Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy

Abstract

It is both a pleasure and a responsibility to write about cognitive-behavioural therapy. The cognitive-behavioural approach is not only the best established therapeutic modality in forensic settings, but also the most evidence-based. It is, without doubt, the treatment method of choice for treating offenders (see Craig, Dixon, and Gannon, 2013; Tafrate and Mitchell, 2014; Taxman, Shepherdson, and Byrne, 2004). And yet there is surprisingly little guidance available to therapists in relation to the specifics of cognitive-behavioural therapy when used with forensic clients, the adaptations that are needed to implement the approach in the forensic setting, or even how to assess both the quality and integrity of treatment. As Marshall and Marshall (in press) have recently argued (in relation to the treatment of sexual offenders), simply describing a treatment programme as cognitive-behavioural says only a little about what is actually being delivered.