ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the application of treatment models to justice-involved individuals in forensic settings. There have been significant advancements in forensic psychology, both theoretically and in the application of intervention to justice-involved clients. Initial analysis in 1960s mistook structural or settings based responses to criminal behavior, or what Andrews and Bonta describe as "criminal penalty" as treatment. Considerable research has culminated in a robust model of offender risk assessment and treatment that delineates the factors that contribute to crime and how best to intervene with them so as to reduce future offending. Developed in Canada, and used widely around the world, the model is known by its core principles as the Risk–Need–Responsivity (RNR) model of offender rehabilitation. There is increasing recognition that traditional correctional treatments must respond to mental illness both in prisons and hospitals. Importantly, this does not mean that RNR model does not work; it probably more accurately reflects our failure to use it to its fullest potential.
