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Present Status of Research Aimed at Statistical Evaluation of Treatment Programs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

M.-E. Wolfgang
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Extract

Wide recognition of the need for evaluative research in criminology is only about ten or fifteen years old, and it is therefore not surprising that little of this kind of research has been performed to date. There is usually a lag between announced awareness of a social need, bureaucratic budgeting to work on the need, and action to fulfill it. Moreover, the field of corrections has not had a prominent history of research, although every country has had long experience with the treatment of offenders, if “treatment” is interpreted in its broadest sense of societal reaction to crime and the captive criminals. In its more narrow meaning, treatment may be said to refer to the methods of control and reconditioning that today embrace sociological, psychological and allied disciplinary tools to train the minds of men to adjust to the prescriptions and proscriptions of the society in which they live. In this latter and more restrictive sense, correctional systems have had less experience: and it has been experience limited by money, time, and creative thinking.

Information

Type
III. — Rapports Généraux General Reports: Troisième Section — Third Section: Recherche Scientifique; Scientific Research
Information
International Annals of Criminology , Volume 8 , Issue 2: Le Traitement des Delinquants , 1969 , pp. 409 - 436
Copyright
Copyright © 1969 International Society for Criminology

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References

(1) McCorkle (Lloyd W.), Elias (Albert), Bixby (F. Lovell), The Highfield Story, New York, N.Y., Henry Holt & Co., 1958; also Ashley Weeks (H.), Youthful Offenders at Highfields, Ann Arbor, Michigan, The University of Michigan Press, 1958.

(2) Empey (Lamar T.) and Rabow (Jerome), «The Provo Experiment in Delinquent rehabilitation», American Sociological Review (October 1961), 26, 679-695.

(3) See the many mimeographed Reports of the California Youth Authority, Sacramento, California, on some of the most active evaluative statistical research in the United States. Specific references appear in the Appendices to this report.

(4) Glueck (Sheldon) and Eleanor, 500 Criminal Careers, New York, Alfred Knopf, 1930; Later Criminal Careers, New York, The Commonwealth Fund, 1937; Criminal Careers in Retrospect, New York, The Commonwealth Fund, 1943.

(5) Glaser (Daniel), The Effectiveness of a Prison and Parole System, Indianapolis, Indiana; The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1964.

(6) Rusche (Georg) and Kirchheimer (Otto), Punishment and Social Structure, New York, Columbia University Press, 1939.

(7) Rose (Gordon), The Struggle for Penal Reform, London, England, Stevens and Sons, Limited, 1961.

(8) Goring (Charles), The English Convict, London, His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1913.

(9) Ohlin (Lloyd), Selection for Parole, New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 1951.

(10) Mannheim (Hermann) and Wilkins (Leslie), Prediction Methods in Relation to Borstal Training, London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1955.

(11) See the several California Youth Authority Reports. Special attention might be drawn to Carl F. Jesness, The Jesness Inventory: Development and Validation, Research Report N° 29, mimeographed, Sacramento, Calif: Youth Authority, 1962; and to Cal F. Jesness Redevelopment and Revalidation of the Jesness Inventory, Research Report N° 35, mimeographed, Sacramento, Calif: Youth Authority, 1963.

(12) Schnur (Alfred C.), «Some Reflections on the Roles of Correctional Research», Crime and Correction, Law and Contemporary Problems, Autumn, 1958, p. 776.

(13) Butler (R. A.), Penal Reform and Research, Eleanor Rathbone Memorial Lecture, Liverpool University Press, 1960.

(14) Ibid., p. 1.

(15) Ibid., p. 3.

(16) Edwards (J. Ll. J.), « Canadian Teaching and Research in Criminology », University of Toronto Law Journal (1960), 13: 229.

(17) Schnur, op. cit., p. 778.

(18) Beeley (Arthur L.), «The Prison as a Laboratory for the Study of the Offender», American Journal of Correction (July-August 1960), 22: 22.

(19) Butler, op. cit., p. 4.

(20) Schnur, op. cit., p. 772.

(21) Ibid., p. 777.

(22) Butler, op. cit., p. 3.

(23) Sykes (Gresham), Society of Captives, Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1950, p. 41.

(24) Cressey (Donald R.), «Contradictory Directives in Complex Organization: The Case of the Prison», Administrative Science Quarterly (June 1959), 4: 1-19.

