Corrections (Sociology)

Introduction

Corrections is a term used to refer to a key component of the criminal justice system. It is used both as an applied term, referring at times to an institution, most often prison, and more frequently to refer more broadly to the system of collective agencies involved in punishment, supervision, and in some cases treatment (i.e., parole and bail systems, as well as community corrections). It is also used as a term to encapsulate a significant field of criminological inquiry. The latter use is the primary focus here, the scholarship dedicated to theoretical and empirical inquiry of correctional practice. For the most part, the focus is the developments over time in corrections practice, looking to the dominant models of understanding that have influenced practice primarily, but not exclusively, in Western nations such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. It is important to note that the study of corrections and that of penology overlap to some extent, and at times the terms are used interchangeably in some scholarship. However, the focus here is on corrections and the particular developments over time in the broad range of policies and practices that are the subject of theoretical and empirical inquiries that address parole, imprisonment, and probation. Moreover, there is an emphasis on the understanding that prisons and the system more generally are designed to change people. The key waves of scholarship in this field have echoed broader sociopolitical understandings and approaches to crime, justice, victimization, and offending. Since the middle of the 20th century, the main changes have reflected various understandings of the offender, increasing awareness of the victim, changing roles and expectations of the state, the intention and operation of the criminal justice system, and systems of punishment. One of the main developments over time in the field of corrections, reflecting shifts in theoretical and empirical scholarship, has been the overarching institutional philosophy informing practice within and beyond imprisonment (with related developments in the area of community corrections). This is not the focus of this discussion, however, and additional resources are provided in the section Related Bibliographies.

General Overview

The early developments in corrections were focused on treatment, within a model of medicalization, which largely focused on “curing” or “correcting” offenders through treatment. Within this paradigm, individuals tended to be pathologized and without agency: they were the subjects of treatment. In the 1970s there was a seismic change in thinking about the role of the state and the offender, informed by works such as Martinson 1974 (cited under Classic Works), whose review of program evaluation led to the conclusion that “nothing works”; that is, efforts to work with offenders did not result in reducing recidivism. While Bottoms and McWilliams 1979 (cited under Classic Works) suggested that the treatment-based approach should be replaced with a “non-treatment” paradigm whereby the offender was closely involved in identifying what help he or she required and working collaboratively to identify tasks and processes to follow to avoid future reoffending. However, the move against rehabilitation and the abandonment of treatment were later brought into question, in a further wave of re-engaged scholarship. Some work sought to bridge treatment and help, to identify that there are possibly effective tools to treat offenders. Lipsey 1992 (cited under Recent Works), applying meta-analysis approaches to the analysis of treatment, demonstrated that some offender treatment does work to reduce recidivism—for the most part not punitively oriented programs. Latessa and Holsinger 2011, Correctional Contexts: Contemporary and Classical Readings, best captures some of these critical works. More recent overviews are available via collections such as Clear, et al. 2015 and Whitehead, et al. 2012, which offer important perspectives on developments and issues in America. For a more international overview, there is Petersilia and Reitz 2012.

Clear, T., M. Reisig, and G. Cole. 2015. American corrections. 11th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
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This book has been updated regularly and offers a student or entry-level scholar a comprehensive introduction to the breadth of issues related to corrections, with a major focus on American corrections. It includes an overview of history, corrections practice, correctional theory and policy, correction-related law, and future developments.
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Latessa, E., and A. Holsinger. 2011. Correctional contexts: Contemporary and classical readings. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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This collection offers an insightful overview on the development of corrections, with a particular focus on the United States. It presents important articles and offers an excellent foundation for understanding contemporary practices and their historical links. It examines correctional practices within and outside of institutions, such as prisons, and presents important critical work that has shaped thinking and practice at key points in history.
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Petersilia, J., and K. Reitz. 2012. The Oxford handbook of sentencing and corrections. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199730148.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This handbook is focused primarily on the United States, but differs from the other collections as it written for advanced scholars and researchers who offer a detailed theoretical and empirical interrogation of contemporary and historical practices, which is more engaged and advanced. It includes chapters from leading scholars in the field: Michael Tonry on race, ethnicity, and punishment; Jonathan Simons on mass incarceration; Sherman and Strang on restorative justice.
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Welsh, M. 2013. Corrections: A critical approach. 3d ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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This is recognized as a leading overview of corrections theory and practice. Michael Welsh’s presentation of the development of penology and the critical examination of historical and contemporary practices, and their links, remains an important contribution to the field and an important overview.
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Whitehead, J., K. Dodson, and B. Edwards. 2012. Corrections: Exploring crime, punishment and justice in America. Waltham, MA: Anderson.
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This is also a textbook that offers an introductory overview to all of the key areas of corrections reading and important early scholarship.
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Classic Works

