ABSTRACT
Successful prevention and intervention of various forms of criminal and antisocial behavior requires greater progress in understanding and elaborating the biosocial roots of effecting change. Although much has been learned about what is effective in treating offenders, relatively little is known about what processes and mechanisms are key drivers of change. While effects can be empirically measured, we don’t always know what the key ingredients are. In other words, how does a treatment like cognitive behavioral therapy or mentoring an at-risk youth get “under-the-skin”? Why not ignore this issue and just continue to test the effects of various intervention schemes? While experimental evidence regarding the “real world” effectiveness of interventions is critically important, comprehending the underlying biosocial interplay at work is important for at least two reasons. First, knowledge gained about these causal processes can enhance the specificity and efficiency of interventions and thereby reduce costs and wasting of resources. Second, intervention tests can in turn be used to inform etiologic research on causes within the context of the experimental design. Despite being pursued separately, causal and treatment research are intertwined.
