, treatment paradigms should be grounded in sociological theory. Clinical sociologists may utilize cultural “vital features” such as ethnicity, stratification, age, family and sex roles, change, and everyday metaphysics in the correctional counseling relationship.