By David Riley, Director of Corrections’ Psychological Services
Correctional practice has been totally transformed over the last two decades. We now know that punishment alone is a most ineffective (and expensive) way to attempt to control behaviour, the threat of it does not act as a significant deterrent.
Along with these realisations, there has developed an increasing awareness as to how offending and offenders may be better managed, these more modern approaches resting on a vast body of knowledge which began accumulating in the last decades of the 20th Century.
Arguably, one of the most important major texts which heralded the move of correctional practice out of the dark ages of "nothing works" into the more enlightened modern era and which has continued to draw together the increasingly detailed body of knowledge relevant to criminal justice, is The Psychology of Criminal Conduct by Don Andrews and James Bonta.
When this text first appeared in th early 1900s it provided a firm cornerstone on which correctional practice in North America, Europe and Australasia has been built. As the authors themselves comment in the Preface to the 4th Edition: "In applied terms, prevention and corrections have moved from 'nothing works' to 'making what works work'".
The new and expanded version of The Psychology of Criminal Conduct has undergone some significant changes, including the placing of technical notes at the end of chapters which summarise discussions of intellectual and discipline-based criticisms, and the reorganising of some of the material which potentially will make this volume more accessible to a wider audience than previously.
As alwaysThe Psychology of Criminal Conduct rests firmly on empiricism, and this new edition summarises the considerable body of work which has occured since the third Edition was published, and in my view now stands as the most authoritative, up-to-date, and complete source book currently available for those involved in the criminal justice system. It will be widely read by practitioners and academics, but also has considerable relevance to the wider public who have a concern that the corrections system is being guided by internationally established best practice.
¹ Andrews D.A. and Bonta J. (2006) The Psychology of Criminal Conduct, Cincinati Q H, Anderson Publishing.
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ISSN 1178-8453