These are some of the founding works that speak to the key developments in the corrections scholarship. Garland 1985 and Johnson 1974 were groundbreaking historical accounts that offer useful insights into early correctional theory and practice. Martinson 1974, Bottoms and McWilliams 1979, Gendreau and Ross 1987, Cullen and Gilbert 1982, and Feely and Simon 1992 each mark important shifts in knowledge and thinking around corrections. Finally, reprinted in 2012 to mark its considerable impact, Garland 1990 is a multi-award-winning monograph that has been recognized as one of the most significant contributions to this field.

Bottoms, A., and W. McWilliams. 1979. A non-treatment paradigm for probation practice. British Journal of Social Work 9.2: 160–201.
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This was an important contribution to the work seeking to challenge “treatment”-based correctional approaches. It advocated helping offenders (rather than treating them) and identifying what would assist with support within and beyond prison. This work is indicative of a shift toward understanding and recognizing the offender, returning agency and choice to individuals, and abandoning coercive treatment models.
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Cullen, F. T., and K. E. Gilbert. 1982. Reaffirming rehabilitation. Cincinnati: Anderson.
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This book sought to shift the thinking back toward considering the potential of rehabilitation as an important component of corrections, with a focus on US corrections policy and practice. This book had a significant impact, arguing for the value of rehabilitation in some forms.
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Feely, M. M., and J. Simon. 1992. The new penology: Notes on the emerging strategy of corrections and its implications. Criminology 30.4: 449–474.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1992.tb01112.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This is a highly cited article. It mapped the “new penology,” which encompassed a discursive shift (toward risk), new objectives for the system (e.g., recidivism), and new techniques. It is an important contribution to the recognition of the paradigm shift in the field of penology and corrections.
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Fogel, D. 1979. We are living proof: The justice model for corrections. 2d ed. Cincinnati: Anderson.
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This text was groundbreaking at the time, challenging assumptions regarding the rehabilitative potential of prison and suggesting that greater fairness could be achieved via a justice model that focuses on fairness in sentencing and in imprisonment, which included a “flat sentence” approach (i.e., mandatory sentencing with minimal discretion) to sentencing.
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Garland, D. 1985. Punishment and welfare: A history of penal strategies. Aldershot, UK: Gower.
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This is an excellent historical account of the development of penal strategies in Great Britain. It maps the politics of punishment, and the rise and changes in corrections approaches both within scholarly work and within policy during eras of significant political and philosophical change.
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Garland, D. 1990. Punishment and the modern society: A study in social theory. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226922508.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This text has over 3000 citations in Google Scholar. It is a renowned work that offers a detailed account and critique of the dominant theoretical models of punishment and understanding of approaches to punishment. It eschews a grand theory of punishment, instead offering insights and understandings into penality and its role within modern society. This text can be read within the canon of Garland’s work to recognize the development of his sociological critique of significant concepts of penality, control, and risk, but also as a comprehensive and outstanding introduction to the significant ideas in contemporary penal practice.
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Gendreau, P., and R. Ross. 1987. Revivification of rehabilitation: Evidence from the 1980s. Justice Quarterly 4.3: 349–407.
DOI: 10.1080/07418828700089411Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Written by two of the significant contributors to the revival of interest in and support of rehabilitative approaches to corrections, this article argued that the findings from a review of offender rehabilitation research demonstrate that the “nothing works” model that had dominated the 1960s and 1970s was not supported by the empirical evidence.
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Johnson, E. H. 1974. Crime, correction and society. 3d ed. Homewood, IL: Dorsey.
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This book offers an historical account of corrections and its role, including an examination of the development of the utilitarian use of applied and individualized punishments as a means to prevent further offending.
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Kittrie, N. 1971. The right to be different: Deviance and enforced therapy. Baltimore: Penguin.
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This early work considered institutionalization and the potential for abuses of process. It offered a critique of the therapeutic state and argued that such practices can have more harmful impacts on human rights and human dignity than imprisonment. This book considered the broader social welfare ideology that informed the design and implementation of correctional interventions.
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Martinson, R. 1974. What works? Question and answers about prison reform. The Public Interest 35 (Spring): 22–54.
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This article reviewed program evaluation research over a twenty-two-year period (1945–1967) and argued that the evidence suggests that rehabilitation, on the whole, does not impact recidivism (“nothing works”). This paper had a significant influence on correctional research and policy at the time.
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Journals

