Rehabilitation strategies attempt to change individual offender behaviors and thinking patterns so they
will not continue their criminal activities. Many people continue to be interested in rehabilitation in spite
of changes in the philosophy and practice of corrections. Correctional administrators struggle to
continue providing rehabilitation and treatment programs, frequently combining treatment with punitive
intermediate sanctions, such as boot camps, in order to obtain necessary funds.61
Research attempts to identify and understand the traits of individuals that explain criminal behavior and
how interventions can modify behavior so people will no longer commit crime. The work is based on
psychological theories of learning, cognition, and general principles of human development as applied to
the analysis of illegal behavior.62
Although there is still some debate about the effectiveness of rehabilitation, recent literature reviews and
meta-analyses demonstrate that rehabilitation can effectively change some offenders and reduce their
criminal activities.63 During the 1980s and 1990s, when many U.S. criminologists were studying the
effectiveness of increases in surveillance and control over offenders, many Canadian researchers who
were trained in psychology continued to study the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs