Intervention and rehabilitation methods with offenders—from the Jewish scriptures to the criminological field

Abstract

The ancient scriptures of world religions and spiritual traditions offer a treasure of knowledge, much of which is designed to guide the individual to a normative lifestyle through worldviews and practices that reduce antisocial behavior and promote prosocial behavior. Contemporary scholars tend to ignore that knowledge and its ability to contribute to social-scientific discourse and practice, despite the fact that most of the world’s population lives by it, at least to some extent. The present article addresses intervention and rehabilitation with offenders as part of a broader research project examining the ability of the Jewish scriptures to offer an alternative, universal criminological theory—spiritual Jewish criminology. The theory and its basic premises will be presented briefly as a theoretical foundation informing correctional rehabilitation practices, such as the repentance model, Jewish bibliotherapy, and humility as a counterbalance to criminal behavior. Although these practices are already implemented successfully in religious rehabilitation programs in Israel, further study is required in order to assess their effectiveness among other populations that are not Jewish or religious.