Offender Rehabilitation

Abstract

Offender rehabilitation refers to the process of working with criminal offenders while they are under the supervision of the criminal justice system to reduce their likelihood of reoffending in the future. In the United States, the notion that offenders can change their behavior and desist from crime is relatively recent. Confidence in the prospect of rehabilitation has grown alongside mounting empirical evidence identifying the circumstances under which it will produce meaningful reductions in criminal recidivism. Nevertheless, research has not always reached practice; when it has, there have been challenges in implementation. This entry provides a brief historical background of offender rehabilitation, a model for effective recidivism reduction, a description of the current state of offender rehabilitation programs, and a summary of challenges of implementing evidence‐based practices in real‐world settings. It concludes with a discussion of the steps that can be taken to advance the field.