There are corrections, criminology, and psychology journals that regularly feature articles on corrections. One of the leading international journals specifically focused on corrections is the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. In addition there are journals tailored to specific aspects of the corrections system (and their titles are indicative of this focus), including the Probation Journal, the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, and the Journal of Correctional Health Care. There are also a number of outstanding journals where the most influential works to date in the field have most regularly been published. Criminology is the leading journal in the field, and while generalist across contemporary criminology it publishes significant work in the field of corrections. So too the Journal of Criminal Justice and Criminal Justice and Criminology are more generalist journals. Crime and Delinquency publishes research focused on offending more specifically, and thus corrections with a view to offenders and offending. The offender is also the focus of corrections-related publications in journals such as the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, and Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. Some of the leading theoretical interrogations of corrections can be found in journals such as Theoretical Criminology and Punishment and Society.

Crime and Delinquency. 1955–.
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This is the third-highest-ranking criminology journal; it publishes interrogations of crime, justice, and corrections broadly in relation to understandings of offending. Some of the most cited works in the corrections landscape have been published here.
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Criminal Justice and Criminology. 2001–.
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This journal has a broad remit, but focuses in particular on criminal justice policy and practice and has published significant works in the field of corrections.
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Criminology. 1963–.
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This is the official journal of the American Society of Criminology and is the second-highest-ranking journal in criminology/penology (ISI ranking 2/55).
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International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.1966–.
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This is a highly ranked journal that publishes work that bridges penology, criminology, and psychology research. It focuses primarily on applied research, with regards to offender treatment and related clinical practice and theoretical interrogation. It is a journal that seeks to provide insights for those working in the field with offenders (counselors, psychologists, etc.) and policymakers.
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Journal of Correctional Health Care. 1994–.
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This is a US-dominated journal that is focused, uniquely, on issues of healthcare, clinical practice, and issues pertaining to the correctional setting. It is not exclusively focused on working with offenders, it includes research on and analysis of issues ranging across staffing, quality improvement, risk management, and medical-legal issues.
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Journal of Criminal Justice. 1973–.
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This is a highly ranked journal, managed by The Research and Evaluation Center, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, produced for a practitioner and academic audience. It publishes research concerned with deterrence, and post-release issue related to the study of corrections more generally.
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Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. 1990–.
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Formerly known as the Journal of Offender Counseling Services Rehabilitation (1980–1990), and Offender Rehabilitation (1976–1979), this journal has a clear remit to publish work that is directly related to practice and/or has clear practical implications for those working with offenders.
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Justice Quarterly. 1984–.
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This journal publishes seven issues per year, and is the official publication of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS). It is a multidisciplinary journal that brings a range of research perspectives and findings to the study of criminal justice issues. It publishes corrections-related research consistently.
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Probation Journal. 1929–.
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While the title of the journal may seem to indicate a very tight focus on probation exclusively, this journal publishes work broadly on community and criminal justice. It has a strong history of work that is related to practitioners working in the court and probation sectors.
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Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. 1995–.
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While this is foremost a psychology journal, it seeks to bridge research from the field of psychology with cognate disciplines examining criminal justice policy and practice. Some critical works in relation to understanding offending and examining treatment in relation to corrections practice have been published here.
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Punishment and Society. 1999–.
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This is one of the highest-quality journals in the field focused on research related to punishment, penal institutions, and penal control. A number of leading works in the field, which have had significant impact and are highly cited, have been published in this journal.
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Theoretical Criminology. 1997–.
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This is one of the leading theoretical journals; it publishes interdisciplinary work examining a broad range of criminological issues, including the interrogation of the key theoretical foundations pertaining to corrections.
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Recent Works

