Balafoutas, L., García-Gallego, A., Georgantzis, N., Jaber-Lopez, T., & Mitrokostas, E. (2020). Rehabilitation and social behavior: Experiments in prison. Games and Economic Behavior, 119, 148–171. Web.
In this article, the authors sought to examine the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs and their impact on the social behavior of inmates. Consequently, they conducted several experiments involving 117 inmates from three prisons in Spain. They tested the impact of vocational training, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and a combination of the two. They also performed tested a control group where there was no intervention. After analysis of the results, they found that rehabilitation programs had a positive impact on the social behavior of inmates.
Specifically, the inmates in rehabilitation programs were more inclined to cooperate with others and make fair decisions in economic games. The combination of the two had an even greater impact on inmate social behavior. One limitation of this study is that it involved inmates from Spanish prisons only. Therefore, its findings may not be generalizable without a wider study that incorporates inmates from other countries confirming the findings.
Burton, A. L., Cullen, F. T., Burton, V. S., Graham, A., Butler, L. C., & Thielo, A. J. (2020). Belief in redeemability and punitive public opinion: “Once a criminal, always a criminal” revisited. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 47(6), 712–732. Web.
In this article, the authors explored how members of the public perceive the redeemability of criminals and how such attitudes affect attitudes toward punishment. They also examine whether factors such as race, age, and education may impact these attitudes. Consequently, they surveyed 1,000 US residents with questions on the redeemability of criminals and their views towards harsh punishments. After analyzing the collected data, they found that the majority of participants believed criminals could be rehabilitated.
However, a significant minority held the view that “once a criminal, always a criminal.” The minority view was associated with support for harsh punishment even when the age of the criminal and the severity of the crime were considered. They conclude that rehabilitation programs can only be a success if the public is convinced that criminals can change. One limitation of this study is that the survey data was self-reported which may not reflect the true attitudes of the respondents.