Group Therapy With the Offender: A Follow-up Study of Eight Probationers One Year After Experiencing Group Therapy at the Brooklyn Association for the Rehabilitation of the Offender, March, 1955 to October, 1956

Background of the Study. Since the enactment of the first probation law in 1878, much has been done to develop effective probation departments. Like all other forms of social work, it has drawn heavily on other professional disciplines for some of its methods and techniques to increase the use of agency and services rendered to the probationer. Despite this advancement in probation and other social institutions, the reports of arrests show a steady rise, with no end in sight. This situation has resulted in many community programs to study ways to combat the problem of crime and delinquency. One of the areas to come under close scrutiny are our modern treatment methods. Their effectiveness has been questioned, and the answer can only be found in evaluative research. Unless they are sound, it is useless to proceed with them and better and more effective ones should be found. Donald R. Cresseyl pointed this out when he said, At this stage in our knowledge, or perhaps I had better say our ignorance, the most important and basic thing we can do in the field of prevention of delinquency and crime is to undertake some thorough basic research to find out what results we are getting, how we are getting them, what might improve them, instead of going on with the assumption that because it seems desirable to undertake many of the things that we have been undertaking, these are necessarily the soundest and most effective ways of accomplishing our ends