Is treatment non-completion associated with increased reconviction over no treatment?

• Published in: Psychology, crime & law crime & law, 2007-08, Vol.13 (4), p.333-343
• Main Authors: McMurran, Mary, Theodosi, Eleni
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Crime; drop-out; Law; non-completion; Offender; Offenders; Prevention; programmes; Psychology; treatment
• ISSN: 1068-316X; 1477-2744
• DOI: 10.1080/10683160601060374

There is accruing evidence that offenders who do not complete treatment are at greater risk of recidivism than those who do complete treatment. Profiles of non-completers show them to be high risk of reoffending compared with completers, and differences in reconviction may be explained by these baseline levels. What is unclear is whether non-completion actually increases the risk of reoffending over no treatment at all. The purpose of this review was to examine the recidivism of non-completers compared with untreated offenders of comparable risk. A systematic search of the literature relating to cognitive-behavioural interventions revealed 16 relevant studies describing 17 samples. The mean effect size (d=−0.16) of differences in reoffending between untreated offenders and treatment non-completers suggests that failing to complete treatment is associated with elevated levels of reoffending, with this effect being more pronounced in community samples (d=−0.23) than institutional samples (d=−0.15). Methodological limitations include poor risk comparability between samples and heterogeneity of non-completers, nevertheless it is possible that treatment non-completion may make some offenders more likely to reoffend.