Chronic Offenders Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Chronic Offenders - Assignment Example A group of North American researchers, including Don Andrews, Paul Gendreau, Robert Ross and Ted Palmer were reanalyzing data in 1975, same time as Martinson was announcing that only a few things had effect on recidivism, and found out that many things worked in contrast to the report that Martinson was basis his theory on. The re-analysis of the facts proved that the ‘Nothing works doctrine’ was wrong, a claim which was further boosted by Martinson’s proclamation of the same in his paper in 1979, acknowledging the errors in the earlier reviews. Since then, a number of meta-analytical study results verify the efficacy of some of the correctional approaches to chronic offenders. Instances include review of twelve meta-analyses on correctional treatment by Losel, which estimated the effects sizes of these treatment ranges between r=+.05 and r=+.36, with a mean of r=+.10 in all the cases analyzed. McGuire followed suite in 2000 with analysis of six other meta-analyses, obtaining a reduction rate on recidivism of between 5% and 10%. His conclusion was that some methods of correction were more effective and consistent than other, but rehabilitation definitely worked on chronic offenders. Punishment-oriented correctional measures are not effective. Personally, I perceive these punishments as crime cultivators; enhancing the growth of what they claim to root out. The intimidation of the offenders by punishment-oriented measures does not lower the risk of these offenders engaging in crime, rather, it increases it. Recidivism increases with each punishment. These sentiments are consistent with the recent research carried out by RAND Corporation on adult inmates of state prisons in America (Franklin, Pratt & Gau, 2011). Inmates subjected to punishments had a tendency to commit more crimes than those subjected to rehabilitation measures. According to Robert Ross and Gendreau, claims of effective rehabilitation of chronic