INCREASING CONSENSUS IN THE EVALUATION OF OFFENDER REHABILITATION - LESSONS FROM RECENT RESEARCH SYNTHESES

Recent years have seen a revivification of correctional treatment. Met a-analysis has played an important role in this trend. However, the di scussion on these results has been just as controversial as the review s on the ''nothing works'' debate 20 years ago. This controversy is du e to a mixing up of facts and values. The present paper should contrib ute to the consensus on facts. First, it reports on an update of a met a-analysis on the treatment of adult offenders in German social-therap eutic prisons. This is followed by an overview of North American meta- analyses that have concentrated mostly on programs with juveniles. The outcomes show fairly consistent but low overall effects. Most meta-an alyses also tend to agree on differential effects (e.g., modes of trea tment, design characteristics, settings). Nonetheless, there are still major deficits in evaluation research. Finally, future perspectives o f the revived discussion on offender rehabilitation are discussed.