More recent writing in the field of corrections has moved beyond the earlier dichotomous approaches to whether corrections policy and programs work, to consider more comprehensive accounts of offending and offenders and how this intersects with more nuanced approaches to policy and implementation. This includes theoretical and empirical advancements. In the wake of these developments regarding the reconsideration of the potential for treatment to work, there have been some substantial shifts in thinking about corrections. Led by Canadian scholars and policy, is the Risk-Needs-Responsivity (RNR) model, which aims to identify risks (both static and dynamic, i.e., those that can and cannot be changed), factors that can be changed or addressed, and the potential for targeted treatment to result in change. The application of this model relies, most often, on actuarial assessment tools to inform risk targeting. While a form of risk management has been implemented in many Western nations, there have also been more recent developments that seek to destabilize the reliance on this model and/or to question the core philosophy that underpins this model. This includes developments such as the Good Lives Model (see Ward’s body of work) that, in part, is connected to other “creative corrections” efforts some of which are designed or examined as a reaction against what are seen as the limits of the RNR model (which are not the focus here). There has also been a significant body of work that focuses on desistance, which can be utilized to inform how corrections approaches are conceived when greater understanding of what influences a reduction or cessation of offending (see Kazemian 2009, cited under Related Bibliographies for more on this scholarship). However, there has also been significant writing that seeks to recognize the way in which socioeconomic inequalities that may be linked to gender, class, ability, sexuality, and other factors are critical to developing the next wave of more nuanced, targeted engagement with offenders and with the corrections systems more generally.

Andres, D., I. Zinger, R. Hoge, J. Bonta, P. Gendreau, and F. Cullen. 1990. Does correctional treatment work? A clinically relevant and psychologically informed meta-analysis. Criminology 28.3: 369–404.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1990.tb01330.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article has had significant impact, evidenced by the high number of citations. The authors undertook a large scale meta-analysis of juvenile and adult correctional treatment and argued that their findings indicated that appropriate correctional services must reflect three psychological principles: to deliver service to higher-risk cases, to target criminogenic needs, and to match styles and modes of treatment to the individual.
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Bowen, E., and S. Brown. 2012. Perspectives on evaluating criminal justice and corrections. Bingley, UK: Emerald.
DOI: 10.1108/S1474-7863(2012)13Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This is one of the most recent collections which provides a contemporary perspective on critical issues pertaining to corrections practice. The contributors are from a wide range of fields and locations, and consider the contemporary theoretical, methodological, and evaluative issues that are pertinent in the contemporary field of corrections. 275 pp.
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Farrell, S. 2002. Rethinking what works with offenders: Probation, social context and desistance from crime. Cullompton, UK: Willan.
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This was a groundbreaking monograph that drew on a significant study of probation in the United Kingdom and demonstrated the limitations of the “what works” effectiveness measures, emphasizing the need for examining the context and process of interventions. Further works from the longitudinal study have been published, but this remains an influential contribution to the field.
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Lipsey, M. W. 1992. Juvenile delinquent treatment: A meta-analytic inquiry into the variability of effects. In Meta-analysis for explanation: A case book. Edited by T. D. Cook, H. Cooper, and D. S. Cordray, 313–413. New York: Russell Sage.
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This chapter was part of a meta-analysis that reconsidered the role and potential of rehabilitation in corrections. This article focuses on juvenile justice practices, with the findings pointing to offender treatment working (i.e., reducing recidivism), but only some programs, and never programs that were punitive in nature, such as boot camps.
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McGuire, J., ed. 1995. What works: Reducing reoffending. New York: Wiley.
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This book offers a broad overview of the state of knowledge and key arguments in the mid-1990s, and provides a broad range of examples and interrogations of best-practice approaches within corrections.
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Theoretical Developments

