Editorial: Behavior analysis's forgotten promise.

Abstract

In the 1960s and 1970s, behavior analysis strongly influenced the criminal justice field (Cautilli & Weinberg, 2007). The importance of behavior analysis was evidenced by numerous promising applications of operant conditioning with offenders and at-risk youth. Unfortunately, the following decades accompanied a decline in the application of behavior analysis with offender populations. The Journal of Behavior Analysis of Offender and Victim Treatment and Prevention aims to rectify the current situation by disseminating innovative research and applications of behavior analysis to minimize and prevent criminal behavior.A closer look at the history of behavior therapy reveals the importance of behavioral approaches with offender populations. A recent meta -analysis of studies found that behavior therapy interventions produced the largest effect size over other treatments, except for cognitive -behavioral treatments 1 , in reducing recidivism (Redondo-Illescas, Sánchez-Meca, & Garrido-Genovés, 2001). With special populations, behavior analysis has also produced some interesting and promising results. For example, behavioral interventions with sex offenders led to the reduction of deviant arousal (Marshall, Jones,