A Meta-Analysis of Moral Reconation Therapy

Abstract

This study reports on a meta-analysis of moral reconation therapy (MRT). Recipients of MRT included adult and juvenile offenders who were in custody or in the community, typically on parole or probation. The study considered criminal offending subsequent to treatment as the outcome variable. The overall effect size measured by the correlation across 33 studies and 30,259 offenders was significant (r = .16), indicating that MRT had a small but important effect on recidivism. Moderator analyses were conducted to detect the possible factors affecting the relationship between MRT and recidivism. Moderators included setting, age, gender, research design, sample size, type of recidivism, follow-up period, publisher, and year of publication. Moderator analysis demonstrated that MRT was more successful with adult than juvenile offenders in institutional settings as opposed to the community, and where researchers in the primary studies used randomization to allocate participants to either a treatment or control condition. The treatment effect size was greater when the type of recidivism used was rearrest rather than rearrest followed by conviction or reincarceration. The benefits of MRT were strongest with a relatively short follow-up period. MRT was more successful for relatively small samples and for large samples rather than medium-sized samples. The effect size was smaller for studies published by the owners of MRT than by other independent studies. The effect size was also smaller for studies published after 1999.

Diminishing or durable treatment effects of STARR? A research note on 24-month re-arrest rates

“…Treatment decay is a common occurrence, even amongst the most effective and proven curricula/interventions (Martin et al 2011, see also Ferguson and Wormith 2012), although the reasons for treatment effect decay are not Journal of Crime and Justice 279 completely understood. One possibility is the quality of the STARR intervention over the subsequent time period.…”

Mental health of prisoners: prevalence, adverse outcomes, and interventions

“…A meta-analysis of prison-based TCs suggests that participation increases treatment success, with those TCs followed by aftercare in the community most effective at reducing relapse and re-incarceration 57. A meta-analysis of Moral Reconation Therapy, which focuses on moral reasoning and originally a component of TC, generally supported success in reducing recidivism 58…”

Treatments for Recidivism Risk Among Justice-Involved Veterans

“…MRT participants reduce their recidivism by one third compared to those who did not receive MRT (Ferguson & Wormith, 2012). Positive effects for MRT were found in both institutional and community settings, but were larger in institutions.…”

“…Meta-analyses have demonstrated consistent positive effects for MRT in terms of reduced recidivism (Aos et al, 2006;Ferguson & Wormith, 2012;Little, 2005). MRT participants reduce their recidivism by one third compared to those who did not receive MRT (Ferguson & Wormith, 2012).…”