ABSTRACT
Cognitive behavioral interventions designed to reduce criminal behavior by challenging irrational criminal thoughts and encouraging prosocial beliefs are evaluated in the first half of Chapter 11. Three generations of cognitive behavioral research indicate that cognitive behavioral therapy is the optimal approach for those working with offenders, both in and out of prison. Several intervention programs, in particular, have been found to be effective with this population: Reasoning and Rehabilitation, Moral Reconation Therapy, and Thinking for a Change. This first part of Chapter 11 is designed to illustrate the practical or treatment implications of a working paradigm in which criminal thinking assumes prominence. In the second half of this chapter, the policy implications of a working paradigm based on criminal thinking are explored. The three policy implications examined in this section are family and child empowerment, deinstitutionalization and the problem of mass incarceration, and procedural justice and institutional legitimacy as mechanisms for improving cooperation with criminal justice agencies and overall compliance with the law.