There is work in the corrections field focused specifically on post-release and work that engages in an analysis of corrections more broadly, focused on imprisonment and corrections, or on the criminal justice system as a totality. The field of corrections has become more nuanced and complex, reflecting the variability of corrections experiences and impacts on different populations, and the importance of developing critiques that expose and consider foundational expectations and understandings of the institutions of the criminal justice system and the broader sociopolitical institutions and philosophies that intersect with and inform corrections practice. Three key areas of theoretical development pertain to gender, race, and class, which, while listed under different headings, are closely interconnected as many of the listed work reveal.

Gender

A significant area of feminist criminological attention has focused on the analysis of every aspect of corrections, interrogating practice and the underpinning gendered expectation and operation of the institutions that make up the corrections system. While women make up a substantially smaller proportion of those moving through the criminal justice and corrections system, the interrogation of gender has been driven by scholars and practitioners who have argued that gender specificity in the operation of policy and practice is critical (see Dowden and Andrews 1999), as early scholarship effectively ignored women and the gendered operation of the criminal justice system. Bloom, et al. 2002; Blanchette and Brown 2006; and Sheenan, et al. 2011 are examples of analyses of gender-specific correctional policy. While the collection Sadbury 2005 set the agenda for critical intersectional analyses of the interplay among a range of systems of power such as race, class, sexuality, and ability.

Blanchette, K., and S. L. Brown. 2006. The assessment and treatment of women offenders: An integrative perspective. Chichester, UK: John Wiley.
DOI: 10.1002/9780470713013Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This is authored by two Canadian forensic psychology researchers and corrections practitioners. The book examines the women-specific existing evidence on risk, needs, and responsivity to treatment, with a focus on how correctional services that are tailored to women offenders may look different from effective correctional services more generally.
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Bloom, B., B. Owen, S. Covington, and M. Raeder. 2002. Gender-responsive strategies: Research, practice, and guiding principles for women offenders. Washington, DC: National Institute of Corrections.
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This work maps gender differences in pathways to crime and argues for a gender-specific approach to understanding and supporting desistance.
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Dowden, C., and D. Andrews. 1999. What works for female offenders: A meta-analytic review. Crime and Delinquency 45.5: 438–452.
DOI: 10.1177/0011128799045004002Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This is a highly cited article that sought to reconsider the historical developments of the “what works” paradigm, to recognize gender and to apply the tool of meta-analysis to correctional treatments for women.
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Sadbury, J., ed. 2005. Global lockdown: Race, gender, and the prison industrial complex. New York and London: Routledge.
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This was a groundbreaking book that sought to look beyond the traditional criminological examination of prisons, corrections, and gender to consider the interplay of structural factors that result in women’s survival strategies, as their offending often is best characterized, being subject to punishment by the state via imprisonment. The twenty contributions offer a critique of structural power globally and call to attention the need to reconsider the use and application of punishment and imprisonment.
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Sheenan, R., G. McIvor, and C. Trotter. 2011. Working with women offenders in the community. Cullompton, UK: Willan.
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A key strength of this book is the breadth of contributions, with gendered accounts of correctional practice from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. The book identifies the importance of attending to gender in the design and implementation of corrections policy.
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Wyse, J. J. B. 2013. Rehabilitating criminal selves: Gendered strategies in community corrections. Gender & Society 27.2: 231–255.
DOI: 10.1177/0891243212470509Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article unpacks gendered expectations and understandings of female and male offending held by correctional officers in the United States. It explores the ways in which these understandings impact supervision practices in parole and probation services, and offers an important examination of the impact of individual officers’ views and expectations in the delivery of services.
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Race

There is a significant body of literature that is dedicated to the analysis of historical and contemporary practices of imprisonment as racialized and as creating and sustaining inequality, reflecting the overrepresentation of minority populations in criminal justice systems across the world. Davis 2003 laid the ground for a new body of scholarship and a broader reckoning of correctional policy and practice. Some of this work goes beyond an analysis of corrections, but the majority of this work is critically engaged with corrections and the broader operation of the criminal justice system, such as Berg and DeLisi 2006 and Wacquant 2001. Also included is Weatherburn 2014, a recent Australian publication that challenges some of the dominant postcolonial analysis of the Australian corrections and justice system.

