ABSTRACT
Offender treatment programmes are generally education-based, and designed to eliminate problematic attitudes and behaviours, or to teach skills to reduce offenders' risk of reoffending. This chapter describes various forms of treatment resistance and their likely sources, with particular focus on resistance to treatment among offender populations. It explores potential links between treatment resistance, acceptance of responsibility, and treatment outcomes. The emphasis on responsibility has also derived from the concern of victim advocates that offenders' failure to take responsibility for their misconduct allows them to generate inaccurate information about their motives or actions that can be harmful to the victim. If responsibility is considered a stand-alone goal of accepting blame, then there will be an over-reliance on confrontational tactics and an increased likelihood of an adversarial environment. The chapter concludes with recommendations for re-thinking the typical approach to resistance and denial in offenders, and recommends a focus on these issues as clinically rich targets for facilitating change.
