Twenty-five years into the correctional rehabilitation revolution: Keeping the science and art of psychology relevant
The last 30 years has seen the rapid adoption of empirically-based correctional psychology principles and practices across many jurisdictions, especially with reference to rehabilitation. Much of this change was driven by the work of a small group of Canadian psychologists, who undertook the initial research that now underpins much of our correctional rehabilitation: including “what works” meta-analyses, and the Risk-NeedResponsivity model of rehabilitation. But more recently, this rehabilitation-focused correctional psychology has become something of a victim of its own success: often badly implemented, and misunderstood even by psychologists. Perhaps it is simply “too old” to be thought of as interesting or useful in a world prone to the allure of “shiny new things”. And this same success has increasingly led to role confusion and ethical dilemmas for psychologists, to overclaiming about “what we know”, and to external challenges to the ongoing relevance of psychology to corrections. In this address, I consider where we are now, both in New Zealand and internationally, and outline some of the most pressing issues for the future development and application of both the science and the art of correctional psychology.
Devon Polaschek is a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology in the School of Psychology and the New Zealand Institute of Security and Crime Science, at Te Whare Wananga ō Waikato (The University of Waikato). Her current research interests include theory, intervention, and intervention evaluation with serious violent and sexual offenders, family violence, psychopathy, desistance, reintegration and parole. She is the author of more than 110 journal articles, book chapters and government reports, and a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. Her research has been supported by a decade of funding from the Department of Corrections, in order to develop a better understanding of high-risk violent male prisoners: their characteristics, and what works to reduce their risk of future offending. She is currently co-editing the Handbook of Correctional Psychology for Wiley.