Berg, M. T., and M. DeLisi. 2006. The correctional melting pot: Race, ethnicity, citizenship, and prison violence. Journal of Criminal Justice 34.6: 631–642.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2006.09.016Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This work examines the ways in which specific populations within the community are most at risk of and most harmed by the criminal justice system. It calls attention to the ways in which the prison and correctional processes have become increasingly enmeshed, such that the prison is one of many social institutions that play a significant and marginalizing role in the lives of specific members of populations.
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Davis, A. 2003. Are prisons obsolete? New York: Seven Stories.
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This book argues for recognition of the prison and corrections systems as a form of social production that reproduces poor, black, and other minorities as “human surplus” subject to criminalization and imprisonment as a form of control. This book lays an argument for decarceration.
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Wacquant, L. 2001. Deadly symbiosis: When ghetto and prison meet and mesh. Punishment & Society 3.1: 95–134.
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This is Punishment and Society’s most cited publication. It is a critical examination of the mass incarceration of black America, and connects the ghetto and the prison, to expose the entrenchment of marginalization. In this context, as this article argues, correctional rehabilitation in its current form becomes a questionable pursuit.
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Weatherburn, D. 2014. Arresting incarceration: Pathways out of Indigenous imprisonment. Canberra, Australia: Aboriginal Studies.
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This book offers an entry point to the state of Indigenous imprisonment in Australia historically and contemporaneously. It identifies key risk factors, informed by decades of research, and lays an argument for what is required to redress the entrenched overrepresentation of Indigenous people. The approach advocated remains contentious and debated.
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Class

Class is rarely the primary or sole focus of critical correctional scholarship; however, there is an emerging critique of the relationship between race, class and gender and overrepresentation in the criminal justice system. Barak, et al. 2014 and the earlier Beckett and Western 2001 offer important accounts, for example, on the link between poverty and incarceration.

Barak, G., P. Leighton, and A. Cotton. 2014. Class, race, gender, and crime: The social realities of justice in America. Los Angeles: Rowman & Littlefield.
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This work maps how class, gender, and race impact upon social inequalities and social injustice, which is at the heart of contemporary criminal justice, processes, and policies in the United States. A key focus is who is and who is not (i.e., the wealthy, powerful) subject to the gaze and violence of criminal justice processes.
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Beckett, K., and B. Western. 2001. Governing social marginality: Welfare, incarceration, and the transformation of state policy. Punishment & Society 3.1: 43–59.
DOI: 10.1177/14624740122228249Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This highly cited article maps the connection between the rapid increase in the US prison population and the coincidental decline in the number of welfare recipients. The authors connect declining welfare support to increasingly punitive policies that impact those at or below the poverty line with significant consequences.
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Key Contemporary Issues

Reintegration and Rehabilitation

This is a strong field of contemporary correctional scholarship, with Maruna (for example in Maruna and Immarigaon 2004) a leader in the field of desistance studies. This work has shifted the way scholars, practitioners, and policymakers alike understand post-imprisonment experiences and has shifted the conversation away from recidivism. The collection Travis and Visher 2005 offers a broad range of scholarship that builds on this work.