(25) Schrag (Clarence), «Some Foundations for a Theory of Correction», in Donald R. Cressey (ed.), The Prison, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961, p. 309.

(26) Wilkins (Leslie T.), «The Divide-Action and Research», The Prison Journal (1963), 43: 12-13. See also his Social Deviance, London: Tavistock, Inc., 1964.

(27) Simmel (Georg), «The Stranger», in The Sociology of Georg Simmel, translated and edited by Kurt H. Wolff, Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press (1950), p. 402-408.

(28) Berger (Peter L.), Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective, Garden City, N. Y.: Anchor Book of Doubleday and Co., Inc. (1963).

(29) Tumin (Melvin), «The Functionalist Approach to Social Problems», Social Problems (1965), 12: 379-388.

(30) Ibid., p. 387.

(31) Report of a Committee Appointed to Inquire into the Principles and Procedures Followed in the Remission Service of the Department of Justice of Canada, Ottawa: Queen's Printer (1956) (Known as the Fauteux Report), p. 85, cited by Edwards, op. cit., p. 227. See also various references to the establishment of institutes and the need for integrating criminological contributions in The University Teaching of Social Sciences, Criminology, Unesco (1957).

(32) Korn (Richard H.) and McCorkle (Lloyd W.), Criminology and Penology, New York: Henry Holt and Co., Inc. (1959), op. cit., p. 596.

(33) Mannheim and Wilkins, op. cit., p. 60.

(34) Ibid., p. 61.

(35) Butler, op. cit., p. 4.

(36) Penal Practice in a Changing Society, Her Majesty's Stationery Office (1959), p. 5; quoted also by Edwards, op. cit., p. 230.

(37) This question is raised in considerable détail in Wolfgang (Marvin-E.), «Age, Adjustment and the Treatment Process», Psychiatry Digest (July 1964), 25:21-35; (August 1964), 25: 23-36.

(38) Adapted from Churchman (C. West) and Ratoosh (Philburn), Measurement: Definitions and Theories, New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. (1959), p. 3-4.

(39) Ferracuti (Franco), Fontanesi (Mario) and Wolfgang (Marvin E.), « The Diagnostic and Classification Center at Rebibbia, Rome», Federal Probation (Sept. 1963), 27: 31-35.

(40) For a good review of institutional efforts to provide a therapeutic milieu, or «milieu management», see Gibbons (Don C.), Changing the Lawbreaker, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall (1965).

(41) McCafferty (James A.), «Prisoner Statistics-National and State», Paper presented at the Statistics of Crime and Corrections Section, Annual Meeting, American Statistical Association, Palo Alto, Calif (August 23, 1960). See also, Johnson (Elmer H.), « Latent Functions of an Administrative Statistical System in Corrections », paper read at The American Congress of Corrections, Denver, Colorado (August 30, 1960), cited by McCafferty, op. cit.

(42) Alexander (Myrl E.), «Correction at the Crossroads», Crime and Delinquency (October 1960), 6: 348.

(43) Manual of Correctional Standards-1959, New York, N. Y.: The American Correctional Association (1959), p. 585.

(44) Ibid., p. 586.

(45) Glueck (Sheldon), «Manual of Correctional Standards-1959 (A Book Review) », American Journal of Correction (July-August 1960), 22: 28.

(46) Butler, op. cit., p. 2.

(47) Schnur, op. cit., p. 776.

(48) Butler, op. cit., p. 13.

(49) Mannheim and Wilkins, op. cit., p. 60.

(50) Korn and McCorkle, op. cit., p. 596.

(51) Wilson (E. B.), «A Symposium on Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency», The Harvard Law Review (1951), 64: 1041.

(52) Schnur, op. cit., p. 776.

(53) See for example, Luce (R. Duncan), Bush (Robert R.) and Galanter (Eugene) (eds.), Handbook of Mathematical Psychology, vol. I, New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. (1963).

(54) See, for example, Anderson (T. W.), «Probability Models for Analyzing Time Changes in Attitudes», in Lazarsfeld (Paul F.) (ed.), Mathematical Thinking in the Social Sciences, Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press (1954), p. 17-66; also, Coleman (James S.), Introduction to Mathematical Sociology, New York and London: The Free Press of Glencoe (1964).