Rehabilitation affirmed, rejected, and reaffirmed: Assessments of the effectiveness of offender treatment programs in criminology textbooks, 1956 to 1965 and 1983 to 1992

Abstract

I examine the coverage of the debate about the effectiveness of offender treatment programs in 53 introductory criminology textbooks: 15 published from 1956 to 1965 and 38 published from 1983 to 1992. My data show that despite continuing skepticism in criminological research about the effectiveness of rehabilitation, most of the older texts and the most recent texts (those published from 1988 to 1992) rate treatment as effective when they take a position on the issue. My study also shows that criminology textbooks often give inadequate coverage to some of the key concepts, such as outcome measures and metaevaluation studies, in the debate about the effectiveness of rehabilitation. I conclude by discussing the implications of my findings for criminology students.