Maruna, S., and R. Immarigaon, eds. 2004. After crime and punishment: Pathways to offender reintegration. Portland, OR: Willan.
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Edited by two of the key scholars in the desistance field, this books brings together emerging analysis of desistance and understanding why (and how) people stop offending, together with analysis of what is measurably effective as “treatment” and/or “support.” The collection considers reintegration and the best strategies for reentry into the community.
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Travis, J., and C. Visher, eds. 2005. Prisoner reentry and crime in America. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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This book offers a comprehensive analysis of recent US data on prison practices, prison populations, and correctional outcomes with a focus on prisoner reentry. The collection includes contributions from leading scholars in this area.
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Risk-Needs-Responsivity (RNR)

These publications all specifically engage with RNR and the use and application of actuarial tools. Some such as Ward and Maruna 2007; Andrews, et al. 2006; Polaschek 2012; and Lowenkamp, et al. 2006 consider recent critiques and offer a way forward to utilize these tools in ways that are instructive or useful, while others such as Hannah-Moffat 2005 and Silver and Miller 2002 offer considered critique to this aspect of correctional practice.

Andrews, D. A., J. Bonta, and S. Wormith. 2006. The recent past and near future of risk and/or need assessment. Crime and Delinquency 52.10: 7–27.
DOI: 10.1177/0011128705281756Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article is written by scholars who have made a significant contribution to the RNR model of correctional practice. It offers an overview of the “generations” of offender assessment approaches, provides a reengagement with the principles of effective service drawing meta-analytic evidence, and engages with emerging critiques of RNR.
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Hannah-Moffat, K. 2005. Criminogenic needs and the transformative risk subject: Hybridizations of risk/need in penality. Punishment & Society 7.1: 29–51.
DOI: 10.1177/1462474505048132Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Written by a leading scholar in the field, this article is an example of the contemporary examination of the operation of risk and need assessment processes, beyond the analysis of effectiveness and “what works.”
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Lowenkamp, C. T., E. J. Latessa, and A. M. Holsinger. 2006. The risk principle in action: What have we learned from 13,676 offenders and 97 correctional programs? Crime and Delinquency 52.1: 77–93.
DOI: 10.1177/0011128705281747Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This highly cited article moves beyond the dominant meta-analyses of the previous era, to consider the limits of these analyses. The authors consider the importance of adherence to the risk principle in the implementation of programs.
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Polaschek, D. L. L. 2012. An appraisal of the risk-needs-responsivity (RNR) model of offender rehabilitation and its application in correctional treatment. Legal and Criminological Psychology 17:1–17.
DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-8333.2011.02038.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article offers an analysis of the RNR model, and argues that RNR has an important but not exclusive place in the field of offender rehabilitation.
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Silver, E., and L. Miller. 2002. A cautionary note on the use of actuarial risk assessment tools for social control. Crime & Delinquency 48.1: 138–161.
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This is a well-cited article that challenges the use of actuarial risk assessment tools. The authors argue that these tools are primarily focused on the most efficient use of resources rather than individual needs and that actuarial prediction methods, which effectively group individuals, may result in furthering or sustaining the marginalization of populations.
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Ward, T., and S. Maruna. 2007. Rehabilitation. Oxford: Routledge.
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Written by two of the leading scholars in the field of desistance and good lives theory, this book is an excellent volume for accessing a succinct overview of the key approaches to offender rehabilitation, and detailed accounts of the RNR and Good Lives Model approaches.
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Mental Health Issues and Cognitive Impairment

In the 21st century, the research dedicated to examining the prevalence of mental illness and traumatic brain injury has increased, as has engagement with disability more generally. Baillargeon, et al. 2009 and Skeem, et al. 2011 are reflections of the emerging engagement within the field of corrections with mental illness and cognitive impairment as critical concerns both with regard to who is imprisoned and what post-imprisonment support is designed to achieve and in terms of how it can support intended outcomes. The edited collection Ben-Moshe, et al. 2015 is the first major collection that tackles these complex issues directly.

