A meta‐analytic review of the efficacy of psychological treatments for violent offenders in correctional and forensic mental health settings

This meta-analysis examined whether psychological treatments with adult violent offenders in correctional and forensic mental health settings are effective in preventing community recidivism and institutional (hospital/prison) misconduct. A total of 27 controlled studies containing 7,062 violent offenders were obtained via a comprehensive search strategy that yielded more than 13,000 records. Overall, treatments with violent offenders significantly reduced violent and general/nonviolent recidivism. The average effect for violent and general/nonviolent institutional misconduct did not attain statistical significance. Moderator analyses indicated numerous trends; however, most effects were nonsignificant following alpha-level corrections. Findings regarding the impact of psychological treatments are promising and suggest that multimodal treatments are associated with the strongest treatment effects. However, the extant evidence base is limited by a small number of well-controlled outcome studies and inconsistent/incomplete reporting of the evaluations. More high-quality research is needed to investigate the effectiveness of violent offender treatment on outcomes and mechanisms of action, and to determine which treatment components are effective, in what combination, and for which offenders.