Book Review: Review of CBT with Justice-Involved Clients: Interventions for Antisocial and Self-Destructive Behaviors

• DOI: 10.1177/00938548211025063
• Published date: 01 September 2021
• Date: 01 September 2021
• Author: Mark E. Olver,Keira C. Stockdale
• Subject Matter: Book Review

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2021, Vol. 48, No. 9, September 2021, 1339 –1341.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548211025063

Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

© 2021 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

1339

BOOK REVIEW

Raymond Chip Tafrate, Damon Mitchell, and David J. Simourd. Review of CBT with Justice-Involved

Clients: Interventions for Antisocial and Self-Destructive Behaviors. New York, NY: Guilford, 307 + xii pp.

ISBN 9781462534906.

In 2019, the field of correctional and forensic psychology sadly lost a key and influential

figure with the passing of Dr. J. Stephen Wormith. As a critical proponent and pioneer of

the risk-need-responsivity or RNR model (Andrews & Bonta, 1994-2010; Bonta & Andrews,

2017), Wormith was an advocate for creative, novel, and effective approaches for the assess-

ment, treatment, and management of justice-involved clients (JICs)—this included highly

practical resources such as Tafrate et al.’s (2018) CBT with Justice-Involved Clients. Prior

to his passing, Wormith had in fact nominated the triumvirate of authors for receipt of

the Significant Contribution Award from the Criminal Justice Section of the Canadian

Psychological Association (CPA) for the present work reviewed here. And deservedly, the

authorship trio were successful and received this distinction in May 2019, at the 4th North

American Correctional and Criminal Justice Psychology Conference (N4) coinciding with

the annual CPA convention in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. There is very good reason why

this book was so nominated and received this distinction. CBT with Justice-Involved Clients

is an immensely comprehensive, practical, and accessible resource for criminal justice prac-

titioners. We would absolutely use this treatment planner in our intervention work with JICs

and our clinical training activities in the field and here’s why.

This treatment planner is written by an esteemed group of seasoned scientist practitio-

ners, each of whom has decades of clinical and research experience working with correc-

tional populations, and who are versed at translating theory and research into practice. This

work is grounded in the RNR model and areas for assessment and intervention are broadly

organized around the seven dynamic domains of the Central Eight (i.e., antisocial attitudes,

associates, and personality pattern, employment/education, family/martial, leisure/recre-

ation, drug and alcohol). Per the risk principle (i.e., recidivism can be predicted and service

intensity should be matched to risk level), the book advocates for a structured assessment of

risk and need, with an annotated list of reputable clinician administered and self-report tools

in an appendix. Per the need principle, the book prioritizes risk relevant areas for assess-

ment and intervention, with interventions featuring the development of prosocial thinking,

behavioral, and lifestyle skills to be gradually cultivated and incorporated into the client’s

day-to-day living and relationships. And per the responsivity principle, the book is grounded

in a humane, firm but fair, empathic approach to service delivery, organized around cogni-

tive behavioral methods of change (general responsivity) and the flexibility, spontaneity,

and sensitivity necessary to engage what is often a challenging, slow-to-trust, slow-to-

engage population (specific responsivity). The book is predicated on the empirically sup-

ported RNR notions that JICs can and do make stable prosocial life changes with effectively

delivered evidence informed interventions.

1025063CJBXXX10.1177/00938548211025063Criminal Justice and BehaviorBook Review

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