Baillargeon, J., I. A. Binswanger, J. V. Penn, B. A. Williams, and O. J. Murray. 2009. Psychiatric disorders and repeat incarcerations: The revolving prison door. American Journal of Psychiatry 166:103–109.
DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.08030416Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This is a highly cited paper that maps the prevalence of a range of psychiatric disorders and the implications of this data for the understanding of the aim and intention of criminal justice processes and the impact on individuals, particularly in relation to the role, operation, and intention of corrections.
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Ben-Moshe, L., C. Chapman, and A. Carey, eds. 2015. Disability incarcerated: Imprisonment and disability in the United States and Canada. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
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This collection is the most comprehensive, critical account of disability within the correctional system. It has put this issue on the forefront of scholarship for the first time.
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Skeem, J. L., S. Manchak, and J. K. Peterson. 2011. Correctional policy for offenders with mental illness: Creating a new paradigm for recidivism reduction. Law and Human Behavior 35.2: 110–126.
DOI: 10.1007/s10979-010-9223-7Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article considers the effectiveness of current interventions for offenders with mental illness. It challenges interventions to date (including mental health courts) which have focused primarily on the mental illness in isolation and which may not match well with the policy aim of reducing recidivism.
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Youth

Youth, crime, and delinquency tend to be the focus of a specialty area, but these issues are also engaged with by corrections scholars. Farrington and Welsh 2007 and the collection Field and Bishop 2012 are leading accounts of the connection between youth and correctional research.

Farrington, D., and B. Welsh. 2007. Saving children from a life of crime: Early risk factors and effective interventions. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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This book offers a comprehensive overview and interrogation of young people and crime-related risk as well as mapping potential interventions that have demonstrable impact.
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Field, B., and D. Bishop, eds. 2012. The Oxford handbook of juvenile crime and juvenile justice. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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This collection contains specific subsections devoted to understanding corrections processes (including courts, sentencing, and detention) as well as juvenile justice correctional policy and juvenile offending by some of the leading scholars in the field.
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Sexual Offending

Sexual offending is developing into a specialist area within criminology and is emerging as an area that is highly interdisciplinary. However, there are some important works in the corrections literature, such as Laws and Ward 2011, a review of criminal justice responses to sexual offenders, and Ryan, et al. 2010, a collection that examines young sexual offenders and the criminal justice response.

Laws, D. R., and T. Ward. 2011. Desistance from sex-offending: Alternatives to throwing away the keys. New York: Guildford.
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This book challenges the dominant, traditional response to sexual offenders, which has primarily focused on isolation. The authors, drawing on their extensive work regarding the Good Lives Model for corrections, present an argument to replace the dehumanizing response to sexual offenders with a more positively focused response.
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Ryan, G., T. Leversee, and S. Lane, eds. 2010. Juvenile sexual offending: Causes, consequences and correction. 3d ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
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This is a renowned volume, in its third edition, that brings together leading contributors who present the most recent data regarding understanding young people and sexual offending, but also the various strengths of approaches within the correctional and treatment settings.
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Related Bibliographies

There are a number of specific bibliography entries for issues that are closely connected to the examination of corrections. Corrections is a significant and broad field that has major subareas: this includes community corrections, as addressed in Huebner 2009, and risk assessment, as detailed in Pritchard, et al. 2014. So too, much of the corrections field engages with imprisonment, and there is a significant body of interrelated work focused specifically on restorative justice, as summarized in Lauritsen 2009. Finally, the area of desistance has emerged as a significant subfield of post-release or post-sentence corrections, and the bibliography Kazemian 2009 offers a detailed account of this.

Huebner, B. 2009. Community corrections. In Oxford Bibliographies in Criminology. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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This bibliography offers an overview of specific research and scholarship focused on the area of community corrections, a subset of the area of corrections studies.
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Kazemian, L. 2009. Desistance. In Oxford Bibliographies in Criminology. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Desistance theory has become a significant area of scholarship for criminologists and sociologists alike and the complexity of this field is expanding rapidly. This bibliography offers a detailed overview of this scholarship.
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Lauritsen, J. 2009. Restorative justice. In Oxford Bibliographies in Criminology. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Restorative justice is a significant area of scholarship in criminology that goes beyond the traditional confines of corrections research. This bibliography details the historical and contemporary utilization of principles of restorative justice.
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Pritchard, A., A. Blanchard, and K. Douglas. 2014. Risk assessment. In Oxford Bibliographies in Criminology. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Risk assessment and the introduction of actuarial tools in corrections practices have had a major impact on police and practice. This bibliography provides an excellent introduction to key writing in this area, including the emerging critique of risk-based policy.